1768

Transcription completed by the London Electoral History 1700-1850 project, undertaken by Penelope J. Corfield, Edmund M. Green, and Charles Harvey.

Dates: Wednesday 16 Mar.-Wednesday 23 Mar. 1768.

Poll book reference: The poll of the livery... (London: John Rivington, 1768).

Candidates: Thomas Harley (Tory), Sir Robert Ladbroke (Independent), William Beckford (Rockinghamite Whig), Barlow Trecothick (Rockinghamite Whig), Sir Richard Glyn (Tory), John Paterson (Whig), and John Wilkes (Radical).

Returning candidates; Thomas Harley, Sir Robert Ladbroke, William Beckford, and Sir Richard Glyn; stood once again for the constituency. They stemmed from London's mercantile classes, as Harley was a wine and cloth merchant, while Ladbroke was a distiller. William Beckford was connected with the Ironmongers' Company and owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. Sir Richard Glyn was originally a drysalter or oilman before entering the world of banking. By 1764, he was the Director of the Mullion Bank.

Barlow Trecothick, the son of a mariner, was a provincial agent for New Hampshire.

John Paterson had been trained in the law and served as MP for Ludgershall before standing for London.

John Wilkes was a radical who had been expelled from Parliament in 1764 having been arrested for libel. After fleeing to France, he returned to England in 1768 to stand for London. He said, 'What the Devil have I to do with prudence? I owe money in France, am an outlaw in England, hated by the King, the Parliament, and the bench of bishops... I must raise a dust or starve in a gaol.' (European Mag. xxxiii. 205.)

The election returned Harley, Ladbroke, Beckford, and Trecothick. Wilkes went on to stand for the county of Middlesex.