Haddingtonshire (East Lothian)

County

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Number of voters:

about 55 in 1768

Elections

DateCandidate
4 Feb. 1715JOHN COCKBURN
2 May 1717COCKBURN re-elected after appointment to office
29 Mar. 1722JOHN COCKBURN
29 Aug. 1727JOHN COCKBURN
16 May 1734JOHN COCKBURN
26 May 1741LORD CHARLES HAY
11 July 1747SIR HEW DALRYMPLE

Main Article

The shire was represented from 1708 till 1741 by John Cockburn, who had previously represented it in the last Parliament of Scotland. Owing to the expense of his pioneering experiments in agriculture, he was forced to mortgage and in the end sell his estates, thus losing the family interest. His place was taken in 1741 by the Marquess of Tweeddale’s brother, Lord Charles Hay, who did not stand in 1747, perhaps because of a bout of insanity the previous year. A compromise agreement was then arranged between Andrew Fletcher (Lord Milton), the Duke of Argyll’s deputy in Scotland, and Sir Hew Dalrymple of North Berwick, whereby Dalrymple was to be returned for the county and Fletcher’s son for Haddington Burghs, the two families thereafter taking it in turns to represent the county and the burghs.1

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. See HADDINGTON BURGHS.