Go To Section
Stafford
Double Member Borough
Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Background Information
Right of Election:
in the resident freemen
Number of voters:
about 400
Elections
Date | Candidate | Votes |
---|---|---|
5 Apr. 1754 | William Richard Chetwynd | |
Hon. William Richard Chetwynd | ||
2 Apr. 1761 | William Richard Chetwynd | |
Hon. William Richard Chetwynd | ||
4 Mar. 1765 | John Crewe vice Hon. William Richard Chetwynd, deceased | 177 |
William Chetwynd | 144 | |
18 Mar. 1768 | Richard Whitworth | 237 |
William Richard Chetwynd, 3rd Visct. Chetwynd | 222 | |
Hugo Meynell | 206 | |
12 Apr. 1770 | William Nevil Hart vice Chetwynd, deceased | |
8 Oct. 1774 | Hugo Meynell | |
Richard Whitworth | ||
12 Sept. 1780 | Edward Monckton | 258 |
Richard Brinsley Sheridan | 248 | |
Richard Whitworth | 168 | |
Andrew Drummond | 46 | |
31 Mar. 1784 | Edward Monckton | |
Richard Brinsley Sheridan |
Main Article
Stafford was an expensive and difficult constituency, with an electorate composed mostly of tradesmen.1 About 1754 it was under the patronage of the Chetwynds of Ingestre Hall, but by 1774 they had lost all their interest. ‘No Cornish borough is more venal’, wrote Josiah Wedgwood, the potter, in 1780;2 and Robinson in 1783 described the borough as ‘very open’.