Knaresborough

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 100

Elections

DateCandidate
4 Feb. 1715HENRY COOTE
 ROBERT HITCH
 Henry Slingsby
 Cyril Artlington
16 Apr. 1720RICHARD ARUNDELL vice Coote, deceased
26 Mar. 1722RICHARD ARUNDELL
 HENRY SLINGSBY
28 Apr. 1726ARUNDELL re-elected after appointment to office
19 Aug. 1727SIR HENRY SLINGSBY
 RICHARD ARUNDELL
17 May 1731ARUNDELL re-elected after appointment to office
27 Apr. 1734SIR HENRY SLINGSBY
 RICHARD ARUNDELL
7 July 1737ARUNDELL re-elected after appointment to office
8 May 1741SIR HENRY SLINGSBY
 RICHARD ARUNDELL
4 Jan. 1745ARUNDELL re-elected after appointment to office
4 July 1746ARUNDELL re-elected after appointment to office
30 June 1747SIR HENRY SLINGSBY
 RICHARD ARUNDELL
15 Dec. 1748ARUNDELL re-elected after appointment to office

Main Article

The chief interests at Knaresborough were in two neighbouring landowners, Lord Burlington of Bolton Abbey, hereditary constable of Knaresborough castle, a Whig, who in 1715 appointed the steward of Knaresborough,1 and Sir Henry Slingsby of Scriven, a Tory, whose family had frequently sat for the borough. In 1715 Slingsby, having been returned at a by-election in 1714, stood unsuccessfully with another Tory against two Whigs, Henry Coote and Robert Hitch. The defeated candidates petitioned on the ground that they had a majority of legal votes, but that

John Flesher, pretending to be the bailiff [i.e. the returning officer], and having taken upon himself the execution of the precept for the said election, has returned the said Mr. Coote and Mr. Hitch ...; and the said Flesher, to serve the said Mr. Coote and Mr. Hitch, some time before the said election, took upon him, without authority, to impanel a jury of thirty burgesses, the greatest number he knew to be in the interest of the said Mr. Coote and Mr. Hitch,

i.e. that he had rigged his own election as bailiff. The petition was ultimately withdrawn.2 On Coote’s death in 1720 the vacancy was filled by Burlington’s friend, Richard Arundell, also a neighbouring landowner, who was thenceforth returned unopposed with his Tory kinsman, Slingsby.

Notes

  • 1. T. Lawson-Tancred, Recs. of a Yorks. Manor 245.
  • 2. CJ, xvii. 30, 368.