Since 1774 Thomas Townshend^†, 1st Viscount Sydney, had assumed unchallenged control of Whitchurch. His nephew George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton [I], whom he returned in that year diverged from him politically from 1784 until 1793, but was regarded as co-patron and was succeeded, on obtaining a British peerage in 1796, by his brother William until 1818. Sydney returned his heir, and he, on succeeding to the title, his two brothers in turn. (The heirs of the two peers were minors.) As only 13 of the burgages were in other hands, the borough was close. In 1814 Sydney applied to the premier for a church living for Rev. John Williams, son of his ‘confidential agent’ at Whitchurch for 30 years past.

Oldfield, Rep. Hist. iii. 532; Add. 38259, f. 189.