Cricklade

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 freeholders, copyholders, and leaseholders for three years

Number of voters:

about 200

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
26 Jan. 1715SIR THOMAS READE 
 JACOB SAWBRIDGE 
1 Feb. 1721MATTHEW DUCIE MORETON vice Sawbridge, expelled the House, majority 25 
 Thomas Gore 
26 Mar. 1722THOMAS GORE151
 SIR THOMAS READE132
 Matthew Ducie Moreton131
19 Aug. 1727CHRISTOPHER TILSON141
 SIR THOMAS READE139
 Thomas Gore23
26 Apr. 1734SIR THOMAS READE156
 WILLIAM GORE100
 Charles Moore, Baron Moore of Tullamore91
21 Nov. 1739CHARLES GORE vice William Gore, deceased 
5 May 1741SIR THOMAS READE 
 WELBORE ELLIS 
 CHARLES GORE 
  Double return. READE and ELLIS declared elected, 24 Dec. 1741 
29 June 1747JOHN GORE 
 WILLIAM RAWLINSON EARLE 

Main Article

Owing to the nature of the local franchise Cricklade was an independent borough, subject to no predominant interest, but usually returning neighbouring landowners. From 1713 to 1747 one of the seats was held by Sir Thomas Reade, a wealthy placeman; the other was contested between government candidates and the Gores, Tories till they went over to the government in 1744, who owned the manor of Cricklade, carrying with it the appointment of the returning officer. Out of seven election petitions between 1721 and 1741, six were based on the returning officer’s alleged misconduct and partiality. That of 1734 was responsible for a new standing order of the House providing that on the petition of any elector, complaining of an undue election and alleging that some other person was duly elected, the sitting Member might demand and examine into the qualification of such person. According to Edward Harley’s diary, ‘this order was made upon the petition of the voters of Cricklade ... against Mr. Gore, Member, in behalf of Lord Tullamore, who declined petitioning in his own name, being not qualified’.1

When Reade retired in 1747 Leicester House opened negotiations for his seat with the Cricklade authorities on behalf of a prospective candidate. The price fixed was £1,400, not to be paid till the candidate ‘had sat fourteen days in the House of Commons [the time within which petitions had to be presented] without a petition being presented against him, or been confirmed in his seat in the case of a hostile petition’. A further condition was that the out-of-pocket expenses of the election, not exceeding £50, should be advanced by the candidate.2 In the event the seats were filled by ministerial supporters without a contest. The 2nd Lord Egmont, in his electoral survey, c.1749-50, described Cricklade as ‘very venal’.

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. Harley Diary, 6 Feb. 1735.
  • 2. HMC Fortescue, i. 117-18.