Whitchurch

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 burgage holders

Number of voters:

70

Population:

(1801): 1,275

Elections

DateCandidate
19 June 1790GEORGE BRODRICK, Visct. Midleton
 HON. JOHN THOMAS TOWNSHEND
26 June 1793 TOWNSHEND re-elected after appointment to office
25 May 1796HON. JOHN THOMAS TOWNSHEND
 HON. WILLIAM BRODRICK
15 July 1800 HON. WILLIAM AUGUSTUS TOWNSHEND vice Townshend, called to the Upper House
5 July 1802HON. WILLIAM BRODRICK
 HON. WILLIAM AUGUSTUS TOWNSHEND
19 Aug. 1803 BRODRICK re-elected after appointment to office
1 Nov. 1806HON. WILLIAM BRODRICK
 HON. WILLIAM AUGUSTUS TOWNSHEND
7 May 1807HON. WILLIAM BRODRICK
 HON. WILLIAM AUGUSTUS TOWNSHEND
28 Jan. 1808 BRODRICK re-elected after appointment to office
8 Oct. 1812HON. WILLIAM BRODRICK
 HON. WILLIAM AUGUSTUS TOWNSHEND
13 Aug. 1816 HON. HORATIO GEORGE Powys TOWNSHEND vice Townshend, deceased
19 June 1818HON. HORATIO GEORGE POWYS TOWNSHEND
 SAMUEL SCOTT

Main Article

Since 1774 Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, had assumed unchallenged control of Whitchurch. His nephew George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton [I], whom he returned in that year diverged from him politically from 1784 until 1793, but was regarded as co-patron and was succeeded, on obtaining a British peerage in 1796, by his brother William until 1818. Sydney returned his heir, and he, on succeeding to the title, his two brothers in turn. (The heirs of the two peers were minors.) As only 13 of the burgages were in other hands, the borough was close. In 1814 Sydney applied to the premier for a church living for Rev. John Williams, son of his ‘confidential agent’ at Whitchurch for 30 years past.

Oldfield, Rep. Hist. iii. 532; Add. 38259, f. 189.

Author: Brian Murphy

Notes