On the face of it, the electoral arrangements for Lynn were a straightforward compromise of the nominations between two interests. The Walpoles, father and son, represented their long established interest. Sir Martin Browne Ffolkes represented (in the right of his wife) the former interest of Sir John Turner, 3rd Bt.^†, who in 1774 had been ousted by Crisp Molyneux^†. The latter returned to the West Indies for his health in 1790, leaving an opening for Ffolkes, who kept his seat until his death in 1821.

Nevertheless, Lynn was classified by the Treasury as an open borough in 1790 and 1796. There was a threat of opposition in 1802 and in 1806 an appeal was made in the Morning Post for ‘a man of address, fortune and spirit’ to offer himself. A Mr Atkins (possibly John Atkins*) responded from London and was nominated at Lynn by Stephen Hogg, 1 Nov. 1806, but found no seconder.1 In 1809 the co-patrons were worried that Adm. William Bentinck (d.1813), who resided at nearby Terrington, might develop an interest in Lynn and might be assisted in this by dissension over patronage among the leading corporation families of Bagge, Hogg and Everard. By 1812 this fear had evaporated and no opposition materialized.2 In 1818 Philip Hamond of Swaffham resisted an invitation to offer himself.3 The fact was that the close corporation was too prudent to rock the boat. In a borough where there was no disaffection and where dissent was weak, the peace was not disturbed until Browne Ffolkes’s death in 1821, when the Bentincks of Terrington intervened against his son. Browne Ffolkes’s election expenses rose from £163 to £453 between 1790 and 1818.4