Tain (Northern) Burghs

County

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Wick (1715, '47), Caithness; Kirkwall (1722), Orkney; Tain (1727), Dingwall (1734), Ross-shire; Dornoch (1741), Sutherland

Number of voters:

80

Elections

DateCandidate
16 Feb. 1715ROBERT MUNRO
13 Apr. 1722ROBERT MUNRO
 Robert Gordon
9 Sept. 1727ROBERT MUNRO
18 May 1734SIR ROBERT MUNRO
28 May 1741CHARLES ARESKINE
 Sir Robert Munro
  Election declared void, 1 Mar. 1742
2 Apr. 1742ROBERT CRAIGIE
 Sir Robert Munro
22 July 1747SIR HARRY MUNRO
 Sir John Gordon

Main Article

The chief interests in Tain Burghs were those of the Sinclairs of Ulbster at Wick, the earls of Morton at Kirkwall, the Munros of Foulis at Tain, the earls of Cromartie at Dingwall, and the earls of Sutherland at Dornoch. From 1715 to 1741 the seat was held, with government support, by Sir Robert Munro, who wrested the control of Dingwall from the Cromarties in 1716,1 retaining it by arresting and kidnapping opponents.2 In 1741 Lord Cromartie recovered Dingwall, with the support of Lord Ilay, Walpole’s election manager for Scotland, whose protégé, Charles Areskine,3 was returned by the votes of Wick, Dornoch, and Dingwall, against those of Tain and Kirkwall for Munro. Munro petitioned on the ground that the Wick delegate had been irregularly appointed and that the Dingwall delegate, Lord Cromartie, was illegal as a peer.4 After Walpole’s fall the House of Commons declared the election void. At the ensuing by-election Lord Tweeddale, the new secretary of state for Scotland, put up Robert Craigie, Areskine’s successor as lord advocate, who was returned with the support of Lord Sutherland.5 After Munro’s death at Falkirk, his son, Sir Harry Munro, stood with Pelham’s support against a Leicester House candidate, Sir John Gordon, Lord Cromartie’s brother-in-law. Munro was returned by Wick, Tain, and Kirkwall, Gordon securing the votes of Dingwall by Cromartie, and Dornoch by Sutherland.6

Author: J. M. Simpson

Notes

  • 1. NLS, 1392 (Delvine Pprs.), f. 170.
  • 2. Alex. Mackenzie, Munros of Foulis, 121-7.
  • 3. Munro to Pelham, 24 June 1741, Newcastle (Clumber) mss.
  • 4. CJ, xxiv. 23-24.
  • 5. G. W. T. Omond, Lord Advocates, ii. 7-8.
  • 6. Andrew Fletcher to Pelham, 21 July, Argyll to same, 6 Aug. 1747, Newcastle (Clumber) mss.