Both were members of William Pitt the Younger's faction of the Tory Party.

At Pitt's request, shortly after the election, Dashwood vacated his seat so as to make way for Philip Dundas.

This was complicated, however, when Joseph Clayton Jennings, a barrister and reformer, "arrived on the scene", making it unexpectedly a contested election, and found a person who claimed to be entitled to vote in his favour.

Dashwood, acting as the returning officer, rejected the ballot for Jennings, and Dundas was duly elected with one vote.

[1][2][3] Dundas left for India two years later, causing another by-election, wherein Wood procured the seat for William Garrow - another reformist barrister, who won it uncontested and thereby made his entry in Parliament.