At George I’s accession the chief interests at Boston were in the 1st Duke of Ancaster, recorder of the borough,1 and the Tory dominated corporation. Under the Tory ministry at the end of Anne’s reign the corporation had been able to return two Tories, Richard Wynn and Henry Heron, who were re-elected in 1715 unopposed. After the by-election caused by Wynn’s death in 1719 Richard Ellys, a Whig, defeated Wynn’s nephew, Sir William Massingberd, a Tory, on whose petition the House of Commons resolved that the only freemen entitled to vote were those claiming their freedom ‘by birth or servitude’.2 The effect of this decision was to prevent the corporation from carrying out their intention of creating sufficient new freemen to regain control of the second seat, which was held by Ellys till 1734 and thereafter by the 2nd Duke of Ancaster’s nominees. The other seat was filled by Tories brought in by the corporation.