Surrey, a mixed agricultural and commercial county which bordered on London to the north-east, was the fifth most populous English county, according to the 1831 census. Agricultural production in the southern and western areas was apparently ‘by no means of the first order’, but the farmers and market gardeners benefited from their close proximity to the London market. Census returns show that households engaged in trade outnumbered those dependent on agriculture by around three to one.
There had been five contests in Kent between 1790 and 1818, and, although no further elections were pushed to a poll before the passage of the Reform Act, it nevertheless experienced a high degree of political agitation over national issues, partly because of its proximity to the capital. F. O’Gorman, Voters, Patrons, and Parties, 298. Predominantly agricultural in character, the county felt the full weight of the economic depressions of the early and late 1820s, and had a higher level of per capita expenditure on poor relief than its neighbours. D.A.
The largely Protestant county of Londonderry, which had about 200,000 inhabitants and was notable for its linen manufactures, derived its name from the English plantation of the early seventeenth century.S. Lewis, Top. Dict. of Ireland (1837), ii. 291-7. The prefix London had then been added to the existing name in recognition of the dominance of the 12 livery companies who had divided the available lands between them.
Lancashire, whose industries and population continued to grow rapidly, was noted for its textiles, large unfranchised manufacturing towns, commerce and Fylde coast ‘granary’. Administratively it comprised six hundreds: Amoundness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale to the north, and West Derby and Salford to the south, where the great towns of Liverpool and Manchester lay and 74 per cent of the population of 1,335,600 resided in 1821. There were six represented boroughs and 21 market towns, most of which were industrializing rapidly.
Wigtown, the county town, situated on the eastern border, was described in 1831 as ‘a neat clean small town’, whose harbour did ‘not seem to have much trade’. It had a population (burgh and parish) of 2,042 in 1821 and 2,337 in 1831. Its council of 18 consisted of a provost, two bailies and 15 councillors.Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1895), vi. 491; PP (1823), xv. 712; (1830-1), x. 152; (1831-2), xlii.
Peeblesshire was a small county with a population of 10,046 in 1821 and 10,600 in 1831; its principal burgh, Peebles, was about 20 miles south of Edinburgh. It was noted for corn and sheep farming and had some woollen manufacturing in Peebles, Innerleithen and Walkerburn.Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1895), v. 256-91; Hist. Peebles ed. J.W. Buchan, i. 72-126, 217-24, 256-91. The dominant electoral interest in 1820 belonged to the ministerialist sitting Member, Sir James Montgomery of Stobbo Castle, who had sat unchallenged since 1800.
Selkirkshire was a small pastoral county of 390 square miles. Sheep rearing was highly developed and underpinned woollen manufacture in the villages and towns, of which only the royal burgh of Selkirk and Galashiels, both situated near the eastern border with Roxburghshire, were of any size.Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1895), vi. 330-4. The dominant electoral influence belonged to the dukes of Buccleuch, who owned large tracts of the county and had a residence at Bowhill, near Selkirk. The Tory 4th duke died in 1819, leaving a 12-year-old son and successor.
The constituent burghs of this volatile district were widely scattered over four counties. Linlithgow, the most northerly, was 16 miles west of Edinburgh. Once a royal residence (Mary Queen of Scots was born there), it had declined in importance since the Union. Its chief industry was tanning and the preparation of leather. The burgh had a population of 3,112 in 1821 and 3,187 in 1831, and the self-electing council had 27 mostly resident members.Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1895), iv. 515-21; PP (1823), xv. 709; (1830-1), x. 182; (1831-2), xlii. 127; (1836), xxiii.
County Dublin, the small area of mostly coastal plain enclosing the metropolis, had a population of only about 150,000 (excluding the city) in 1821. Apart from Dublin itself, which naturally dominated local affairs, and its suburb of Kilmainham, where county elections were held, the main towns were the disfranchised boroughs of Newcastle and Swords, the ports of Dunleary and Howth, and the fishing villages of Rush and Skerries, near Balbriggan in the north-east.S. Lewis, Top. Dict. of Ireland (1837), i.
Lanarkshire had developed rapidly since the mid-eighteenth century to become the most populous and economically important county in Scotland. The northern part was rich in mineral deposits, and numerous collieries and iron works were concentrated around Airdrie, Coatbridge, Hamilton, Motherwell and Wishaw. Textile manufacturing, though increasingly centred on Glasgow and its immediate vicinity, was also ‘carried on to a considerable extent’ in towns and villages such as Airdrie, Lanark, New Lanark and Strathaven.
