Four - 1708–1715 Elections

Summary

General Elections of 1708, 1710 and 1713

Election of 1708

The next election under the Triennial Acts was due in 1708. It was held soon after a failed attempt by a French/Jacobite force to invade Scotland. The situation was ideal to produce what Lord Sunderland called ‘the most Whig Parliament [there] has been since the Revolution’. Sir John Cope reckoned on 22 June that the Whigs would have 299 and the Tories 214 seats. For the County, Lord Edward Russell and Sir William Gostwick, two Whigs, were elected probably unopposed. For the Borough, two Whigs, William Farrer and William Hillersden, were elected, again probably unopposed.

Election of 1710

By the election of October 1710, there had been a complete turnaround in politics. Electors had become weary of war and the consequent high taxes. The Sacheverell trial gave a platform for the High Church Tories. The Tories, led by Harley, won a majority of 150. The meltdown did not affect Bedfordshire, as Russell and Gostwick were again returned, and again probably unopposed. In the Borough, Farrer was re-elected, with John Cater of Kempston, another Whig, as a fellow MP. He had to be re-elected on his becoming Chairman of Ways and Means in the new Parliament. He does not seem to have been opposed on either occasion.

Election of 1713

Russell fell dangerously ill soon after the election and, within a fortnight of the poll, the efficient Whigs were canvassing for his successor. He recovered and did not die until 1714.

In 1713, the Whigs would have done even worse nationally if the Tories had not been riven with quarrels, principally between Harley and Henry St John, later Lord Bolingbroke. The victory nationally in 1710 had put new heart into the Tories. They put up two candidates for the County, Sir Pinsent Chernocke of Hulcote (son of an earlier MP) and John Harvey of Ickwell Bury. Russell and Gostwick retired from the scene – Russell from illness and Gostwick from poverty.

The two new Whig candidates were John Cater of Kempston Bury and William Hillersden of Elstow. Hillersden had been a member for Bedford up to 1710, and Cater was standing for both seats. Although the election was very close, no poll book has survived.