1713

Date: Tuesday 1 Sept. 1713.

Poll book reference: Nottingham University Manuscripts and Special Collections, GA 12259/9.

The poll sheet forms part of the Monckton-Arundell, Viscounts of Galway, family papers of Serlby Hall. It is entitled, 'The Poll taken at the Elecc[i]on of Members to serve in Parliament for the Burrough of Pontefract in the County of York on Tuesday the first day of September in the twelveth year of the reign of our Soveraign Lady Queen Ann...'

Candidates: Robert Frank (Tory), Hon. John Dawnay (Tory), William Lowther (Whig), and Robert Monckton (Whig).

Robert Frank was a returning candidate, having been elected in 1710. Frank had served as the recorder in Pontefract and belonged to one of the community's leading families which owned 20 burgages.

Sir William Lowther of Swillington was a burgage holder and former MP for Pontefract. He was allied with fellow burgage holder Robert Monckton, and they were supported once again by the duke of Newcastle.

Hon. John Dawnay was the son of Henry Dawnay, Lord Downe of Cowick, who had been elected as MP in 1690, and grandson of the 1st Viscount Downe who had represented the town in Parliament from 1661 to 1690.

The election saw the Tories, Frank and Downay, returned for the borough.