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John Tucker, M.P., and Mid-Eighteenth-Century British Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Extract
John Tucker was a member of Parliament for the borough of Weymouth between 1735–47 and again between 1754–78. The relevant entries for him in the volumes of the History of Parliament are exiguous. He appears to have made only two interventions in Commons debates, on 27 February 1771 and 30 April 1772. In John Brooke's words, both were “slight and short.” According to the History of Parliament, Tucker's political stance was determined largely by his relationship with George Bubb Dodington, although the evidence is capable, as we shall see, of being read in a different way. Romney Sedgwick quotes from a letter Dodington wrote to Sir Robert Walpole in 1737, following the famous division on the Prince of Wales's allowance, that “the connexion between these gentlemen [those identified with his interest, including Tucker] and me was such that we should not have differed in opinion” even had he decided to vote for the motion. Tucker emerges from the History of Parliament volumes as a man without political views of his own and as an individual tightly caught up in a politics shaped principally by interest and management.
This article exploits a hitherto neglected source to reconstruct more fully John Tucker's political world and views, to present a different account of his political stance and importance, and thus to throw considerable light on politics in the mid-eighteenth century. This source is a manuscript collection that the Bodleian Library acquired in 1969 and 1970. The collection mostly comprises the papers of John Tucker's father, Edward, his brother, Richard, and John himself.
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References
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35 Bodl., MS Don b 18, fos. 135–6.
36 Bodl., MS Don b 18, fos. 153–4.
37 Bodl., MS Don c 112, fo. 198. The victorious “Country” candidates at Dorchester were Nathaniel Gundry, an opposition Whig, and John Browne, a Tory gentleman.
38 Bodl., MS Don c 112, fo. 200.
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40 The witnesses were Richard Jordan, mayor of Weymouth in 1740, and Ezekiel Pomeroy, chief clerk to the Clerk of the Cheque at Deptford. Both were local allies of the Tuckers.
41 The bill died in the Lords when the session ended. Its halting progress and demise can be tracked in The Journals of the House of Commons, vol. 24.
42 Bodl., MS Don c 105, fo. 55.
43 A list of attenders was published in the London Evening Post, 11–13 Feb. 1742.
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48 Bodl., MS Don c 105, fo. 78.
49 Bodl., MS Don c 105, fo. 109.
50 There were nineteen instructions in late 1742 There were also three counter-instructions in favor of the ministry, from Bristol, Nottingham, and Worcester.
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58 Bodl., MS Don c 106, fos. 146, 149, 154. These accounts of major parliamentary debates are important sources for the historian given the general unreliability of the reports printed in the monthly magazines at this time (see Ransome, Mary, “The Reliability of Contemporary Reporting of the Debates of the House of Commons, 1727–41,” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xix [1942–1943]: 67–79)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In addition to the debates of 18 and 19 January 1744 on the Hanoverian troops, major debates described by Tucker include: (1) William Pulteney's motion to introduce a place bill, 7 Apr. 1742; (2) the address of thanks on the King's speech, 18 Nov. 1742; (3) Edmund Waller's motion to address the King to discontinue the service of the Hanoverian troops in British pay, 6 Dec. 1743; (4) the debate in the Committee of Supply on grants for subsidies to foreign powers, 18 Feb. 1745; (5) William Pitt's motion to address the King to recall all remaining British troops from Flanders, 23 Oct. 1745; (6) the debate in the Committee of Supply on a proposal for prominent noblemen to raise regiments, 1 Nov. 1745.
59 Bodl., MS Don c 106, fo. 172.
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61 Bodl., MS Don c 106, fo. 221.
62 Bodl., MS Don c 107, fo. 36.
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69 See Luff, “The Noblemen's Regiments.”
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71 In 1743, Olmius lent the Prince £2,800 at 5 percent interest.
72 Bodl., MS Don c 106, fos. 14, 20–21.
73 Bodl., MS Don c 106, fo. 149.
74 Bodl., MS Don c 106, fo. 179.
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80 Bodl., MS Don c 105, fo. 72.
81 Hume called the controversy “frivolous.” As he noted, the way in which the debate had been conducted had obscured areas of agreement between the ministry and the opposition. The crucial area of disagreement was the weight that should be given to the opinions of constituents. This was a matter of degree not of rigidly opposed positions (Hume, David, Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary [Oxford, 1963], pp. 33–34Google Scholar).
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90 Avon Central Library, Bristol (hereafter cited as Avon), Southwell Papers, vol 5.
91 Avon, Southwell Papers, vol. 5.
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93 See e.g., Avon, Southwell Papers, vol. 7: Samuel Pye to Southwell, 19 Feb. 1742; John Brickdale to Southwell, 21 Feb. 1742.
94 Avon, Southwell Papers, vol. 7: Southwell to Joseph Smith, 24 Feb. 1741.
95 Avon, Southwell Papers, vol. 7: Southwell to Joseph Lewis, 26 Feb. 1741.
96 Avon, Southwell Papers, vol. 7: Southwell to Robert Smith, 20 Feb. 1742.
97 Bodl., MS Don b 18, fo. 71.
98 Jordan was once described by Tucker as “having been bred in the Customs from his youth” (Bodl., MS Don b 18, fo. 236).
99 On one occasion in the spring of 1742, Richard wrote, “As Examination in ye most solemn manner are on oath how comes it that Paxton [Nicholas Paxton, Solicitor to the Treasury] refused to answer [questions put to him by the Commons Secret Committee]—twas this puzzled our club when we disputed about it” (Bodl., MS Don c 105, fo. 92).
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106 This is the position that Linda Colley appears to adopt, although she does also acknowledge that the country tradition was able to appeal to both Tories and Whigs, albiet sometimes for different, partisan reasons (In Defiance of Oligarchy, ch. 4).
107 Rogers, , Whigs and Cities, pp. 232–4Google ScholarPubMed. For comment on the significance of the language of politics in this period, see Harris, Bob, “The London Evening Post and Mid-Eighteenth-Century British Politics,” English Historical Review, 110 (November, 1995): 1155–56Google Scholar.
108 Bodl., MS Don b 18, fo. 185.