Election Expenses of Thomas Egerton

An account of Sir Thomas Egerton's election expenses during the Parliamentary election for the county of Lancaster in 1772, entitled An Account of the several Disbursements incurred during Sir Thomas Egerton's Election at Lancaster, which began the Fourth day of February 1772. The majority of expense items comprise payments to the landlords of inns and hotels for victualling electors. Other items of expenditure include ribbons, cockades, payments to bell-ringers, and the travelling expenses of electors journeying to Lancaster. The total amount paid was £3,888 11s. There is also a statement of Richard Tunnadine's general account [as agent] with Sir Thomas Egerton for the election. Two receipts are inserted.

Thomas Egerton, Baron Grey de Wilton and later 1st Earl of Wilton, was born in 1749. On the death of his father, in 1756, he succeeded to the baronetage and inherited Heaton Hall near Manchester. He was educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1801 was created Viscount Grey de Wilton and Earl of Wilton. Between 1772 and 1784 he was MP for Lancashire. He was responsible for the raising and funding of the Royal Lancashire Volunteer Regiment which was disbanded in 1783, but later reformed, and stationed at Dublin Castle in 1801. He died in 1814.

The manuscript is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Purchased by the John Rylands Library from Lewis Bernstein Namier in November 1928.

Description compiled by Henry Sullivan and Jo Humpleby, project archivists, with reference to William Farrer and J. Brownbill (eds), The Victoria history of the county of Lancaster, volume 4 (London: Constable, 1911).

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928 (English MS 470).

Greater Manchester County Record Office holds diaries and accounts of Thomas Egerton, 1769-1812, within the papers of the Egerton Family, Earls of Wilton (ref.: GB 124 E4/98/1-5, E4/99 ).

City of Westminster Archives Centre holds correspondence of Thomas Egerton (ref.: GB 094 Acc 1049).