The Salisbury corporation, an independent body, always returned Members with strong local connexions. There was no bribery but gifts for the good of the city were accepted. From 1721 Anthony Duncombe, later Lord Feversham, Whig, and from 1741 Sir Edward Bouverie, Tory, established interests.

In 1715 the corporation chose two Tories, one of whom, Francis Swanton, had conveyed land to them for the benefit of the poor in 1714. A petition alleging corruption, based on this transaction, was withdrawn after being heard at the bar of the House. In the next two Parliaments all the Members were government supporters, of whom Thomas Lewis gave the city a new school and street lamps shortly before his election in 1727.1 From 1734 to 1747 both seats were held by Tories, who after Walpole’s fall were instructed by the corporation to vote for triennial Parliaments and a place bill, to pay particular attention to the woollen industry, and to demand ‘condign punishment’ for those responsible for ‘the dark scenes’ of the present war.2 At the 1747 election, by which Bouverie, created Lord Folkestone that year, had gone over to the Government, two ministerialists were returned. In 1753 William Beckford, who was cultivating an interest at Salisbury,3 wrote of the corporation: ‘I scarcely know a more disinterested set of men in the kingdom.’4