John Jolliffe inherited from his first wife a number of burgages at Petersfield, and in 1736 established his hold on the borough by acquiring from Edward Gibbon sen. the manor and further burgages. So long as the Jolliffes’ title to them was valid, their hold on the borough was complete. On the two occasions 1754-90 when it was unsuccessfully challenged, the point at issue was a legal technicality concerning the burgages: in 1761 Edward Gibbon jun. stood against Jolliffe’s interest ‘upon the supposition he could not transfer any of his votes, having settled them upon his wife’; and John Luttrell after his defeat in 1774 questioned in a petition to the House of Commons Jolliffe’s right to convey the burgages.