Northumberland

Northumberland was described in 1673 as ‘a county of a sharp and piercing air and much troubled with pinching frosts, boisterous winds and deep snows in the winter … It is a country but thinly inhabited, which is occasioned through its near neighbourhood to Scotland and its barrenness, being for the most part exceeding rough, hilly and very hard to be manured’. R. Blome, Britannia (1673), 179. The majority of the county’s inhabitants eked out a living as small-scale livestock and arable farmers. Their produce, particularly wool and corn, were staples of the county’s markets, of which the largest were at Alnwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Morpeth. Infra, ‘Berwick-upon-Tweed’; ‘Morpeth’; Watts, Northumb. 51. But the ‘chief riches’ of the county derived from coal, ‘which is here in such exceeding plenty that it supplies the defect of London and other parts; many hundred sail of ships having yearly from hence their loading’. Blome, Britannia, 179; W. Gray, Chorographia, or a Survey of Newcastle upon Tine (1649), 37. Although the most profitable collieries were in the manors of Whickham and Gateshead in County Durham (the so-called ‘grand lease’), these mines and the shipping of coal from them were controlled by the Newcastle Hostmen – the cartel of coal-merchants that virtually monopolised the River Tyne coal trade. Watts, Northumb. 51-3.

The population of early-Stuart Northumberland has been estimated at 85,000, although this figure may be on the high side. Watts, Northumb. 40. According to the 1666 hearth tax returns, the county contained about 14,000 households, which suggests a population of nearer 70,000. E179/158/105. Moreover, at least a fifth of the county’s population was concentrated in Newcastle – the largest town in northern England. Howell, Newcastle, 6-9. The size of the Northumberland electorate during the mid-seventeenth century is not known.Northumberland’s most powerful electoral patron by 1640 was the future parliamentarian grandee Algernon Percy†, 4th earl of Northumberland. His estates in the county, which were concentrated around his castle at Alnwick, were worth about £2,700 a year and thus dwarfed all but those of Northumberland’s leading gentry families such as the Delavals of Seaton Delaval, the Fenwicks of Fenwick and Wallington and the Widdringtons of Widdrington. Estate Accts. of the Earls of Northumb. ed. M.E. James (Surt. Soc. clxiii), xxxix. He was also Northumberland’s wealthiest private colliery owner. Watts, Northumb. 52. Moreover, his landed interest was greatly augmented by his family’s ancient association with the Border region as feudal magnates and wardens of the Eastern March and by his own standing in the king’s counsels. As a privy councillor and lord high admiral, Northumberland’s political influence in the north east was second only to that of his friend and ally, the lord president of the council of the north, the earl of Strafford (Sir Thomas Wentworth†).

In the elections to the Short Parliament in the spring of 1640, the Northumberland voters assembled on 2 April at Alnwick, in the heart of Percy territory, and returned Sir John Fenwick and Sir William Withrington. There is no evidence of a contest. The indenture was signed by 12 men, including Fenwick’s eldest son John Fenwick*. C219/42/1/164. The elder Fenwick had been returned as a knight of the shire for Northumberland to every Parliament since that of 1624. He was the 4th earl’s ‘old and true friend’, and his influence as one of the county’s foremost landowners may well have been supplemented by the Percy interest. Infra, ‘Sir John Fenwick’. Withrington’s parliamentary pedigree was not quite as impressive – his father having represented Northumberland in 1604, 1614 and 1621. But he, too, possessed a substantial estate in the county. In addition, he was a ‘very particular and entire friend’ of another regional magnate, the future royalist general William Cavendish†, 1st Viscount Mansfield (and future earl and marquess of Newcastle). Infra, ‘Sir William Withrington’. The Cavendish estates in Northumberland were reportedly worth £3,000 a year, making Mansfield perhaps the greatest landowner in the county. Newcastle Mems. ed. Firth, 4. Like the earl of Northumberland he was a courtier and privy councillor. However, the Cavendish name did not have the kind of resonance and prestige in the region that attached to that of Percy.

The king’s defeat in the second bishops’ war and the resulting occupation of the county by the Scots seems to have had little impact upon the Percy interest – despite the fact that the earl of Northumberland had been lord general of the royal army. In the election for Northumberland to the Long Parliament – which was held at Alnwick on or shortly before 17 October 1640 – the county returned the earl’s younger brother Henry Percy and Sir William Withrington. The election indenture has survived, but is too faded to read. C219/43/2/84; Princeton Univ. Lib. C0938, no. 224 (John Nevay letters): Nevay to Lady Loudoun, 17 Oct. 1640. Percy, who had his residence in Westminster, had travelled up to York late in September and may have been present on election day. Infra, ‘Henry Percy’; HMC De L’Isle and Dudley, vi. 329. The Scots regarded the two men as ‘very ill chosen’ – a comment that probably refers to the anti-Scottish disposition both of the freeholders and of the men they had elected. Princeton Univ. Lib. C0938, no. 224. Sir John Fenwick, whom Northumberland had appointed muster-master of the king’s forces, had withdrawn to York after the battle of Newburn, and this may have weakened his electoral interest. CSP Dom. 1640-1, pp. 27-8. But a more likely explanation for his failure to secure re-election is simply that he had stood down in favour of Percy. To compensate him for the loss of his seat, the earl of Northumberland recommended him to the voters of the newly re-enfranchised Cumberland borough of Cockermouth, where the earl was the principal electoral patron. Supra, ‘Cockermouth’.

It was perhaps inevitable that the Northumberland voters, having consistently returned men who detested the Scots and their English allies, were quickly deprived of their Members in the Long Parliament. Percy, a ringleader of the first Army Plot, was expelled from the House on 9 December 1641. CJ ii. 337a. A writ to elect his replacement was then issued, and on 6 January 1642, the county returned Sir John Fenwick, who promptly resigned his seat at Cockermouth. The indenture was witnessed by 17 named men and ‘many others’. C219/43/2/88; CJ ii. 414b. Withrington emerged during the summer of 1642 as a staunch royalist and was disabled on 26 August for helping the earl of Newcastle raise troops for the king in Northumberland and County Durham. Infra, ‘Sir William Withrington’; CJ ii. 738a. And it was probably only the influence of the earl of Northumberland, who remained at Westminster after the outbreak of the civil war, that prevented the fiery spirits in the Commons questioning Fenwick’s loyalty too closely. Fenwick seems to have abandoned his seat in the summer of 1642, and by April 1643 he and Hugh Potter* were collaborating with the royalists to protect the Northumberland’s northern estates. Infra, ‘Sir John Fenwick’. However, it was not until 22 January 1644 that the Commons disabled Fenwick for deserting the service of the House and adhering to the king’s party. CJ iii. 474a. Like their unseated MPs, many, perhaps a majority, of the county’s inhabitants were either active royalists or royalist sympathisers.

On 25 September 1645, the Commons ordered that a writ be issued for electing a new Member in place of Withrington, and on 6 November the county returned Fenwick’s eldest surviving son William. CJ iv. 287a. The indenture was witnessed by eight named individuals – including Sir John Fenwick, Robert Fenwicke* and Henry Ogle* – and ‘many other persons’. C219/43/2/88. The outcome of this ‘recruiter’ election, like that of many in the northern counties, was probably influenced at some level by the baleful presence of the Scottish army in the region. William Fenwicke would have received his father’s backing and also, very probably, that of the earl of Northumberland. From their different political vantage points – Sir John Fenwick as a royalist collaborator in the north and Northumberland as an Independent grandee at Westminster – both men were closely identified with the anti-Scottish reaction that swept the northern counties after the civil war. It is therefore surprising that it was the Presbyterian grandees Sir Philip Stapilton and Denzil Holles who were majority tellers on 26 June 1646 in favour of rescinding the order for disabling Sir John from sitting. CJ iv. 588a. Evidently they assumed that Fenwick’s royalist sympathies would incline him to their party – particularly after the Scots’ anticipated withdrawal from England. Nevertheless, his re-admission to the Commons was greeted with delight by the earl of Northumberland. Infra, ‘Sir John Fenwick’ It is also revealing that neither Fenwick nor his son were among those Members excluded at Pride’s Purge; although like Northumberland and most of his circle they abstained from taking their seats in the Rump.

The county of Northumberland was not represented specifically in the Nominated Parliament of 1653. Instead, the council of officers selected four men to serve for the four northernmost counties, and of these four it seems that Robert Fenwicke and Henry Ogle were nominated with particular reference to Northumberland. A Catalogue of the Names of the New Representatives (1653, 669 f.17.14); Clarke Pprs. iii. 5; Woolrych, Commonwealth to Protectorate, 117. Although neither man ranked among the county’s greatest landowners, they were both staunch parliamentarians and had been leading actors in the region’s affairs since the mid-1640s. Infra, ‘Robert Fenwicke’; ‘Henry Ogle’. Under the Instrument of Government, Northumberland was assigned three seats, and in the elections to the first protectoral Parliament on 12 July 1654 the county returned William Fenwicke, Robert Fenwicke and Ogle. The indenture was signed by 23 men in the presence of ‘divers other persons qualified and capable to elect Members’. Northumb. RO, ZAN M17/38.

In the elections to the second protectoral Parliament on 20 August 1656, the county re-elected William and Robert Fenwicke, but chose the Northumberland lawyer Sir Thomas Widdrington in place of Ogle. C219/45, unfol. Whether Ogle had been defeated by Widdrington or had simply opted not to stand is not clear. Widdrington, a prominent Cromwellian, would probably have been more acceptable to Major-general Charles Howard*, the government’s electoral manager for Northumberland, than Ogle, who was on friendly terms with one of the government’s leading republican opponents, Sir Arthur Hesilrige*. Infra, ‘Henry Ogle’; TSP v. 296. On the other hand, there is no evidence that Howard had tried to thwart Hesilrige and his confederates in their attempts to stir up anti-Cromwellian feeling among the county electorate. TSP v. 296 All three of Northumberland’s MPs were allowed to take their seats in this Parliament, although only Widdrington would emerge as an active supporter of new Cromwellian constitution, the Humble Petition and Advice. Infra, ‘Sir Thomas Widdrington’.

Northumberland reverted to its traditional two seats in the elections to Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament, which saw the return of Sir William Fenwicke (who had succeeded to his father’s baronetcy in 1658) and Ralph Delaval on 13 January 1659. C219/47, unfol. Delaval probably owed his election to his interest as one of the county’s leading landowners; although his involvement in attempts to challenge the Hostmen’s monopoly on the River Tyne coal trade may also have recommended him to some of the voters. Infra, ‘Ralph Delaval’. The fall of the protectorate in April 1659 deprived Northumberland of parliamentary representation until Fenwicke and Delaval were returned to the 1660 Convention a year later.