<It is said that the seat for Bridgenorth, which Mr. Henry Hanbury Tracy usurped for about six months, cost him £6000. This is paying dearly for the privilege of franking, and the honour of having M.P. attached to one's name.>

When I first read that he <resigned from Parliament the following year by becoming Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds> I confess I didn't know this was <a procedural device to allow Members of Parliament to resign.> Which means my initial assumption that Tracy would've been largely absent from London after this may have been a hasty one.

Based on http://thepeerage.com/p22109.htm#i2..., but it turns out to be incorrect.

The marriage actually happened on January, not June, 19th, so I withdraw the imputation.

It took place in the parish of Eatington (Ettington) in Warwickshire. Henry's place of residence in the register is given as <St. George's Hanover Square London>, but that should be understood as the parish rather than the church: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Ge.... So he may well have been a member of the St. George's chess club (which was newly formed in December 1839, and in 1840 was based in George St. just off Hanover Sq), but Staunton was associated with the Westminster club, of which he had been the secretary from some point in 1837 until its failure in - coincidentally - December 1839. Whether he was persona non grata at the St. George's CC right from its formation, I'm not certain, but in 1840, his main chess haunt was a divan called Gliddon's.

<TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF MR. PIGOT.

Bridgenorth, Tuesday, Feb. 20.

The nomination of a candidate to represent this borough in Parliament, in the room of Mr. Henry Hanbury Tracy, who has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, took place in the Town-hall this morning. The circumstances connected with the retirement of Mr. Tracy are briefly as follow :— At the late general election there were three candidates — Mr. Whitmore, Mr. Tracy, and Mr. Pigot; the second named gentleman, the whig-radical candidate, being returned by a majority of three over Mr. Pigot, one of the conservative candidates. Mr. Pigot petitioned against the return of Mr. Tracy on the ground of bribery and intimidation, the reception of illegal votes on the poll, and the gross partiality of the radical mayor of the borough, who, by virtue of the Reform Act, was the returning officer. Great show of a defence was made to this petition, but on the eve of the day which the committee was to be ballotted for, Mr. Tracy declined the contest, and accepted the Chiltern Hundreds. In addressing his late constituents on this untoward event, the ex-member thus expresses himself :— "The error committed (with no evil intent) by the returning officer, in stopping the poll during the late contest, has unfortunately afforded in the opinion of counsel legal ground for disputing the validity of the late election; and is also one which would compel a committee of the House of Commons to declare the election void; the friends whom I have consulted say, therefore, that I have but one rational course to pursue, and that is to concede the petition and vacate my seat." Mr. Tracy further adds, "that he shall not again offer himself, because he believes the majority of the electors to be against him." The fact is, both Mr. Tracy and his radical adherents in Bridgenorth were afraid of the disclosures which would be made to the committee, and dared not to sumbit their conduct to that ordeal.>