Ashburton

Borough

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

Background Information

Right of Election:

in burgage holders

Number of voters:

about 190

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
3 Feb. 1715ROGER TUCKFIELD 
 RICHARD REYNELL 
22 Mar. 1722ROGER TUCKFIELD 
 RICHARD REYNELL 
22 Aug. 1727ROGER TUCKFIELD 
 RICHARD REYNELL 
 Robert Yarde 
 Sir John Lambert 
2 May 1734ROGER TUCKFIELD203
 SIR WILLIAM YONGE201
 Richard Reynell95
 Joseph Taylor82
20 Feb. 1735THOMAS BLADEN vice Yonge, chose to sit for Honiton 
16 Apr. 1739JOSEPH TAYLOR vice Tuckfield, deceased 
6 May 1741JOHN HARRIS 
 JOHN ARSCOTT 
2 July 1747JOHN HARRIS 
 JOHN ARSCOT 

Main Article

In 1715 Ashburton was controlled by two Whigs, Roger Tuckfield of Raddon Court, who owned a moiety of the manor of Ashburton, and Richard Reynell of East Ogwell and Denbury, near the borough. They shared the representation till 1734 when Reynell was ousted by Sir William Yonge, standing jointly with Tuckfield, with the support of the Drake family, who owned the other moiety of the manor.1 On Reynell’s death in 1735 his property passed to his niece, whose husband, Joseph Taylor, was returned in 1739 at a by-election caused by the death of Tuckfield. But in 1741 John Harris, who had married Tuckfield’s sister and the heir to his property, gained complete control of the borough, thenceforth returning himself and another government supporter for it without opposition. In the 2nd Lord Egmont’s electoral survey, c. 1749-50, Ashburton is shown as ‘in John Harris’.

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

  • 1. Letter of John Dipford, 19 Feb. 1739, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss.