The Case of Hertford. The Numbers at the Last Poll for the Borough of Hertford were...[caption title]

London, 1715. Broadsheet. 2pp., including printed docket title on p.2. Disbound. Small folio. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Mild foxing. A rare leaflet relating to the controversial Hertford Parliamentary contest between Charles Caesar, Richard Goulston, Sir Thomas Clarke, and John Boteler in 1715. During the first quarter of the 18th century, debates raged over issues of election fraud in the borough of Hertford, which elected two members of the House of Commons. Disagreements over whether non-resident freemen could cast valid votes led to various abuses, charges and countercharges, and, in the election of 1715, an overturning of the election results by petition. The present document defends the election of Caesar, a prominent Tory and Jacobite, and his long-time ally Goulston over Clarke and Boteler, both Whigs. Clarke and Boteler petitioned against the results, declaring that the mayor of Hertford refused legal votes of "occasional residents" cast for them. This leaflet argues in response that the mayor acted within bounds set by Parliament and that Clarke and Boteler sought election through threats and bribery and points out that the "first Time Occasional Inhabitants were brought in at Hertford, was at the Election in 1710; they were brought in by Sir Thomas Clarke, and his Friends; he sent his own Waggon down the Goods to Furnish Houses, and Roomes, for such Voters, Two or Three Days before that Election." Clarke and Boteler were ultimately successful in overturning the election, however, and joined the historic 1715 sweep of the Whigs into Parliament. Among the earliest examples of lobbying literature, which first began proliferating in the lobby of the House of Commons at the time of the accession of King George I and the British general election of 1715. ESTC records only two copies, both at Oxford.