Chapter Three - The 1747 election

Summary

Having united most of the Whigs, apart from Carteret, the Prime Minister Henry Pelham felt he could jettison his ‘broad bottom’ coalition government of both Whigs and Tories. One of only two Tories to remain in the cabinet was Lord Gower, a relation of the Duke of Bedford. The leader of the only real opposition to Pelham was Frederick Prince of Wales. In this strong position Pelham called the general election a year earlier than necessary. The result was a triumph, with one-fifth of Tory MPs defeated and the Prince of Wales even being humiliated in the Cornish boroughs, a part of his inheritance as Duke of Cornwall.

The 1747 borough election

The Duke of Bedford, as a member of Pelham's government, naturally supported government candidates in the general election.

The VCH Bedford records that members of the Corporation waited on the Duke in London to ‘settle the point for future elections’. The Tory-dominated Corporation wanted at least one Tory MP. The Duke of Bedford naturally wanted a government supporter elected; preferably a Whig. A split representation would ensure that there was no contest and be less expensive. In 1741 there had been no contest because borough and Duke had supported the same two Tory MPs. The Northampton Mercury seems to suggest that again there was no real contest. On 29 June 1747 it records that Thomas Gore, Muster Master General and John Offley, stand candidates for the town ‘And ‘tis said that will be chosen on Monday, as the other Candidates have declined standing the Poll.’

Yet documents in the Russell archive suggest a different story. They show that there was a genuine contested election between a ticket of Gore and Offley, supported by the Duke of Bedford and the Whigs, and one of Sir Boteler Chernocke, the sitting MP, and John Cotton, supported by the Corporation and the Tories. The latter only withdrew after nearly two hundred votes had been registered. Prior to the election, large admissions of freemen were made, including Thomas Gore and John Offley themselves, which would have helped their cause, if the election had run its course.

Who were the candidates? Thomas Gore was a member of a Wiltshire gentry family and had been MP for several seats from 1722 to 1747, prior to being given the post of Commissary-General of the Musters in 1746, which had entailed having to leave Parliament.