Contested Election
Despite the fact that Gatton elections were entirely in the hands of the Lord of the Manor, there was a contested election in a by-election on 24 January 1803. James Dashwood, one of the sitting Members, was persuaded to resign to allow Philip Dundas (nephew of Pitt's ally Henry Dundas) to take a seat in Parliament. However, Joseph Clayton Jennings, a barrister who supported Parliamentary reform, arrived to contest the election together with a group of radical supporters. Jennings obtained one vote from a man claiming to be entitled to vote, but Dashwood (who was acting as returning officer on the occasion) rejected it; hence Dundas was returned by 1 vote to nil.
A garbled version of the 1803 byelection was included by Henry Stooks Smith in The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847, as the supposed story of a byelection in 1816, at which Sir Mark Wood, 2nd Baronet was returned. Stooks Smith wrote:
- "Mr Jennings was Sir Mark Wood's butler. There were only three voters, Sir Mark, his son, and Jennings. The son was away and Jennings and his master quarrelled upon which Jennings refused to second the son and proposed himself. To get a seconder for the son, Sir Mark had to second Jennings, and it was ultimately arranged, and the vote of Sir Mark alone given. This was the only contest within memory."
The History of Parliament notes that that this story "has not been confirmed". Gatton's representation was abolished by the Reform Act in 1832.
Read more about this topic: Gatton (UK Parliament Constituency)
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