As pollsters look for constituencies across the country to act as representatives of how the wider nation may vote in the upcoming election, in the 18th century you might have looked to the capital city. Here Dr Robin Eagles explores how the City of London voted in two key elections either side of George I’s accession to the throne, as part of our Georgian Elections project…
In the 18th century, as now, London was looked to as an important battleground in any election. What might now be thought of as the key areas of present-day metropolitan London were represented by the county of Middlesex, the borough of Westminster and the City of London itself, and the wealth and power of the last of these meant that it commanded four seats in Parliament, rather than the normal two. The electorate was also relatively large – between 7,000 and 8,000 people – though that was a small proportion of the city’s overall population of around 120,000. To qualify to vote, people needed to be a member of one of the city’s ancient livery companies, many of which derived from the old mediaeval trade guilds.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
In 1713, there were 60 such livery companies, headed by ‘the great twelve’ – the oldest and most wealthy of them – but also including more modest companies, like the Fletchers. Originally a trade guild for those involved in the craft of arrow making, by the 18th century it was a small company and not particularly wealthy. However, even a compact livery company like the Fletchers was able to offer some insights into the political divisions apparent in the country in the years leading up to and on from George I’s accession as king.
The 1713 general election in London, the last that was to take place under Queen Anne, was particularly lively. There were riots and efforts to upset the course of the election by candidates and those close to them. William Newland, son of one candidate, George Newland (a member of the Joiners’ Company), was said to have encouraged a ‘rascally mob’ to descend on the Guildhall, where they were opposed by ‘a great mob of weavers’. The Tory Lord Mayor himself, Sir Richard Hoare, was even said to have ended up scrapping with one of the other candidates, Robert Heysham, a former Tory but who was now standing as a Whig. The result of the election appeared to hang in the balance for a while, though in the end the four Tories all prevailed. It was a close-run thing, though, with just 33 votes dividing Sir William Withers and the highest place Whig candidate, John Ward.
Examination of individual livery companies offers a valuable perspective on the contest. It might be expected that fellow liverymen might all vote the same way, but that was not necessarily the case. In the poll books for 1713, just 14 Fletchers appear to feature. Of these, nine voted for the successful four Tories: Hoare, Withers, Cass and Newland; another voted for the Whigs Ward, Scawen, Heysham and Godfrey. One member of the company, James Wakefield, showed some independence of spirit, though, and bucked the trend by voting for the former Member, John Ward, a Whig, along with the Tories Hoare, Cass and Newland. Wakefield’s vote reflected more widespread uncertainty about Ward’s own position: a Whig who seems on occasion to have supported Tory measures and himself voted for three of the Tory candidates.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
At the following election in January 1715, fortunes were reversed. Now, the Whig candidates Heysham, Ward, Godfrey and Scawen were all returned, each of them substantially ahead of their rivals, two of them former MPs who had been successful just two years earlier. Marking the scale of their victory, whereas before there had just been a handful of votes in it, now 555 votes divided the lowest placed Whig, Sir Thomas Scawen, from the highest placed Tory, Sir John Cass, whose personal vote had declined substantially by 918 votes.
As for the 14 Fletchers, it is difficult to know how they voted in the new election as no poll book appears to survive from January 1715. By 1722, when the next general election was held, though, five seem still to have been alive and voting. Of them, two voted for the same raft of candidates, the two Whigs Heysham and Barnard and one Tory, Godfrey, while another voted solidly for Tories: Parsons, Child and Lockwood. James Wakefield trod his own path once again, and voted evenhandedly for two Tories (Child and Lockwood) and two Whigs (Heysham and Barnard).
Members of the Worshipful Company of Fletchers and the candidates they voted for, as they appear in the 1713 Poll book:
- Brown Philip: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Colebran [Colebrand], Thomas: Ward, Scawen, Heysham, Godfrey
- Eddowes, John: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Fish, Thomas: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Graves, William: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Harding, Thomas: Ward, Scawen, Heysham, Godfrey
- Mason, Nathaniel: Ward, Scawen, Heysham, Godfrey
- Milla, Samuel: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Nedwick, Joseph: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Paine, Thomas: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Potts, Percivall: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Wakefield, James: Ward, Hoare, Cass, Newland
- Ward, Downes: Hoare, Withers, Cass, Newland
- Wilson, John: Ward, Scawen, Heysham, Godfrey
Source: London Politics 1713-1717, ed. Henry Horwitz (London Record Society, XVII)
RDEE
Further reading: https://ecppec.ncl.ac.uk/
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