Dungannon

Dungannon was enfranchised in 1613 by a charter of 10 James I. It was incorporated with a provost, 12 free burgesses, an indefinite class of freemen and no inferior offices. The estate belonged to the Chichesters, and Thomas Knox (1185), a successful Belfast merchant, settled there about 1692. He bought the estate of Dungannon including the parliamentary borough 'worth near £1,000 per annum' from the Earl of Chichester. His nephew and namesake, Thomas Knox (1186), inherited the estate and he and his descendants controlled the borough throughout the century and, as it was not disfranchised at the Union, beyond into the united parliament. The electors throughout were the 13 burgesses. It was never sold, and in 1790 was described as follows: 'This close Borough, whose only electors are the twelve Burgesses, is the property of Lord Welles (1187), whose recommendation ever fixes these electors in their offices and whose inclination therefore meets with no control in dictating their choice of representatives. It is never sold but some branches of his own family, or some friends of Administration, constantly are its representatives.'388