Leicestershire

<p>The course of Leicester politics in the second half of the eighteenth century was largely determined by the conflict between the corporation and the independent party, and between the Anglicans and the Dissenters. These did not always coincide, but two parties tended to develop—one calling themselves Whigs, and the others called by their opponents Tories.

<p>Leicester, the only parliamentary borough in Leicestershire, had returned Members since 1301.<fn> <em>OR</em>.</fn> The population at the beginning of the seventeenth century was about 3,500. In the late 1620s the corporation described the borough as &#8216;consisting principally of manual trades &#8230; very populous &#8230; [with] many poor and standeth far from the sea or any navigable river is maintained chiefly by the fairs and market&#8217;.

<p>Leicester, the county town, was a centre of cotton and worsted stocking manufacture: in 1831 it contained about 7,000 knitting frames giving employment to some 1,200 persons, but the trade was in general decline in this period, which was marked by severe spells of distress among the framework knitters.<fn><em>Pigot’s Commercial Dir</em>. (1822-3), 212-13; <em>VCH Leics</em>. iv.