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Dorset
County
Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Background Information
Number of voters:
about 2,400
Elections
Date | Candidate | Votes |
---|---|---|
2 Feb. 1715 | THOMAS STRANGWAYS | |
GEORGE CHAFFIN | ||
11 Apr. 1722 | THOMAS STRANGWAYS | |
GEORGE CHAFFIN | ||
25 Jan. 1727 | GEORGE PITT jun. vice Strangways, deceased | 1252 |
Thomas Horner | 1062 | |
6 Sept. 1727 | GEORGE CHAFFIN | 1512 |
EDMUND MORTON PLEYDELL | 1467 | |
Richard Broadnep | 1082 | |
8 May 1734 | GEORGE CHAFFIN | |
EDMUND MORTON PLEYDELL | ||
27 May 1741 | GEORGE CHAFFIN | |
EDMUND MORTON PLEYDELL | ||
15 July 1747 | GEORGE CHAFFIN | |
GEORGE PITT |
Main Article
Tories were returned for Dorset without opposition except in 1727, when George Pitt, an ex-Tory, defeated one of his former party at a by-election, only to change sides again before the ensuing general election, when he gave his interest to the Tory candidates,1 who were returned after a contest. The 2nd Lord Egmont wrote of Dorset in his electoral survey, c. 1749-50: ‘Hitherto in the hands of the Tories, but if the Whigs should reunite they would be beaten. The present Members should not be the men.’
Author: R. S. Lea
Notes
- 1. Rich. Edgcumbe to Sir R. Walpole, undated, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss 3240.