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Authors: Hallie Rubenhold
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the locality’s seats. In principle, Sir Richard represented the borough of Newport only, but in practice his relations, James Worsley who held Yarmouth and Edward Meux Worsley the member for Newtown, cast their votes in Parliament according to the baronet’s direction. Sir Richard’s seat was controlled by a fixed number of approved electors known as ‘a corporation’, which Worsley could easily manipulate using bribes and coercion. The other two boroughs were comprised of ‘burgage tenements’, parcels of land to which voting rights were attached. As a burgage entitled its holder to a voice in elections, the often derelict plots to which these privileges were connected were jealously guarded as heirlooms and passed down through the generations. Alternatively they could be sold to the highest bidder. However, more often than not they featured in a pre-election bartering process, where deeds of ownership were unscrupulously distributed among a candidate’s supporters who, claiming to be tenants, would then cast their votes accordingly. The conveyances would be remitted to the rightful owner at the election’s conclusion in return for a pecuniary reward or compensation of some sort.
These tricks, along with an assortment of other more shamelessly overt tactics were deployed in an unsavoury scramble to grasp the majority of votes. During the 1779 Hampshire by-election, both sides shipped in boisterous crowds of rabble-rousers to intimidate voters and swell the appearance of their candidate’s support. On one occasion, ‘near two hundred common fellows in carter’s frocks, postillion’s jackets, and labourer’s dresses’ were brought to a hustings, having been ‘hired for the purpose of huzzaing and hissing’. Additionally, in a deliberate attempt to confuse voters, the traditional polling venue at Winchester was moved without prior notice to Alresford, eight miles away. Later, Sir Richard’s opponent complained of unfair practices when ‘his champions’ were unable to cast their votes. The officials (whom Worsley had bribed) ‘had wilfully neglected to provide poll books’. The circulation of handbills stained with vicious accusations, the publication of jeering campaign songs and the intentional misrepresentation
of election figures formed only a part of this vastly entertaining but grossly ignoble circus.
Amid the cajoling and the bamboozling, elections also offered an opportunity for celebration and public display. Such events, like executions, festivals and marketing days, gave the general population of enfranchised and disenfranchised alike an opportunity to don their finest apparel and enjoy the spectacle. During hustings speeches and polling days small county towns were rattled awake by the arrival of coaches and cart-loads of strangers. Bands of musicians belted out rousing anthems, while parades of candidates and their followers marched on foot or cantered on horseback to polling stations. Brigades of loyal voters carried slogan-bearing banners and adorned themselves with sashes in the Whig colours of ‘buff and blue’ or Tory red. The friends of Sir Richard Worsley’s cause, both male and female were recognisable among the crowd for their ‘red plumes and gold pendants’ as well as their flags emblazoned with ‘Worsley For Ever’.
While elections legally did not involve women, this did not exclude them from involvement in the campaigning or prevent them from rallying to the side of male relations with unabashed shows of support. Some, like Lady Melbourne, paraded with their husbands while other respectable ladies, eager to demonstrate their enthusiasm but wanting to maintain a distance from the unwashed horde, watched from in their garland-decorated carriages. Others, like Ladies Derby, Beauchamp and Carlisle in 1784, chose to overlook the activities of the hustings from conspicuously placed windows. Most of theses wives, mothers, sisters and daughters were willing to play the role of
These tricks, along with an assortment of other more shamelessly overt tactics were deployed in an unsavoury scramble to grasp the majority of votes. During the 1779 Hampshire by-election, both sides shipped in boisterous crowds of rabble-rousers to intimidate voters and swell the appearance of their candidate’s support. On one occasion, ‘near two hundred common fellows in carter’s frocks, postillion’s jackets, and labourer’s dresses’ were brought to a hustings, having been ‘hired for the purpose of huzzaing and hissing’. Additionally, in a deliberate attempt to confuse voters, the traditional polling venue at Winchester was moved without prior notice to Alresford, eight miles away. Later, Sir Richard’s opponent complained of unfair practices when ‘his champions’ were unable to cast their votes. The officials (whom Worsley had bribed) ‘had wilfully neglected to provide poll books’. The circulation of handbills stained with vicious accusations, the publication of jeering campaign songs and the intentional misrepresentation
of election figures formed only a part of this vastly entertaining but grossly ignoble circus.
Amid the cajoling and the bamboozling, elections also offered an opportunity for celebration and public display. Such events, like executions, festivals and marketing days, gave the general population of enfranchised and disenfranchised alike an opportunity to don their finest apparel and enjoy the spectacle. During hustings speeches and polling days small county towns were rattled awake by the arrival of coaches and cart-loads of strangers. Bands of musicians belted out rousing anthems, while parades of candidates and their followers marched on foot or cantered on horseback to polling stations. Brigades of loyal voters carried slogan-bearing banners and adorned themselves with sashes in the Whig colours of ‘buff and blue’ or Tory red. The friends of Sir Richard Worsley’s cause, both male and female were recognisable among the crowd for their ‘red plumes and gold pendants’ as well as their flags emblazoned with ‘Worsley For Ever’.
While elections legally did not involve women, this did not exclude them from involvement in the campaigning or prevent them from rallying to the side of male relations with unabashed shows of support. Some, like Lady Melbourne, paraded with their husbands while other respectable ladies, eager to demonstrate their enthusiasm but wanting to maintain a distance from the unwashed horde, watched from in their garland-decorated carriages. Others, like Ladies Derby, Beauchamp and Carlisle in 1784, chose to overlook the activities of the hustings from conspicuously placed windows. Most of theses wives, mothers, sisters and daughters were willing to play the role of
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