Downton

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:

about 100

Population:

(1801): 2,426

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
19 June 1790HON. BARTHOLOMEW BOUVERIE52
 SIR WILLIAM SCOTT52
 William Wrightson45
 Robert Shafto45
28 May 1796HON. EDWARD BOUVERIE II52
 SIR WILLIAM SCOTT52
 William Wrightson45
 John Motteux45
6 Dec. 1798 SCOTT re-elected after appointment to office 
25 Mar. 1801 WILLIAM PLEYDELL BOUVERIE, Visct. Folkestone, vice Scott, vacated his seat 
7 July 1802HON. JOHN WILLIAM WARD 
 HON. EDWARD BOUVERIE II 
18 June 1803 JOHN BLAQUIERE, Baron de Blaquiere [I], vice Bouverie, vacated his seat 
13 Aug. 1803 CHARLES MARSHAM, Visct. Marsham, vice Ward, vacated his seat 
3 Nov. 1806HON. BARTHOLOMEW BOUVERIE 
 HON. DUNCOMBE PLEYDELL BOUVERIE 
8 May 1807HON. BARTHOLOMEW BOUVERIE 
 SIR THOMAS PLUMER 
3 July 1812 PLUMER re-elected afterappointment to office 
8 Oct. 1812SIR THOMAS PLUMER 
 CHARLES HENRY BOUVERIE 
26 Apr. 1813 SIR THOMAS BROOKE PECHELL, Bt., vice Plumer, appointed to office 
27 Apr. 1813 EDWARD GOLDING vice Bouverie vacated his seat 
20 June 1818WILLIAM PLEYDELL BOUVERIE, Visct. Folkestone 
 SIR WILLIAM SCOTT 
20 Feb. 1819 HON. BARTHOLOMEW BOUVERIE vice Folkestone, chose to sit for Salisbury 
22 Feb. 1819 SIR THOMAS BROOKE PECHELL, Bt., vice Scott, chose to sit for Oxford University 

Main Article

Since 1774 there had been a struggle for control of this close borough between Robert Shafto and the earls of Radnor, as coheirs of the Duncombe interest.1 The contenders were evenly balanced: Shafto owned a slight majority of the burgages, but the 2nd Earl of Radnor secured the right to name the returning officer and this gave him the edge in the contests of 1790 and 1796. On both occasions petitions hinged upon the partiality of Radnor’s nominee as returning officer. The first was narrowly defeated in May 1791 and the second eventually given up.2 On 1 June 1796 Shafto’s lawyer proposed a compromise of one Member each, which would be a matter of ‘justice as well as policy’, but was informed: ‘If the relinquishment of the defence of the present seats is the foundation of the present treaty Lord R[adnor] cannot think of it’.3 A week before this another manoeuvre had been attempted, to secure a ministerial nominee on the Shafto interest,4 but nothing came of this either: William Wrightson stood again and was joined by John Motteux. Shafto himself was hors de combat and it seems that management of his interest passed to his trustee Thomas Bernard and his 20-year-old son Robert Eden Duncombe Shafto*. The latter was suspected of a bid to keep out a Foxite by separating Wrightson and Motteux when they prepared to petition following their defeat. Motteux, the intended victim, thwarted the attempt, but the pair were stymied, 18 Feb. 1797, when Shafto’s agents were instructed to admit defeat.5 Before Shafto’s death, later that year, the Earl of Radnor had bought him out.

Radnor usually returned his relatives for one seat and a friend of government for the other, which was much sought after. In 1818 he was said to have ‘refused bringing in the Members that were returned for Downton last Parliament’.6 He returned his son and Sir William Scott instead, but they found seats elsewhere. On 22 Feb. 1819 Lord Shaftesbury informed Lord Liverpool:

My relation Lord Radnor is a comical fellow but a very honourable one. I am now authorized to tell you that his brother Barti Bouverie is returned for Downton but that he is willing to resign his seat whenever it can [be] of use to you, and that Lord Radnor is ready to return in his stead any friend whom you will recommend to him provided that he is a good Protestant and an enemy to reform of Parliament. These two conditions are indispensable.7

Author: R. G. Thorne

Notes

  • 1. J. A. Cannon, ‘The Parl. Rep. of six Wilts. Boroughs 1754-90’ (Bristol Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1958) i. 143-68.
  • 2. CJ, xlvi. 27, 54, 582; lii. 18, 23, 291; Windham Diary, 226; Colchester, i. 83.
  • 3. Wilts. RO 490/1372, Grey to Blake, 1 June 1796.
  • 4. PRO 30/8/107, ff. 84, 86.
  • 5. Blair Adam mss, Wilbraham to Adam, 19 Sept. 1796, Wrightson to same, Sat. [Feb. 1797].
  • 6. Wentworth Woodhouse mun. G1/31.
  • 7. Add. 38458, f. 277.