Page:VCH Herefordshire 1.djvu/472

 A HISTORY OF HEREFORDSHIRE From 1698 to 1774 the county returned only Tory members, and so small was the Whig interest that only twice did it furnish a candidate — in 1722 and in 1754. On 12 October, 1774, Sir George Cornewall of Moccas Court succeeded in defeating Thomas Harley, an army contractor, and son of the third earl of Oxford. Army contractors were particularly unpopular at the time of the war of American independence, but Harley got in in 1776 in place of the Tory member, Thomas Foley, created a baron. The Whigs retained this seat permanently, and made unsuccessful efforts to capture the second in 1776, 1796, 1802, and 18 18. In 1 831, on the eve of the passing of the Reform Bill, two Whigs were at last returned unopposed. The city returned two Whigs to the Convention Parliament of January, 1688-9, t>ut on 1 1 June one seat was captured by Henry Cornewall in the Tory interest. In 1698 the Tories gained the other, and retained both until 1713, when on 3 1 August James Brydges, afterwards duke of Chandos, who had sat as a Tory from 1698, but was really a supporter of Godolphin and Marlborough, was returned as a Whig. But in 171 5 he did not seek re- election owing to his elevation to the peerage as earl of Carnarvon, and though he nominated two Whig candidates they were both unsuccessful, to his great annoyance. In 171 7, however, at a bye-election Herbert Rudhale Westfaling, the Whig candidate, was elected. In 1723 the Whigs gained the second seat, but lost it again four years later. In 1734 the Tories carried both seats and held them until 1747, when Henry Cornewall, a Whig, was returned head of the poll. The borough continued divided until 1784, when the strong local feeling in favour of Charles James Fox caused the return of his boon-companion, the earl of Surrey, afterwards eleventh duke of Norfolk, to the second seat. On 27 August, 1785, Fox himself received the freedom of the city in consideration of his distinguished abilities and patriotic virtues. Not until 1 8 1 8 did the Tories succeed in recapturing one seat. This they retained until 1832. Puritan Leominster returned two Whigs to Parliament from the time of the Revolution until 1701, when Edward Harley, the brother of the statesman, succeeded in gaining a seat. In 171 o the Tories captured the second, but lost it again in 171 5. From 1722 to 1734 the Whigs returned both members, while from 1742 to 1774 the representation was divided. In 1774 the Tories held both seats, and though they lost one in 1780, they regained it in 1784, when Sir Gilbert Elliot, afterwards earl of Minto and governor-general of India, was the unsuccessful Whig candidate. He had no connexion with the county. In 1797 the Whigs gained one seat at a bye-election, and they not only retained it at the general election of 1802, but gained the other. They failed, however, to hold them permanently, and down to 1832 the representation fluctuated between the two parties. In 1806 William Lamb, afterwards Viscount Melbourne and Prime Minister^ sat for the borough. Weobley distinguished itself in 1747 by returning Mansel Powell, an attorney of Hereford, who acquired possession for twelve years of the Eardis- ley Court property by means of a forged will, but he was unseated on petition. About the beginning of George Ill's reign it became a pocket borough of Lord Weymouth's, who bought up all the ancient vote houses and returned 402