Marlborough

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Right of Election:

in the corporation

Number of voters:

not more than 12

Population:

(1801): 2,367

Elections

DateCandidate
22 June 1790JAMES STOPFORD, Earl of Courtown [I]
 HON. THOMAS BRUCE
28 June 1793 CHARLES WILLIAM HENRY MONTAGU SCOTT, Earl of Dalkeith, vice Courtown, vacated his seat
30 May 1796CHARLES BRUCE BRUDENELL BRUCE, Lord Bruce
 HON. JAMES BRUCE
16 Nov. 1797 ROBERT BRUDENELL vice James Bruce, vacated his seat
8 July 1802CHARLES BRUCE BRUDENELL BRUCE, Lord Bruce
 JAMES HENRY LEIGH
4 Nov. 1806CHARLES WILLIAM HENRY MONTAGU SCOTT, Earl of Dalkeith
 CHARLES BRUCE BRUDENELL BRUCE, Lord Bruce
20 Apr. 1807 JAMES GEORGE STOPFORD, Visct. Stopford, vice Dalkeith, called to the Upper House
6 May 1807CHARLES BRUCE BRUDENELL BRUCE, Lord Bruce
 JAMES GEORGE STOPFORD, Visct. Stopford
10 Apr. 1810 HON. EDWARD STOPFORD vice Stopford, called to the Upper House
9 Oct. 1812CHARLES BRUCE BRUDENELL BRUCE, Lord Bruce
 HON. EDWARD STOPFORD
9 May 1814 HON. WILLIAM HILL vice Bruce, called to the Upper House
18 June 1818HON. JOHN WODEHOUSE
 JAMES THOMAS BRUDENELL, Lord Brudenell

Main Article

Marlborough was described by Thomas Bruce, 1st Earl of Ailesbury, to his son Lord Bruce in 1802, as ‘a friendly borough’. Friendly to him, seated five miles away, it certainly was, for his nominees, most of them members of his family, were returned without demur. As at Great Bedwyn, he had only to make his choice and fix his terms. The corporation, nominally 20 in number, had long been reduced to a dozen and consisted of a mere handful of reliable supporters in this period.1 In 1794 Ailesbury was warned of a conspiratorial bid by one Clarke to fetch ‘a candidate with money’ to oppose him, but nothing came of it.2 When in 1806 Lord Dalkeith was unable to attend his election, Ailesbury informed him that it was as well his colleague Stopford had done so, as ‘any chance disappointed candidates passing through the town might have taken the advantage of only one candidate appearing’.3 But there was no such excitement, in his time or when his son the 2nd Earl assumed the patronage in 1814.

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes

  • 1. Ailesbury mss, Ailesbury to Bruce, 23 June 1802; Geo. III Corresp. iv. 3428; Oldfield, Rep. Hist. v. 223.
  • 2. Ailesbury mss, Astle to Ailesbury, 22, 25, 27 Aug. 1794.
  • 3. SRO GD224/663/10/11.