Hampshire county elections and electioneering, 1734-1830

Abstract

After an introduction dealing with the previous history of Hampshire, and the sources of political power, each campaign between 1734 and I830 is described in detail. Emphasis is placed mainly on the four contests between 1779 and I807. This frequency of contest makes it possible to discuss the growing concern with national politics and public opinion in the last thirty years of the eighteenth century, and the corresponding loss of Interest in local issues. During these years intense party rivalry between groups of county gentlemen flourished, giving rise to the opening of political clubs which were the main organisers of political election campaigns. Apart from the progress of contests, the gradual shift in power in the county away from the aristocracy is also traced, so that by 1807 the gentlemen were the agents of most political activity. A final section discusses the scope of the election agent, his background, and the duties he might perform. The three classes of county voter - gentlemen, clergy and freeholders - are analysed to ascertain the size of each class and the

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record

ASCII CitationAtomBibTeXData Cite XMLDublin CoreDublin CoreEP3 XMLEndNoteHTML CitationHTML CitationHTML ListJSONMETSMODSMPEG-21 DIDLOpenURL ContextObjectOpenURL ContextObject in SpanRDF+N-TriplesRDF+N3RDF+XMLRIOXX2 XMLReferReference ManagerSimple Metadata