By 1797 Lord de Clifford, an English absentee who owned about half the town land, had re-established his personal interest in this small port and potwalloping borough, most probably by creating a sufficient number of non-resident freemen from his Irish estates to overwhelm any resident opposition. In 1804 he successfully resisted a bid to establish freedom by right rather than by selection. His interest returned the Members throughout, all of them relatives. Coussmaker was his nephew, the Rowleys his cousins and Martin, the only candidate to be opposed, in 1812, was a cousin of the Rowleys.1 He was expected to pay for his seat, the patron proposing in 1806 £3,000 for five years: if Parliament were dissolved before then, Martin could choose between being returned again and compensation for £600 a year for ‘the time it wants of it’.2