By an agreement which had operated since 1774, the two owners of the ‘miserable thatched cottages’ which gave the right to vote at Bramber returned a Member each throughout this period. They were Sir Henry Gough Calthorpe, 2nd Bt., and the 5th Duke of Rutland. Gough Calthorpe on obtaining a peerage in 1796 returned Adams. After his death in 1798, with his sons still minors, Jodrell and his widow’s friend Wilberforce were returned in succession. Rutland was also a minor until 1799 and his mother and uncle the 5th Duke of Beaufort supervised the returns until then. When Coxhead, the Rutland nominee, wished to retire before the dissolution, they objected to his substituting a friend of his own and offered the seat to Pitt, 11 Mar. 1796, the terms being expenses of ‘about £600’. Pitt was again offered the nomination in 1799 when Rouse Boughton was about to retire. Rutland returned members of his family in 1802 and 1804, and his friend John Rae’s nephew Irving for the remainder of the period. In 1799 Rutland’s uncle Beaufort had been anxious lest the Duke of Norfolk, patron of the adjoining borough of Steyning and lord of the manor, should endeavour to disturb the peace, but there was no opposition to the co-patrons throughout.

Oldfield, Rep. Hist. v. 51; PRO 30/8/112, f. 213; 174, f. 287; Rutland mss, Beaufort to Rutland, 3 Dec. 1799.