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The third volume in BHRS's series of poll books and covers the years from the fall of Walpole to the rise of William Pitt the younger. This is the third volume in BHRS's series of poll books and covers the years from the fall of Walpole to the rise of William Pitt the younger. It was a period when Britain was constantly at war, when it suffered a dangerous Jacobite rebellion and when the American colonies were lost. Yet this constant warfare did not produce the revolutionary changes to the national and local economy that the Napoleonic wars subsequently created. There is only one complete poll book for the county (1774) but surviving lists from Bedford borough, including a partial poll book of 1747, enable political allegiance to be gauged. Lack of contested elections does not mean an absence of political activity. Detectable trends are illustrated from the Duke of Bedford's archives and the Hardwicke manuscripts in the British Library. They include the attempts of the Duke to increase his powers, which were successfully challenged by Bedford borough by the creation in 1769 of many new out-of-town freemen to detach it from his influence; the decline of formerly prominent political families; and, from the 1760s, the rise of the Whitbreads. The volume also details the political dimensions of the litigation over the appointment of the rector of St John's, Bedford; the administration of the Harpur Trust; and turnpike and enclosure acts.

Elections --- Political participation --- Voting registers --- History --- 18th Century. --- Bedfordshire. --- Local Documents. --- Political Activity. --- Poll Books. --- Voting.

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This second volume of BHRS's series of late seventeenth and early eighteenth-century poll books continues the story of Bedfordshire voting in the context of local and national politics up to the election in 1734. It contains transcriptions of the poll books for four Bedford borough elections and three county elections held between 1722 and 1734. Except for the 1722 county election, the poll books are taken from hitherto unpublished manuscripts.

Much of the political and local background to voting is recounted in Volume 1. For this volume, each chapter has an introduction which draws upon letters to provide an insight into the political alliances and manoeuvres which occurred in selecting candidates, including the part played by the Duchess of Marlborough.

The poll books themselves are a mine of local information about Bedfordshire. The 10,000 names in this volume (fully indexed), added to the 8,500 names in the first volume, provide evidence for in-depth study of people, places and landholding in Bedfordshire. They will also help family historians find ancestors between the 1671 Hearth Tax and the 1841 Census.

Local elections --- Political participation --- Voting registers --- History --- Bedfordshire (England) --- Politics and government. --- Members of Parliament. --- Parliamentary elections.

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History of the United Kingdom and Ireland --- Bedfordshire --- England