1705

Date: Thursday 17 May 1705.

Poll book reference: Cambridge UL, University/CUR 50/6(3).

The poll sheet is included in a University Registry guard book, which were assembled from the 1860s onwards to accommodate loose papers. Therefore, the exact provenance of the poll is unclear.

Candidates: the Honourable Arthur Annesley (Tory), the Honourable Dixie Windsor (Tory), the Honourable Francis Godolphin (Whig), and Sir Isaac Newton (Whig).

By the 1705 general election, the influence previously exerted by the duke of Somerset in parliamentary elections had faded, with fellow Whigs Lord Manchester and Lord Halifax to step in to support the Low Church interest.

Prior to the election, Queen Anne visited the university to try to influence the election's result. The Lord Treasurer's son, Francis Godolphin, was one of the candidates and Lord Godolphin did his utmost to ensure his son's election. 'The Queen sent her own and my lord keeper his chaplain to vote', as did 'all the London clergy also'. Godolphin ran in harnessin harness with mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, who had served as MP in 1701.

Arthur Annesley was the younger son of the earl of Anglesey, and represented the interests of High Churchmen in the university. He ran in harnessin harness with Dixie Windsor, a younger son of the earl of Plymouth and connected to Trinity College.

During the poll, the Tory candidates organised a mob of undergraduate students to 'hallow like schoolboys and porters' and 'cry ?ÄúNo Fanatic?Äù, ?ÄúNo Occasional Conformist?Äù '. Both the Tory and Whig candidates searched the length and breadth of the country for as many supporters as possible (since the right to vote rested in being a graduate of the university), going as far afield as Westmorland and the Isle of Wight.

The election returned the Tories, Annesley and Windsor as MPs for the University of Cambridge.