Go To Section
Canterbury
Borough
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Background Information
Right of Election:
in the freemen
Number of voters:
about 1,300
Elections
Date | Candidate | Votes |
---|---|---|
3 Feb. 1715 | SIR THOMAS HALES | |
JOHN HARDRES | ||
Sir Francis Head | ||
Henry Lee | ||
22 Mar. 1722 | SIR THOMAS HALES | 754 |
SAMUEL MILLES | 737 | |
Sir William Hardres | 516 | |
31 Aug. 1727 | SIR WILLIAM HARDRES | 711 |
SIR THOMAS HALES | 701 | |
Samuel Milles | 575 | |
2 May 1734 | SIR WILLIAM HARDRES | 645 |
THOMAS MAY | 643 | |
Sir Thomas Hales | 503 | |
HALES vice Hardres, on petition, 11 Apr. 1735 | ||
21 May 1741 | THOMAS WATSON | 752 |
THOMAS BEST | 718 | |
Sir Thomas Hales | 624 | |
23 Jan. 1746 | SIR THOMAS HALES vice Watson, called to the Upper House | |
1 July 1747 | MATTHEW ROBINSON | 685 |
THOMAS BEST | 670 | |
Sir Thomas Hales | 559 | |
William Sheldon | 495 |
Main Article
In Canterbury, one of the nineteen cities and towns being counties in themselves, the returning officer was a sheriff, appointed by the corporation. At the contested election of 1715, when Sir Thomas Hales, a ministerial supporter, who had sat for the county in the previous reign, was returned with John Hardres, a Tory, who had represented the city in the last two Parliaments, one of the defeated candidates, Sir Francis Head, petitioned on the ground that the sheriff of the city had shown himself very partial to Hardres, inasmuch as several persons who were entitled to be made freemen and would have voted for Head were not allowed to become freemen until they promised to vote against him. The petition was not heard.1
In 1722 Hales was re-elected with another Tory, Samuel Milles, who had married his sister, against a second Tory candidate, Sir William Hardres. The same three stood again in 1727, when Hales was once more elected but Milles was defeated by Hardres.
In 1734 Hales again stood single ‘to keep up the spirit of my friends as long as I can, in hopes someone will venture to join me’,2 but nobody did. Defeated by Hardres and another Tory, Thomas May, he petitioned on the ground that the sheriff and mayor had refused 159 qualified voters for him, 7 of whom would also have voted for May. When the petition was heard by the elections committee, counsel for the sitting Member admitted the validity of these votes, with the result that Hales and May were declared by the House of Commons to be duly elected.3
In 1741 Hales, again standing single, was defeated by a wealthy Tory, Thomas Best, standing jointly with an opposition Whig, Thomas Watson. On Watson’s succeeding to his brother’s peerage in 1745 Hales was returned unopposed for the vacancy, but in 1747 he was finally ousted by Matthew Robinson, a wealthy opposition Whig, who was returned with Best. Observing of Robinson that ‘if we may credit him he will certainly be re-chosen’, the 2nd Lord Egmont remarks of Canterbury in his electoral survey, c.1749-50, ‘money will do a great deal in this election’.