§ A Petition of William Sadler, of the borough of Wootton Bassett, in the county of Wilts, slopseller, and Robert Wallis, of the same place, bricklayer, was also delivered in and read; setting forth, "That the right of election of burgesses to serve in Parliament for the borough of Wootton Bassett, in the county of Wilts, is in the inhabitants thereof being householders with in the said borough legally settled, paying scot and lot, and not receiving alms; and that the petitioners had a right to vote at the last election of a burgess to serve in Parliament for the said borough; and that, at the said election, Robert Knight, esq. and John Attersoll, esq. were candidates: and that William Cripps, esq. mayor of the said borough, presided as the returning officer thereat, and partially and unjustly received the votes of many persons on the poll in favour of the said Robert Knight, who had no right to vote at the said election, and rejected many legal votes which were tendered for the said John Attersoll, by which means, and by other undue, corrupt and illegal practices of the said Robert Knight, his friends and agents, a colourable majority was procured in favour of the said Robert Knight, who hath been returned by the said William Cripps instead of the said John Attersoll, who had the legal majority of votes at the said election, and was duly elected thereat, and ought to have been returned; and the petitioners further state, that the said William Cripps, and one Jasper Maskelyne, were two of the overseers of the poor for the parish of Wootton Bassett, within which the said borough is situate, for the year preceding 339 the said election, and, as such overseers, did wilfully, fraudulently, illegally, and for election purposes, to the prejudice of the real electors of the said borough, cause the names of divers persons to be inserted in the poor's rates of the said parish as being the occupiers of houses within the said borough, and liable to pay the poor's rates in respect thereof, who were not, at the time of making the said rates, occupiers of such houses, or who had merely a colourable and fraudulent occupation thereof, and who were not liable to the payment of such poor's rates; and did also wilfully, injuriously and fraudulently, and for the purposes aforesaid, omit to insert the names of several persons in the said rates, who were occupiers of houses within the said borough, liable to be rated in respect thereof, by means of which several premises, the rights of the real electors of the said borough have been greatly injured, and the petitioners aggrieved; and praying that the House will take the same into their consideration, and grant them such relief as to them shall seem proper."
Ordered, That the said Petitions be taken into consideration on the 18th of June.