At the IHR Parliaments, Politics and People seminar on Tuesday 20 October, Frederick Hyde of the University of Southampton, will be discussing ‘China on the Hustings: The Arrow Affair and British Identity during the 1857 Election’. Continue reading China on the Hustings: The Arrow Affair and British Identity during the 1857 General Election
Robert Spankie, who was returned for Finsbury in 1832, had an unusual pre-parliamentary career. Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on our House of Commons 1832-1868 project, explores his route from ground-breaking parliamentary reporter to serving as a controversial advocate-general of Bengal. The son of a Church of Scotland minister, Robert Spankie was born in Falkland in 1774 and at 14 was sent to the … Continue reading Robert Spankie: From parliamentary reporter to Member of Parliament
Following on from our post about James Abercromby‘s highly-charged partisan election as Speaker in 1835, Philip Salmon explores the 1839 and 1841 elections of his successor Charles Shaw Lefevre. These shed new light on the so-called ‘Bedchamber crisis’ involving Queen Victoria, and hint at tell-tale splits within the Conservative party long before the famous repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. Considered by the Liberal … Continue reading The politics of electing the Speaker: The case of Shaw Lefevre (1794-1888)
For the latest post for the Georgian Lords, Alyssa Myers, a final year PhD student at the University of Manchester Metropolitan, examining the role of elite suburban villas as centres of politics in the later part of the eighteenth century. The long eighteenth century saw a surge of villas cropping up around the outskirts of London in areas primarily along the Thames, such as Richmond-upon-Thames … Continue reading Public breakfasts at Chiswick House: the duke and duchess of Devonshire’s suburban villa
Of all the bizarre voting qualifications in operation before 1832 – from potwallopers to burgage holders – one of the most striking was the freedom-by-marriage franchise. Philip Salmon explains how this system worked and even survived briefly after 1832, contrary to what has been widely assumed. The freeman-by-marriage franchise remains one of the most paradoxical elements of the UK’s pre-democratic voting system. Women may not … Continue reading Marrying for the vote: the freedom-by-marriage franchise before 1832
One of the highlights of the 1997 general election was the contest in Tatton. The Conservative Neil Hamilton, then under a cloud of corruption allegations, was challenged by the independent former war correspondent Martin Bell, in his famous white suit. Our oral history project now includes interviews with both candidates, allowing Dr Emma Peplow to tell the story of this election in their own words… … Continue reading ‘We approached each other slowly like medieval knights with lances’: Hamilton versus Bell, Tatton, 1997
Dr Martin Spychal, Senior Research Fellow on our House of Commons 1832-1868 Commons project, discuses the impact of the 1832 reform legislation on English electoral politics. This article draws from Martin’s book, Mapping the State: English boundaries and the 1832 Reform Act (2024) which is available to download free in open access. The 1832 Reform Act (and its associated legislation, the 1832 Boundary Act) reshaped … Continue reading Reappraising England’s reformed electoral map, 1832-1868: the impact of the 1832 Reform Act
Clarifying the workings of England’s historic electoral system, Philip Salmon examines who could vote following the changes made by the ‘Great’ Reform Act of 1832. This article covers the system which was in operation until the next major Reform Act in 1867. Potwallopers, ten-pounders, scot and lot voters, copyholders, burgage holders, freemen, forty-shilling freeholders, tenants-at-will – these are just some of the archaic terms for … Continue reading Who could vote? From potwallopers to ten-pounders: post-1832 franchises explained
In this article Dr Kathryn Rix and Dr Martin Spychal of our House of Commons, 1832-1868 project discuss a pivotal vote in the early nineteenth-century Commons – the selection of the Speaker in February 1835. They explore popular reaction to the vote, its short and long-term significance and the difficulties of compiling an accurate division list before the publication of an official record of parliamentary … Continue reading The Speakership election of 1835
Have you just heard that an MP has resigned by ‘taking the Chiltern Hundreds’? Our Senior Research Fellow, Dr Martin Spychal, explains the practice and explores its historical context… MPs are not allowed to resign from Parliament. However, a parliamentary loophole exists that allows an MP to vacate their seat by asking the chancellor of the exchequer to disqualify them from sitting in the Commons. … Continue reading How does an MP resign? The Chiltern Hundreds & the Manor of Northstead
