Honiton

Borough

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

Background Information

Right of Election:

in inhabitant householders paying scot and lot

Number of voters:

between 300 and 400

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
4 Feb. 1715SIR WILLIAM COURTENAY 
 WILLIAM YONGE 
 Sir William Drake 
 James Sheppard 
17 Mar. 1716SIR WILLIAM POLE vice Courtenay chose to sit for Devon 
 John Elwill 
31 Mar. 1722SIR WILLIAM POLE185
 WILLIAM YONGE237
 James Sheppard181
10 Apr. 1724YONGE re-elected after appointment to office 
21 Aug. 1727SIR WILLIAM YONGE 
 JAMES SHEPPARD204
 Sir William Pole167
6 June 1728YONGE re-elected after appointment to office 
14 May 1730YONGE re-elected after appointment to office 
 POLE vice Sheppard, on petition, 15 Mar. 1731 
26 Apr. 1734SIR WILLIAM YONGE 
 WILLIAM COURTENAY 
17 May 1735YONGE re-elected after appointment to office194
 Lord Anne Hamilton125
5 May 1741SIR WILLIAM YONGE 
 HENRY REGINALD COURTENAY 
19 May 1746YONGE re-elected after appointment to office 
2 July 1747SIR WILLIAM YONGE 
 JOHN HEATH 
 Henry Reginald Courtenay 

Main Article

Honiton was a venal borough with a wide franchise. The principal interests were those of the Tory Courtenays of Powderham, lords of the manor since the fourteenth century, who appointed the portreeve, the returning officer of the borough, and the Whig Yonges of Colyton, near Honiton, who held the estate of Batishorn in the town, and commanded the popular vote.1 After an uncontested by-election in 1724 a number of the inhabitant householders not paying scot and lot petitioned the Commons, claiming the right to vote. The House decided in their favour, extending the right of election to all inhabitant householders.2 Presumably this increase in the number of voters enabled James Sheppard, a government supporter, to defeat the Courtenays Tory candidate, Sir William Pole, who was awarded the seat on an unopposed petition in 1731 after Sheppard’s death. Sir William Yonge and the Courtenays continued to fill one seat each until 1747, when again a government Whig, John Heath, defeated the Courtenays’ nominee. The 2nd Lord Egmont in his electoral survey, c. 1749-50, describes Honiton as ‘between Sir William Yonge and the Courtenay family’.

Author: Shirley Matthews

Notes

  • 1. CJ, xx. 348; A. Farquharson, Honiton, 8-9, 37.
  • 2. CJ, xx. 366.