The Case of Saint Edmund's-Bury. The Honble Carr Hervey, Esq; and Aubrie Porter, Esq; Sitting Members, against Jermyn Davers, Esq; and Gilbert Affleck, Esq; Petitioners [caption title]

London, 1714. Broadsheet, 15¾ x 12¼ inches. [1]p., plus printed docket title on verso. Disbound. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Small portion of inner margin excised, with no loss to text. Very light foxing and offsetting. A 1714 petition on the subject of direct, political representation

A rare and interesting British political petition relating to the right of burgesses to serve in Parliament for St. Edmundsbury, Suffolk. The document traces the political structure and representation of St. Edmundsbury from ancient times through the establishment of the town as a free borough by King Richard II, its charter that soon followed, and a controversy over rights to electing members of Parliament beginning in 1680. The petitioners write that the controversy is based on the question of "In whom the right of Election Resides, whether in the Freemen and Inhabitants of the said Town...or in the Alderman, Capital Burgesses, and Burgesses of the Common-Council." Parliament would decide upon the latter in a resolution passed April 27, 1714. An interesting look at the issue of direct representation closely preceding the major changes in British government of 1714 and 1715, and an early example of lobbying literature. ESTC records three copies: at the British Library, Oxford, and the National Library of Wales.

Hanson 1966.