An introduction to what happened at a typical eighteenth-century English election [15-minute read] Elections were a key component of a continual cycle of renewing and maintaining relationships between politicians and their constituents in the eighteenth century. The years between elections provided opportunities for politicians and political families to generate goodwill with their local communities through […]
Slavery and abolition could be contentious platform issues in 18th-century England [15-minute read] Understandings of Slavery In eighteenth-century political discourse, ‘slavery’ was a potent but often imprecise term, used across the century to describe many kinds of personal, political or religious oppression rather than specifically the ownership of people as property, as we now generally […]
Rotten boroughs became synonymous with the England’s unreformed electoral system [15-minute read] In use as a term from the middle of the eighteenth century, ‘rotten boroughs’ describes constituencies in which very few voters resided, yet two MPs were still returned to the House of Commons at each election. Generally, these were tiny villages. In some […]
This famous election was a tense showdown between Government and Opposition [20-minute interactive] […]
The 1807 Yorkshire election was the most expensive prior to the 1832 Reform Act [25-minute read] Context The colossal county of Yorkshire constituted the largest constituency in England by some distance, divided into East, West, and North ridings. The West Riding alone had a population of almost a million people by 1831 (71 per cent […]
Although technically illegal, bribery was rife in eighteenth-century elections. [15-minute read] Technically, the Corrupt Practices Act of 1695 and the Bribery Act of 1729 made bribery illegal, but it remained endemic to the electoral process. Votes could often be bought, and, with no secret ballot, a candidate or his agents could check that individuals had […]
Disorder was endemic in 18th-century elections, among voters and non-voters alike [15-minute read] Georgian elections were often noisy, contentious, and sometimes even violent civic occasions. Voters and non-voters alike were active, engaged participants, sometimes using whatever they could get their hands on to express their pleasure or displeasure. Liberal treats of alcohol made violence and […]
Find out how dancing was used to mobilize voters and their families. [5-minute read] In eighteenth-century elections, candidates were not just assessed on their speeches and campaign promises, they were also measured by the way they carried themselves, whether on the hustings or in the ballroom. While dancing may seem like an activity designed solely […]
One of the most curious and ludic phenomena of 18th-century popular politics [5-minute read] June 1768. Fifes, French horns, drums, and marrow bones can be heard in the streets of Wandsworth, now in south-west London but then still largely rural. A crowd has gathered, lining the high street in the tiny village of Garratt. Men […]
Following an election, collections of printed ephemera were sometimes published [20-minute read] These compendia might contain handbills, songs, visual prints, advertisements and addresses that had been published as part of the campaign. Such volumes have come to be known as ‘squib books’. A ‘squib’ is a short piece of satirical writing, generally taking the form […]
