Banffshire

Single Member Scottish County

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Number of voters:

122 in 1788

Elections

DateCandidate
10 May 1754James Duff
28 Apr. 1761James Duff, Visct. Macduff
31 Mar. 1768James Duff, Earl Fife
20 Oct. 1774James Duff, Earl Fife
4 Oct. 1780James Duff, Earl Fife
8 Apr. 1784Sir James Duff
22 Jan. 1789James Ferguson of Pitfour vice Duff, vacated his seat

Main Article

The Duffs of Braco had by far the greatest interest in Banffshire, and carried every election in this period. Only the Gordon family could have offered a serious challenge. William Adam wrote in 1788 that ‘these two families (and indeed the Earl of Fife singly) overshadow all the small and independent proprietors’.1

Author: J. A. Cannon

Notes

  • 1. Pol. State of Scotland, 50.