Politics 1685–1715: Summary of Volume 1

In 2006, the Bedfordshire Historical Record Society published How Bedfordshire Voted, 1685–1735: The Evidence of Local Poll Books, Volume 1 1685–1715. The current volume completes the project, covering the years 1715–1735. In the Introduction to the first volume, the value of poll books as evidence, who was entitled to vote, who they were and how they voted were discussed. An analysis of politics in Bedfordshire from 1685 to 1735 examined the relative importance of landowners (including peers, baronets and gentry) and clergy in determining the results of elections. The general pattern of politics was outlined and answers suggested to the question of why voters supported the candidates they did. Detailed conclusions on the importance of regional loyalties and the differing allegiance of individual parishes were given. As well as the county seat, the politics of Bedford, the one Parliamentary borough in the county, were examined. Although written as the introduction to a volume ending in 1715, issues were covered up to 1735.

Politics 1715–1721: Whig domination but political instability

In 1715 two Whigs had been elected for the county seat after John Harvey, the leader of the poll, was unseated because some of his voters were not properly qualified. In the borough, William Farrer and John Thurloe Brace, both Whigs, were elected the two Members of Parliament.

The close balance of the parties in Bedfordshire was not echoed nationally. Thanks to their predominance in the smaller boroughs, the Whigs had achieved a major victory nationally in 1715. Whalley’s Newsletter Supplement no. 70 records that 495 MPs had been chosen: 299 Whigs, 195 Tories; double return 1; Court Tories 12. There had been 144 Whig gains and 4 Tory, as compared with 1713. The Whigs could now use their predominance at Court and their majority in Parliament to act against the leading Tories. The Tories were divided into two groupings. One part was Jacobite, wanting to replace George with James, the Old Pretender, son of James II. The Hanoverian Tories supported the Act of Settlement and King George. When he came to the throne George offered ministries to the Hanoverian Tories but unwisely they refused them.