THE privilege of sending a member to Parliament was conferred on this
borough by the Reform Bill. The number of voters now on the register is
912.
1832—(General Election.)—Sir John Campbell—then the Whig Solicitor
General, and long a practitioner on the Oxford Circuit, now Lord Chief
Justice of England—was returned. He had an opponent in the person of
Horace St. Paul, Esq., who contested the election on Tory principles.
Sir John was proposed by Mr. Twamley and Mr. Braidley; and Mr. St. Paul
by Mr. Dixon and Mr. Salisbury. The numbers, at the close of the poll,
were—Campbell, 315; St. Paul, 225: majority for Campbell, 90.
1834—FEBRUARY 27—(Election rendered necessary by Sir John Campbell’s
elevation to the Attorney Generalship.)—Sir John was this time opposed,
on the Conservative interest, by Thomas Hawkes, Esq. The show of hands,
at the nomination, was in favour of Sir John; whereupon a poll was
demanded by Mr. Hawkes’s friends, and commenced immediately with great
briskness. At three o’clock, Sir John’s committee, finding great
difficulty in bringing their friends to the poll, gave up in a huff, and
Mr. Hawkes was declared duly elected; the numbers being—Hawkes, 322;
Campbell, 242: majority, 80. This result was said to be mainly owing to
the Dissenters and ultra-radicals refusing to vote for Sir John, “in
order to teach ministers a lesson;” but the effect was rather to disgust
the Whigs than to urge them forward with church reform. Sir John had
also made enemies by an attack, in the House, on the Dudley magistrates.
1835—(General Election.)—Mr. Hawkes returned by a majority of 93 over his
Whig opponent, Captain Forbes.
1837—(General Election.)—Mr. Hawkes again elected. Mr. Merryweather
Turner was the candidate on the Liberal interest, and obtained the show
of hands at the nomination; but at the poll the numbers were—Hawkes, 385;
Turner, 289: majority for Hawkes, 96. A challenge resulted from some
speeches at this election, and the Dudley magistrates issued their
warrants to bind over both Mr. Turner and Mr. Hawkes to keep the peace.
Mr. Turner did not get the challenge till half an hour after he had been
bound over at the instigation of Mr. Hawkes’s friends.
1841—(General Election.)—Mr. Hawkes again elected; though opposed, on the
Liberal interest, by Mr. W. A. Smith, son of the then member for Norwich.
Mr. Downing and Mr. B. Best proposed Mr. Hawkes at the hustings; and Mr.
Thomas Lister and Mr. Thomas Hill proposed Mr. Smith, who had the show of
hands. The numbers on the poll were—Hawkes, 436; Smith, 189: majority
for Hawkes, 247.
1844—AUGUST 8—Mr. Thomas Hawkes’s acceptance of the Chiltern Hundreds, in
consequence of the embarrassed state of his affairs, having caused a
vacancy, John Benbow, Esq., agent for Lord Ward, and, therefore,
possessing much influence in the borough, was put in nomination on the
Conservative interest, and opposed by Mr. William Rawson, an
Anti-Corn-Law lecturer. Mr. Benbow was proposed, on the hustings, by Mr.
Thomas Badger and Captain Bennitt; and Mr. Rawson by Mr. Charles Twamley
and the Rev. J. Palmer. The show of hands was in favour of Mr. Rawson.
The polling was a very quiet affair, and at the close the numbers
were—Benbow, 388; Rawson, 175: majority, 213.
1847—(General Election.)—A Mr. Joseph Linney, Chartist operative from
Bilston, was put in nomination on the day of election, in opposition to
Mr. Benbow—addressed the crowd, and got the show of hands; but having no
money to pay his share of the expenses of a poll, was obliged to
withdraw, and Mr. Benbow was declared duly elected.