Commons 1820-1832

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.

Amersham, an unincorporated borough, was a thriving market town in the south-east of the county. There was a silk manufactory, chairs were made for export and lace and straw plait making employed mainly women and children. R.W. Davis, Political Change and Continuity, 25; Pigot’s Commercial Dir (1823-4), 147; (1830), 69-70. It remained entirely under the electoral control of the Tory Tyrwhitt Drake family of nearby Shardeloes, who owned most of the property in and around the borough.

West Looe, otherwise known by its older Cornish names of Portighan, Portpigham and Portuan, lay on the west side of the mouth of the River Looe in the south-east of the county. It was linked to East Looe by a narrow stone bridge, and of the two settlements (‘the twins’, in Cornish borough parlance), it was the less significant in terms of population and trade. The only industry was a pilchard fishery and the market had long been discontinued, although inland transport links were improved by the opening of a new road and canal to Liskeard in 1829. Pigot’s Commercial Dir.

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.

The open and venal burgh of Sudbury, where the freemen had been polled at every opportunity since 1747, was situated on the Suffolk bank of the River Stour, which separated it from its suburb of Ballingdon in Essex. Famous for centuries for its woollens and bunting, it benefited in the early nineteenth century from the high labour costs in Spitalfields, whose silk manufacturers took advantage of its pool of skilled labour and good communications with London and the east coast to establish velvet, silk and satin factories in the town.

Described by William Cobbett† as a ‘rotten-hole’ and a ‘mean, vile place’, Wootton Bassett was a predominantly agricultural town with a declining market and virtually no trade. It consisted of one street, on the Cricklade to Chippenham road, made up of plots of a burgage character, which were occasionally advertised for sale as conferring the right of election for the borough, Cricklade and the county. In 1821, when no population figure was ascertained for the borough, the parish in which it lay contained 379 houses and 1,701 residents. Cobbett’s Rural Rides ed. G.D.H. and M.

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.

Westminster, the most prestigious borough constituency in the United Kingdom, was, in the words of its most recent historians, ‘the hegemonic centre of political, professional, consumerist and cultural life’. Harvey, Green and Corfield, ‘Continuity, change and specialization within metropolitan London: the economy of Westminster, 1775-1820’, EcHR (ser. 2), lii (1999), 490. Its northern boundary was Oxford Street and its southern the Thames.

By convention, Members and candidates neither addressed nor canvassed the university, and indeed were forbidden to approach within ten miles of it during elections. Aspirants to what was regarded as a great honour were therefore dependent on the exertions of influential friends and supporters in the constituent 19 colleges and five halls. Once elected, Members could in normal circumstances count on retaining their seats for as long as they wished.