The majority of the burgages at Clitheroe were owned by Thomas Lister of nearby Gisburn Park, a Whig, and Assheton Curzon, a ministerialist. Lister got the upper hand in 1780 and kept it in 1784, returning himself and a nominee on both occasions, but before 1790 he and Curzon came to terms and agreed to revert to their former practice of returning one Member each. Lister retired at the general election, his colleague John Lee was provided with a seat elsewhere and, probably at the behest of his friend the Duke of Portland, he brought in Sir John Aubrey, a recent convert to opposition. Curzon returned his elder son, and when he obtained a seat for Leicestershire in 1792, decided to come in again himself, his other son not yet being of age. He evidently still regarded Lister with suspicion, for he wrote to Lord Kenyon, 16 Feb., asking

whether I ought to write to the borough trustees? or desire you to communicate my intention to them? not with a view to ask their interference without necessity should require it. The enemy may possibly give me trouble, if he supposes their assistance cannot be obtained.1

When Curzon was made a peer in 1794 he turned to Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor, his late wife’s nephew, to fill the gap, and in 1796 he was able to bring in his younger son, who sat for Clitheroe until 1831. Lister went over to government with Portland in 1794 and told Aubrey, who stayed loyal to Fox, that he would not return him at the next general election, when he accommodated Portland’s brother. The story was that Lister’s title (Lord Ribblesdale) in 1797 was obtained for him by Portland in lieu of the £4,000 purchase money, which he could not raise.2 Before the election of 1802 Ribblesdale sold his interest to Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow, whose sons or nominees were returned thereafter.