The Wallops, earls of Portsmouth, seated at nearby Hurstbourne Park, named one Member from their family circle virtually throughout the 18th century; and since 1768 Joshua Iremonger, residing even nearer at Wherwell, had returned his half-brother Lethieullier for the other seat. There had been no contest since 1774, and although the Treasury listed the borough as open before the election of 1790 they classified it as close before that of 1796. Close it remained, but not in the same co-patrons. A virtually extinct interest was revived by Thomas Assheton Smith of Tidworth, whose collateral ancestor John Smith had been Member 1695-1713.1 The election of 1796 was managed by Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh* on behalf of Lethieullier and the earl’s family, who were absent, in collaboration with Ralph Etwall senior, deputy steward and senior bailiff. Of the 12 masters of the corporation, nine voted for Lethieullier and Coulson Wallop and three of the 12 burgesses did the same. Two of the masters were absent and there was one vacancy; one burgess was absent ill, another disqualified and there were seven vacancies. The absence of Sir John Pollen, one of the masters, may have been significant, as it was he who had last challenged the co-patrons in 1774. The expenses were £250 plus a half guinea to the corporators’ servants.2 After the election the 2nd Earl appealed to Pitt, whose supporter he was, for three places for corporators to the value of some £350 p.a.3

Assheton Smith had chosen his opportunity well. A year later, first the 2nd Earl of Portsmouth and then Lethieullier died, and Joshua Iremonger (who died in 1804) made no opposition to his return. From 1802 Assheton Smith and Newton Fellowes, a brother of the feeble-minded 3rd Earl, were returned unopposed. The earl’s other brother, Coulson, was also ‘little better than an idiot’ and in 1800 his mother had offered John King* his seat in exchange for ‘some provision for him (to the extent of about £400 per annum).4 Nothing came of this and Coulson made way for his brother Newton. The 3rd Earl’s second marriage in 1814 alienated Newton, who attempted unsuccessfully to have him certified soon after. This had repercussions at Andover.5 Seat hunters began to make inquiries about the borough and in 1818 the earl’s father-in-law, John Hanson, a Bloomsbury attorney, was put up in defiance of his brother; but Ralph Etwall junior, having succeeded to his father’s offices of trust, refused to support Hanson, who withdrew.6 In 1820 the earl’s interest lapsed and Sir John Walter Pollen, whose father had died in 1814 and who had been willing to bite in 1818,7 seized his opportunity.