1790

Transcription completed and kindly shared by James Collett-White.

Dates: Saturday 19 June-Monday 28 June 1790.

Poll book reference: The poll for the election... (Bedford: W. Smith, [1790]).

Candidates: William Macdowall Colhoun (Whig), Samuel Whitbread II (Whig), and John Payne (Tory).

Colhoun, a member of the Whig Club, had the support of the duke of Bedford. He had previously been elected for the constituency in 1784.

Samuel Whitbread II, scion of the wealthy brewing family, aligned himself with Charles James Fox to the chagrin of his Pittite father who had represented Bedford from 1780. By the end of polling, Colhoun and Whitbread II were running in harness.

John Payne, a supporter of Pitt's government, targeted the 'independent' voters in the constituency. He attempted to 'conciliate the friendship of the lower class of freemen by giving away beef etc'.

To secure his interest in Bedford, the 5th duke of Bedford in 1789 had overseen the creation of 220 new freemen, granting them the right to vote in the following year's general election.

'On the Morning of Monday June 28th the Candidates jointly agreed to finally Close the Poll that Day... At four o'Clock, Proclamation was again made, that the Poll was finally Closed' (p. 35). Payne petitioned against Samuel Whitbread II's election. In 1791, another 129 freemen were created to bolster the duke of Bedford's interest further in the face of Payne's petition. The petition was rejected in March 1792.