Hertford was always represented by members of the local landed families, mostly of comparatively recent origin, descended from London lawyers, merchants and bankers, who had bought estates in the county. There was a large nonconformist vote, which supported the Whigs, except for the Quakers, who even before the Spencer Cowper case in 1699 appear to have voted Tory.1 Under Anne the dominating political factor was a Tory corporation, who generally secured the return of Tory candidates by polling non-resident freemen, despite a decision of the House of Commons in 1705 restricting the franchise, for practical purposes, to residents.

In 1715 the sitting Tory members, Charles Caesar and Richard Gulston, were returned against two Whigs. According to a contemporary Whig account:

There came the morning of the election about 600 persons from Mr. Caesar’s of Benington ... who had maintained them with victuals, drink, and gave them more than the common wages for labouring men for more than two months. They spent it in playing at hat farthing, carding, ringing the bells, and going a-shooting, when sometimes they killed the fowls and sheep of the neighbourhood. This noble crew made their entry by beat of the drum, and streamers flying ... their usual cry was, No Presbyterians, High Church and Sacheverell, Low Church and the Devil; and some of the gang was heard to cry in the night, No Presbyterians, No King George.2

On petition the House of Commons awarded both seats to the Whig candidates, committing the mayor to the custody of the serjeant at arms for ‘acting in an illegal and arbitrary manner’,3 i.e. for polling non-resident Tory voters. In 1722 the mayor again accepted non-resident votes for Caesar, who was returned but unseated on petition. Thereafter the borough returned two Whigs without opposition.