There was no single predominant interest at Barnstaple, which usually returned members of local families without a contest. The most important of these were the Rolles of Stevenstone, originally Tory, who went over to the Government in 1739, and Hugh Fortescue, Lord Clinton, an opposition Whig, whose house dominated the approach to Barnstaple. At the by-election in 1748, when the Rolles, supported by the Government, and the Fortescues, supported by the Prince of Wales, each put up candidates, Lord Clinton wrote to the Prince’s election manager:

As I always know it to be a very troublesome and venal borough, I had totally neglected it for these seven years last past, and resolved never to be concerned with it more ... so had it not been to serve H.R.H. nothing should have tempted me to concern myself with such an affair, for besides all the monstrous expense, I have been scarce quiet a day at my own house.2

In the end it was decided to give up the contest on the ground that ‘the expense would have grown enormous’.3 Lord Rolle, who sponsored the successful candidate, told Newcastle after the election that since his connexion in 1739 he had spent £7,000 in ‘supporting the Government interest at Barnstaple’.4 In the 2nd Lord Egmont’s electoral survey, c.1749-50, Barnstaple is described as ‘between Lord Clinton and Lord Rolle’.