Yarmouth I.o.W.

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:

21 in 1792 reduced to 13 in 1816

Population:

(1801): 343

Elections

DateCandidate
17 June 1790EDWARD RUSHWORTH
 THOMAS CLARKE JERVOISE
4 Jan. 1791 SIR JOHN FLEMING LEICESTER, Bt., vice Rushworth, vacated his seat
 JERVOISE CLARKE JERVOISE vice Clarke Jervoise, vacated his seat
28 May 1796JERVOISE CLARKE JERVOISE
 EDWARD RUSHWORTH
21 Mar. 1797 WILLIAM PEACHY vice Rushworth, vacated his seat
8 July 1802JERVOISE CLARKE JERVOISE
 JAMES PATRICK MURRAY
25 Feb. 1803 CHARLES MACDONNELL vice Murray, vacated his seat
1 Oct. 1803 HENRY SWANN vice MacDonnell, deceased
27 Feb. 1804 JOHN DELGARNO vice Swann, vacated his seat
21 Mar. 1804 SIR HOME RIGGS POPHAM vice Delgarno, vacated his seat
29 Jan. 1806 DAVID SCOTT II vice Popham, vacated his seat
5 Nov. 1806JERVOISE CLARKE JERVOISE
 THOMAS WILLIAM PLUMMER
11 May 1807JERVOISE CLARKE JERVOISE
 HON. WILLIAM POWLETT ORDE POWLETT
14 Aug. 1807 SIR JOHN ORDE, Bt., vice Orde Powlett, called to the Upper House
30 Jan. 1808 BENJAMIN COOKE GRIFFINHOOFE vice Clarke Jervoise, deceased
26 Apr. 1808 JOHN DELGARNO vice Griffinhoofe, vacated his seat
13 June 1808 GEORGE ANNESLEY, Visct. Valentia, vice Delgarno, vacated his seat
7 Dec. 1810 THOMAS MYERS vice Valentia, vacated his seat
8 Oct. 1812RICHARD WELLESLEY
 SIR HENRY CONYNGHAM MONTGOMERY, Bt.
4 Mar. 1816 JOHN LESLIE FOSTER vice Montgomery, vacated his seat
3 July 1816 FOSTER re-elected after appointment to office
18 Feb. 1817 ALEXANDER MACONOCHIE vice Wellesley, vacated his seat
18 Mar. 1818 JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY vice Maconochie, vacated his seat
1 May 1818 FOSTER re-elected after appointment to office
18 June 1818JOHN TAYLOR
 WILLIAM MOUNT
16 Mar. 1819 SIR PETER POLE, Bt., vice Taylor, vacated his seat
 JOHN WILSON CROKER vice Mount, vacated his seat

Main Article

By a compromise agreement which had operated since 1774, Rev. Leonard Holmes (formerly Troughear, heir to Thomas Holmes, 1st Baron Holmes) and Jervoise Clarke Jervoise named a Member each. Their pact involved the gradual elimination of the free burgesses by natural wastage, so that Yarmouth became, in effect, a close corporation borough with 13 capital burgesses.1 This alliance discouraged any opposition, even when, as in 1790, both patrons supported the Whig interest. Holmes, who also named the two Members for Newport, wished for patronage for members of his family. By 1794 he was firmly on the side of government2 and in 1798 was raised to the peerage as Lord Holmes. So Yarmouth was politically compromised as well.

On the death of Lord Holmes in 1804 his interest passed to his son-in-law Rev. Sir Henry Worsley (Holmes), 8th Bt. They both took paying guests. On 20 Sept. 1804 the following agreement was reached between the patrons:

To prevent any disputes which may possibly arise respecting the interest of the borough of Yarmouth, it is agreed between Jervoise Clarke Jervoise Esq. and the Revd. Dr Henry Worsley Holmes (to whom Edward Rushworth* has transferred the interest which dissolved by the death of Leonard, Lord Holmes) in order effectually to guard against any misunderstanding in case of either of the deaths of J.C. Jervoise or H.W. Holmes, that they will with all this influence in the said borough support and maintain the person whom the party subscribing hereto first dying shall nominate by any writing under his hand as his desired successor in the interest of the borough and consider him in every respect to stand in the place of the party by whom he shall be nominated.3

In accordance with this agreement, Jervoise named his youngest son Samuel, a clergyman, as his successor, 30 Sept. 1807, and the latter on 15 Jan. 1808 (ten days after his father’s death), named his eldest son, not yet four years old, as his successor. But by April he was induced to sell out to Worsley Holmes, whose ambition it was to succeed to Lord Bolton’s command of the island patronage.4

On the death of Worsley Holmes in 1811, his son Leonard Thomas Worsley Holmes* became sole patron. He at first attached himself to the Marquess Wellesley, who promised him a peerage, but by 1815 it was clear to him that he had made an error of judgment.5 His nominees vacated in 1816 and 1817 in favour of members of Lord Liverpool’s administration. The nature of the constituency made for a bewildering turnover of Members: there were 26 in this period.

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes

  • 1. Oldfield, Boroughs, i. 281.
  • 2. Portland mss PwF9236, 9253; Kent AO, Stanhope mss 730/9, Orde to Pitt, 4 Mar. 1794.
  • 3. Hants RO, Idsworth mss.
  • 4. Ibid.; NLS mss 3795, ff. 173, 177; Oldfield, Rep. Hist. iii. 568.
  • 5. Add. 38261, f. 281; Fortescue mss, Wellesley to Grenville, 23 Dec. 1816.