Heytesbury

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690-1715, ed. D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, S. Handley, 2002
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Right of Election:

in burgage holders

Number of Qualified Electors:

about 26

Number of voters:

unknown

Elections

DateCandidate
8 Mar. 1690WILLIAM ASHE I
 WILLIAM TRENCHARD
1 Nov. 1695WILLIAM ASHE I
 EDWARD ASHE
27 July 1698WILLIAM ASHE I
 EDWARD ASHE
6 Jan. 1701WILLIAM ASHE I
 EDWARD ASHE
26 Dec. 1701EDWARD ASHE
 SIR EDWARD ERNLE, Bt.
17 July 1702EDWARD ASHE
 WILLIAM MONSON
11 May 1705EDWARD ASHE
 WILLIAM MONSON
7 May 1708EDWARD ASHE
 WILLIAM ASHE II
6 Oct. 1710EDWARD ASHE
 WILLIAM ASHE II
31 Aug. 1713EDWARD ASHE
 PIERCE A’COURT

Main Article

Both seats at Heytesbury were controlled by William Ashe I, the lord of the manor, who owned most of the burgages and also appointed the returning officer, his bailiff. Generally the borough was used to provide for his own family. Ashe returned himself, his sons Edward and William II, his brother-in-law, Sir Edward Ernle, 3rd Bt., and his son-in-law Pierce A’Court: all were Whigs. Occasionally an outside Whig was nominated. In 1690, before Edward came of age, Ashe’s Wiltshire friend William Trenchard was elected, and in 1702 and 1705, when he himself was putting up for the county and before William Ashe II was considered as a candidate, William Monson (to whom he was distantly related by his first marriage) was elected. No contest is known to have taken place in this period.1

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

  • 1. Wilts. Arch. Mag. lvii.223; Add. 70018, f. 69.