Dartmouth

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 the freemen

Number of voters:

33 in 1722; 38 in 17541

Elections

DateCandidate
4 Feb. 1715JOSEPH HERNE
 JOHN FOWNES
 Nathaniel Herne
 John Upton
24 Mar. 1722GEORGE TREBY
 THOMAS MARTYN
1 June 1726MARTYN re-elected after appointment to office
21 Aug. 1727GEORGE TREBY
 WALTER CAREY
29 May 1729CAREY re-elected after appointment to office
21 May 1730TREBY re-elected after appointment to office
27 Apr. 1734GEORGE TREBY
 WALTER CAREY
25 May 1738CAREY re-elected after appointment to office
27 Nov. 1740TREBY re-elected after appointment to office
6 May 1741GEORGE TREBY
 WALTER CAREY
27 Mar. 1742LORD ARCHIBALD HAMILTON vice Treby, deceased
2 July 1747WALTER CAREY
 JOHN JEFFREYS

Main Article

Dartmouth passed under government control owing to dissensions between the leading local Tory families, three of whom contested the borough in 1715.2 In 1716 Arthur Holdsworth, a leading Newfoundland merchant, was first elected mayor; by 1719, when he completed his second term of office, the Holdsworths and allied Whig families had a majority on the corporation; and from 1722 until 1754 the borough was managed locally for the Government by the Holdsworths under the direction successively of Lord Chancellor King, George Treby and Walter Carey. Ministerial supporters were invariably returned without opposition.

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

  • 1. P. Russell, Dartmouth, 145; Dartmouth town recs. in Exeter City Lib.
  • 2. Russell, 144.