At Maidstone Lord Aylesford and Lord Romney both had an old-established interest; there was a strong independent party, nurtured by the Dissenters (in 1809 estimated at nearly half the borough); and a minor Government interest from the dockyards at Rochester, Chatham, and Deptford.

At every election between 1754 and 1777 the Aylesford interest returned a candidate, and the Romney interest in 1754, 1761, and 1768. In 1780 the Aylesford candidate was beaten and both Members were local independent men: Mann a landowner, and Taylor a manufacturer. In 1792 Oldfield described the borough as divided between two parties, ‘the one attempting to compliment the minister with the nomination of its Members, the other equally zealous in maintaining the independence of its constitutional rights’. John Brenchly, a Maidstone brewer and partner in a Southwark bank, led the ministerial party, and Taylor the independents.