Borough

Poole, a county of itself, was a vibrant seaport on a narrow isthmus of land to the north of a large harbour. Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1830), 288; Oldfield, Rep. Hist. (1816), iii. 352-3; PP (1831), xvi. 91; (1831-2), xxxviii. 143; J. Hutchins, Dorset, i (1861), 1-2. The naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, who grew up there, later recollected the typical scene on ‘the quay, with its shipping and sailors; their songs, and cries of "Heave with a will, yo ho!", the busy merchants bustling to and fro’. E.

Chichester, a cathedral city, port and market town, situated in the south-west of the county near to the English Channel coast, was said in 1831 to be ‘active and prosperous’. Its economy depended almost entirely on the surrounding agricultural district: ‘great quantities of grain’ were shipped out from Dell Quay, one-and-a-half miles away, to London and elsewhere, and the cattle market was ‘very important’. Little manufacturing remained, but the presence of a sizeable genteel population ensured that there was a ‘considerable’ domestic trade. Pigot’s Commercial Dir.

‘I could not come through that villainous hole, Calne, without cursing corruption at every step; and, when I was coming by an ill-looking, broken-winded place, called the town hall, I suppose, I poured out a double dose of execration upon it’. This was how William Cobbett† described his ride through the ‘vile rotten borough’ in 1826.Cobbett’s Rural Rides ed. G.D.H. and M. Cole, ii.

Midhurst, a small market town situated on the River Rother, 12 miles north of Chichester, in an ‘entirely agricultural’ district, consisted of ‘several streets, with many respectable buildings, spread over a considerable space’. Its market was by this period ‘only for corn’, and the other main economic activities were brewing and malting. Ibid. xl. 75; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1823-4), 518; (1832-4), 1042. The borough was largely coextensive with the parish, but excluded the liberty of St. John’s.

Northallerton was an old market town situated in a valley by the River Wiske, ‘amidst lands highly cultivated’, in the North Riding of the county 32 miles north-west of York. Linen manufacturing was carried on ‘to a small extent’, but the town’s ‘main trade’ consisted of the provision of articles of consumption for the surrounding population. Pigot’s National Dir. (1828-9), 1032-3. The boundary was not clearly defined, but it covered only a small part of the parish; it was impossible in practice to distinguish the borough from the town.

In 1832 the boundary commissioners reported that Petersfield had ‘but little trade, and any consequence which it possesses arises entirely from its lying on the high road from London to Portsmouth, and from its returning at present two Members of Parliament’. Ibid. (1831-2), xl. 211-3. This privilege had for many years been monopolized by the family of Hylton Jolliffe of Merstham, Surrey, the borough’s patron since 1802.

Mallow, a market town and watering place on the north bank of the River Blackwater, had a ‘lucrative trade’ in the manufacture of candles, soap, blankets and flannel. A corporation of a provost, 12 free burgesses and commonalty had been established by charter in 1612, but had quickly fallen ‘into disuse’, leaving the seneschal of the manor to govern the town.

The thriving university and market town of Oxford, whose freeman electorate, reflecting a rapidly growing population, increased by about half in this period, was contested at nine of 13 elections between 1790 and 1831. From 1819 to 1831 there were 1,035 new admissions: 348 (34 per cent) by apprenticeship, 522 (50) by birth, and 155 (16) by purchase. In the election years of 1820, 1826 and 1830 there were 171, 127 and 283 admissions respectively; while in 1825, when the office of town clerk was contested, there were 237. In non-election years, the average number of admissions was 24.

Warwick was dominated physically by its Castle overlooking the River Avon and politically and proprietarily by its lord, the anti-Catholic Tory and placeman Henry Richard Greville, 3rd earl of Warwick, borough recorder since 1816 and from 1822 the county lord lieutenant. HP Commons, 1790-1820, iv.

Ironically, since it was to be the scene of his triumph in the famous Clare by-election, Daniel O’Connell* found Ennis, which lay in the parish of Drumcliff, unwelcoming and depressing on his visits as a barrister at the assizes.O’Connell Corresp. i. 152. Reckoned to be one of the most dismal county towns in Ireland, it was reported by the Scot Robert Graham of Redgorton in 1835 to consist mainly ‘of a string of wretched looking cabins on both sides of the entries to the town’.