May
1705
Middlesex
Contested
GENERAL ELECTION
Poll book data from:
Citation: An exact copy of the poll… (London, 1705)
Source: John Sims (ed.), A Handlist of British Parliamentary Poll Books (Leicester, 1984); Jeremy Gibson and Colin Rogers (eds.), Poll Books, 1696–1872: A Directory of Holdings in Great Britain (4th edn., Bury, 2008); L. W. L. Edwards (ed.), Catalogue of Directories and Poll Books in the Possession of the Society of Genealogists (4th edn., 1984).
Timeline & Key Statistics
Contexts & Remarks
Transcription completed by the London Electoral History 1700-1850 project, undertaken by Penelope J. Corfield, Edmund M. Green, and Charles Harvey.
Date: Monday 28 May 1705.
Poll book reference: An exact list of the poll... (London, 1705).
Candidates: Scorie Barker (Whig), Sir John Wolstenholme (Whig), Warwick Lake (Tory), and Hugh Smithson (Tory).
Scorie Barker came from a family of lawyers in Chiswick.
Sir John Wolstenholme had previously served as Knight of the Shire for Middlesex in the 1690s.
Warwick Lake and Hugh Smithson were Tory candidates who ran in harnessin harness. Lake and Smithson were both returning candidates, having been elected for Middlesex since 1698 and 1701 respectively.
The Whig election managers provided barges for their supporters to travel to Brentford via the River Thames on election day.
The election returned Barker and Wolstenholme as Knights of the Shire for Middlesex.
Poll Book
Below is a digitised version of the poll book for this election:
