Tavistock

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 freeholders

Number of voters:

154 in 17341

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
1 Feb. 1715SIR JOHN COPE 
 FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE 
 Henry Manaton 
21 Mar. 1722SIR JOHN COPE 
 SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE 
22 Aug. 1727SIR JOHN COPE 
 SIR FRANCIS HENRY DRAKE 
24 Feb. 1728SIR HUMPHREY MONOUX vice Cope, chose to sit for Hampshire 
29 Apr. 1734CHARLES FANE98
 SYDNEY MEADOWS90
 Sir Francis Henry Drake65
 Sir John Cope28
 James Bulteel27
9 May 1741LORD SHERARD MANNERS 
 CHARLES FANE 
28 Jan. 1742JAMES HAMILTON, 1st Visct. Limerick, vice Manners, deceased 
4 July 1747RICHARD LEVESON GOWER 
 THOMAS BRAND 
12 Dec. 1747SIR RICHARD WROTTESLEY vice Leveson Gower, chose to sit for Lichfield 
17 June 1749WROTTESLEY re-elected after appointment to office 

Main Article

Tavistock was controlled by the dukes of Bedford, who as lords of the manor nominated the returning officer and owned most of the town and the land round it. After 1715 the only contested election was that of 1734, when the 4th Duke replaced the Members who had represented it under his predecessor by his own nominees. The 2nd Lord Egmont wrote of Tavistock in his electoral survey, c.1749-50: ‘in the Duke of Bedford’.

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

  • 1. Trans. Devon. Assoc. xliii. 379.