Co. Down

Down, which was sometimes referred to as the ‘Yorkshire of Ireland’, had a population of over 350,000 in 1831 and was one of the wealthiest Irish counties. In addition to the disfranchised boroughs of Bangor, Hillsborough, Killyleagh and Newtownards, it contained several prosperous market towns and ports, including Newry and Downpatrick, where the county elections were held.S. Lewis, Top. Dict. of Ireland (1837), i. 486-91. Many of the freeholders, whose numbers seem to have peaked at about 15,000 in the mid-1810s, were well-to-do gentlemen and tenant farmers, which provided for a relatively independent electorate. Not only did there develop a refined system for controlling the registration of voters, but it was also considered essential that an election campaign be conducted in person. P. Jupp, ‘Co. Down Elections’, Irish Hist. Stud. xviii (1972), 178-80, 190, 192, 197-8. The Rev. Mark Cassidy, rector of Newtownards, observed in February 1825 that to

canvass the county Down is an almost Herculean task and requires both much labour and much policy; there are so many independent squires and squireens, all of whom, as well as their wives and daughters, require the nicest management. PRO NI, Cassidy mss D1088/45; P. Jupp, British and Irish Elections 1784-1831, pp. 155, 170.

About a quarter of the inhabitants were Catholic (another quarter were Church of Ireland and the rest were Presbyterian), but the county, whose Members usually supported emancipation, appears to have escaped much of the sectarian strife that affected its Ulster neighbours.

Although there were several prominent local families, the representation was actually in the hands of the two dominant landed interests, who, after a period of electoral competition, from 1812 effectively agreed to take one seat each. Hist. Irish Parl. ii. 218-21; HP Commons, 1790-1820, ii. 642-4. The larger of these, with the support of about a quarter of the electorate, belonged to the Hills, marquesses of Downshire of Hillsborough Castle (and Easthampstead Park, Berkshire). In the decade after the Union the family influence was directed by the dowager marchioness, who had wild electioneering ambitions, and their properties were said to have been split into 30,000 freeholds in what Thomas Oldfield called ‘the best specimen of political agronomy to be found in Ireland’. Oldfield, Rep. Hist. (1816), vi. 228; Peep at the Commons (1820), 20, 21. However, her eldest son, the 3rd marquess, came of age in 1809 and curtailed his outgoings in order to reduce the family’s extensive debts. Thereafter, although he purchased an estate at Banbridge from Chichester Fortescue for £60,900 in 1826, he spent the minimum necessary to maintain his position and engaged only cautiously in electoral battles elsewhere, for instance at Carrickfergus. W.A. Maguire, Downshire Estates in Ireland, 1, 6-8, 15, 16, 22, 23, 80, 81, 121; Letters of Great Irish Landlord ed. W.A. Maguire, 9, 14, 15, 24. He was, however, assisted by his relative, the 2nd Viscount Dungannon, and many of the leading members of the gentry. When the Downshire Member, Colonel John Meade, uncle of the 3rd earl of Clanwilliam of Gill Hall, vacated in January 1817, he was replaced by Downshire’s brother Lord Arthur Hill, a Waterloo veteran and mostly silent Whig. The other major interest was that of Lord Londonderry, the head of the Stewart family of Mount Stewart, who was a representative peer and received a marquessate in 1816. He, who also had an important influence in county Londonderry, was governor and custos rotulorum of Down and was thought to control about an eighth of the total electorate. In this he was backed by most of the resident and non-resident nobility, including the 2nd earl of Annesley of Castlewellan, whose son Viscount Glerawly was Member for Downpatrick until 1820, and the 21st Baron (de) Clifford of Kings Weston, Gloucestershire, whose interest lay behind the return of the Tory John Waring Maxwell of Finnebrogue for Downpatrick that year. Another significant ally was the 12th Viscount (later 1st earl of) Kilmorey of Mourne Park, whose son Francis Jack Needham (Viscount Newry) succeeded him as Member for Newry in 1819. The other governors of the county were also Tories, namely Robert Ward† of Bangor, colonel of the South Down militia, whose nephew succeeded his lunatic uncle as the 3rd Viscount Bangor of Castle Ward in 1827, and the 2nd Baron Dufferin of Ballyleidy House, colonel of the North Down militia. In 1812, in place of Ward, Londonderry brought back in his elder son Lord Castlereagh, another of the governors, who was foreign secretary in the Liverpool administration. Add. 40298, ff. 12, 13.

Despite having to deal with the aftermath of the Cato Street conspiracy, Castlereagh was able to attend the county meeting which addressed the new king, 13 Mar. 1820, and the election eight days later. As at the general election of 1818, he, proposed by Andrew Nugent of Portaferry and Sir Robert Bateson* of Belvoir Park, and Hill, nominated by Thomas Dowglass of Gracehall and the Rev. Holt Waring of Waringstown, dean of Dromore, were returned unopposed. Belfast News Letter, 7, 21, 24, 28 Mar., 11 Apr. 1820; PRO NI, Castlereagh mss D3030/P/170. Castlereagh commented that ‘I never saw so much cordiality amongst all ranks, even to the lowest of the mob’; but David Guardi Ker* of Portavo observed that he was ‘mortified to see Castlereagh and the county so imposed on’ by the group associated with Colonel Mathew Forde of Seaforde, who (unless it had been his father) had nearly started for Down in 1811, and condemned

the juggle that has been played by him and his party at the two last county election dinners, in which, by manufacturing the order of the feasts, toasts and speeches, they have flattered each other into a most artificial idea of their own consequence. W. Hinde, Castlereagh, 257; PRO NI, Ker mss D2651/3/33, 34.

A few local loyal addresses to the king were forthcoming early the following year. Belfast News Letter, 20 Feb. 1821; PRO NI, Young mss D2930/8/12.

The death of his father in April 1821 meant that Castlereagh, as the 2nd marquess of Londonderry, was ineligible to sit for an Irish constituency. He was therefore found a berth in England, and in his parting address he promised to continue to forward the interests of his native county. Belfast News Letter, 13, 27 Apr. 1821. Forde, who had contacted the new head of the Stewart interest earlier that year and was urged on by those who favoured an ‘unbiased, independent representative for Down’, requested and received his support. Castlereagh mss N/123-9; Young mss 8/14. As Londonderry, who had sounded the opinions of his friends and had received an assurance of neutrality from the Hills, explained to his half-brother, Baron Stewart of Wynyard, county Durham, ambassador in Vienna:

My object has been to secure the family interest for your son [Frederick Stewart], without involving the family at present either in the expense of a struggle, or in the risk of alienating any of the leading interests, by preferring a particular person to serve our present purpose ... As I have played the game, if the Parliament lives its natural time, your son will be eligible in the summer of 1826, and come in not only without opposition but with the unanimous good will of all the great families ... and I have since had reason through [his relation Nicholas] Price [of Saintfield] to know, that Forde himself is disposed to understand the footing upon which his return might now be acquiesced in. Castlereagh mss Q2/2, pp. 253, 256.

With the general expectation that he would make way for Frederick at a later date, Forde, introduced by Edward Southwell Ward (later 3rd Viscount Bangor) and Roger Hall of Narrow Water, was returned unopposed in May. Belfast News Letter, 11 May 1821. In August 1821 Downshire promoted a county meeting to address George IV on his visit to Ireland and an illumination was held in Londonderry’s honour. Ibid. 3, 7, 28, 31 Aug. 1821. On the foreign secretary’s suicide a year later the marquessate passed to Lord Stewart, who, despite his grievances over patronage in county Londonderry, had already succeeded his father to the offices of governor and custos rotulorum of Down. Castlereagh mss Q2/2, pp. 260, 261; Add. 37301, f. 232; 40328, ff. 193, 202; 40352, f. 164. An anti-Catholic petition from the inhabitants was presented to the Commons (by Forde), 17 Apr. 1823, but one from the Catholics for concession of their claims was brought up, 14 June 1824, and favourable petitions were presented to the Lords from the Catholics (by Downshire), 9 June 1824, and the Presbyterians (by Lord Holland), 13 May 1825. CJ, lxxviii. 219; lxxix. 489; LJ, lvi. 360, 361; lvii. 799; The Times, 18 Apr. 1823, 10 June 1824, 14 May 1825.

In the spring of 1824, when the 3rd marquess of Londonderry sought to extract a promise from Forde that he would vacate on Lord Castlereagh (as his son Frederick was now styled) reaching his majority, Nugent and Price reported that he was unlikely to stand down in the event of an early dissolution. Forde, who would have been willing to extricate himself from an embarrassing position but was emboldened by the stout backing of the independent interest, eventually agreed not to oppose Castlereagh if he were of age, and this partial concession was eagerly seized on by Londonderry. Castlereagh mss N/130, 133; PRO NI, Nugent mss D552/A/6/6/10-18. An analysis of the registration made at about this time was highly favourable (showing, the reverse of the usual picture, that Londonderry had 3,743 votes and Downshire 1,889, out of that year’s much enlarged total of about 13,500 electors), leading John Turnley of Rockport to comment that ‘if Lord D[ownshire] (whose support I can hardly doubt) and the important interests stand by you, the small interests would make but a poor appearance at the hustings’. Castlereagh mss M/33, 39-42; N/131, 146; PRO NI, Downshire mss D671/C/12/311; PP (1825), xxii. 95. By the autumn, however, he was advising Londonderry that attempting to replace Forde with a more dependable locum, possibly Edward Ward, would alienate the gentry and consolidate the strength of the more advanced independents. He therefore judged that it would be difficult to turn out the popular Member, adding that there was a spirit of independence among

those who seem to think that the county is considered in your lordship’s family rather as a ‘hereditary appendage’, and (I hear) there are others, the high flying ones I suppose, who hold out, that continental politics have got too firm hold on your lordship’s mind.

In the end the prevailing opinion was apparently that of Castlereagh, who began to show himself and hoped that ‘by perfect quiet now and decided firmness when the time for action arrives, much may be done’. Castlereagh mss N/146-55.

Nothing came in January 1825 of Dufferin’s suggestion for a county meeting to oppose Catholic relief. PRO NI, Dufferin mss D1071/B/C/14/1/157. One sponsored by the 3rd earl of Annesley was, however, held on 27 Apr. in Downpatrick to petition against alteration of the corn laws, but the local radicals, led by the diarist Aynsworth Pilson, successfully moved a hostile amendment and the meeting had to be adjourned. Belfast News Letter, 19, 29 Apr. 1825; PRO NI, Perceval-Maxwell mss D3244/E/7/9. In February Cassidy argued that only a junction between Londonderry and Downshire would prevent the future success of Forde, a constant resident, as

he is every day becoming more and more a personal favourite with almost every gentleman in the county, and in particular with the old and steady friends of the house of Stewart ... and to this may be added the anti-Catholic party which, though not very strong in this county, are yet not to be despised, together with the minor interests or squireens, every man of whom would I think support him where their private interest did not interfere to prevent them. Cassidy mss 45.

No dissolution in the end occurred that year, but Forde said at a race meeting that if the county stood by him, he would stand by it, and this was interpreted as a declaration that he would contest the next election. Nugent mss A/6/6/19. In December 1825, when he was given a dinner by his Newtownards tenantry, Londonderry informed Downshire that he would attempt to prevent such an expensive eventuality. Belfast News Letter, 30 Dec. 1825; Downshire mss C/12/315, 316. Both Members attended the meeting in Belfast which established the North-East Agricultural Society for Down and its vicinity, 4 Apr. 1826. Belfast Commercial Chron. 5 Apr. 1826.

As had been feared, ‘a strong sensation’ was manifested against the union of the two principal interests, who were thought certain to exclude Forde at the general election of 1826. He initially offered again, despite being unable to canvass because of illness in his family, but withdraw by an address, 14 June, in which he complained of the coalition against him and warned that the peace of the county would be disturbed on a future occasion. Nugent mss A/6/6/20; Perceval-Maxwell mss G/1/36; The Times, 31 May; Newry Commercial Telegraph, 6, 9, 13, 16, 20, 23 June 1826. Londonderry, who had advanced the joint cause by asking his supporters to give their second votes to Hill, was delighted, like Downshire, at Forde’s decision. However, since he had already arranged to have the sheriff agree to delay the poll to the latest date allowed, he was alarmed by the tactics of his still under age son, arguing that

if there was no opposition at the hustings, there would be no petition, and if there was no third candidate in opposition, the House of Commons could only have sent Frederick to a new election, a risk in my mind, that might have been as well incurred as the inconvenience of all this delay. Durham CRO, Londonderry mss D/LO/C/117, 118; PRO NI, Londonderry mss T1536/3A-D, Q; D654/B4/2, Londonderry to Downshire, 15 June 1826.

He only reluctantly, and with some anger, acquiesced in Castlereagh’s plan, which was to introduce his kinsman John Vandeleur Stewart of Rock Hill, county Donegal, brother of the county Londonderry Member Alexander Stewart, not (as was originally intended) as a locum, but as a bogus contender. This was in order to protract the election, which the sheriff obligingly postponed until the latest possible date, until after his 21st birthday. Londonderry felt that his son’s plan would inconvenience the Hills, whom he told Castlereagh to cultivate assiduously, and feared that another independent candidate might take his chance to start and thereby gain the seat after a disputed return. PRO NI, Londonderry mss T1536/3P; D654/B4/2, Londonderry to Castlereagh, 1, 6, 15, 20, 26, 29 June 1826; Castlereagh mss N/157, 158, 164, 172, 174, 177, 180, 182, 184, 185; PRO NI, Stewart-Bam mss D4137/B/2/30. On the hustings, 26 June, Hill, proposed by Edward Southwell Ruthven* of Oakley and Nicholas Delacherois Crommelin of Carrowdore Castle, and Castlereagh, nominated by Price and Colonel John Ward (Robert Ward’s son), both spoke, but John Stewart, introduced by David Gordon of Florida, remained silent because of the ‘hesitation in his speech’. The contest, which inspired no public excitement, continued until 8 July, when it terminated with Hill and Castlereagh neck and neck, some 650 votes ahead of Stewart. Castlereagh mss N/157; Belfast Commercial Chron. 28 June, 1, 12 July 1826. Amid mutual congratulations, Downshire thanked Londonderry for Castlereagh’s ‘fraternal exertions’ on Hill’s behalf and Londonderry insisted that his son’s extended election should not put his colleague to any additional expense. Downshire mss C/2/182, 237/1; PRO NI, Londonderry mss T1536/3E, F; D654/B4/2, Londonderry to Castlereagh, 18, 22 July 1826.

A county meeting held, in the presence of Dufferin and Forde, at Saintfield on 1 Feb. 1827 agreed an address of condolence to the king on the death of the duke of York. The bishop of Down, who was also present, had his clergy’s anti-Catholic petition brought up in the Lords, 27 Feb., and the Commons by Goulburn, the Irish secretary, 2 Mar. A favourable petition from Bangor was presented by Brownlow, Member for county Armagh, 2 Mar., but Waring Maxwell and Dufferin argued that the prevailing opinion there was hostile on bringing up the town’s anti-Catholic petitions, with over 1,300 signatures, in the Commons, 5 Mar., and the Lords, 19 Mar. 1827. Belfast News Letter, 2, 6 Feb., 10, 13 Apr.; The Times, 3, 6 Mar. 1827; LJ, lix. 110, 171; CJ, lxxxii. 260-1, 265, 273; Perceval-Maxwell mss G/1/40, 41, 48, 49, 51. After the Protestants had agreed to re-establish the Orange Order at a meeting held in Downpatrick under the chairmanship of Crommelin, the local grandmaster, 28 Sept. 1828, several Brunswick Clubs were established in the county, notably at Bangor (under the presidency of James Cleland of Rathgael House), Rathfryland (Waring) and Warrenpoint (Hall). Newry Commercial Telegraph, 3, 21 Oct., 28 Nov.; Belfast Guardian, 14 Oct. 1828; Perceval-Maxwell mss G/1/58. However, both Downshire and Londonderry seem to have been partially successful in their attempts to restrain the growth of anti-Catholicism and, like the Members, they supported the Wellington ministry’s concession of emancipation early the following year. PRO NI, Anglesey mss D619/32A/2/148; Downshire mss C/12/353. The Catholics of the county met in Newry, 18 Feb. 1829, and the ensuing petition was presented to both Houses, by Hill and Downshire, 12 Mar. Some Protestants, such as Alexander Miller of Downpatrick, pressed for further anti-Catholic petitions, and one from the inhabitants was brought up in the Commons, 23 Mar., and the Lords, 30 Mar. 1829. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 20 Feb. 1829; CJ, lxxxiv. 128, 160; LJ, lxi. 181, 312; Perceval-Maxwell mss G/1/59.

On 1 Jan. 1829, according to the official parliamentary return, there were 11,664 registered electors, of whom 10,775 were 40s. freeholders. This figure fell dramatically after the passage of the Irish Franchise Act, but over 1,100 new voters had qualified by the end of June (and this rose to 1,990 six months later). PP (1830), xxix. 465; Belfast News Letter, 30 June 1829. Downshire’s agent reckoned that the family interest would number up to about 300 votes and he applied himself to having them registered, although doubts about the completeness of this process were expressed over the following twelve months. Downshire mss C/1/593, 597A; 2/381, 390; 5/368; 75/89. On Castlereagh’s appointment to the admiralty board in June, Londonderry was annoyed at the expense of a by-election and Downshire, who continued to support him as a token of his esteem for government, warned that the election ‘will be the first under the new order of things and will require much care and attention’. Ibid. C/2/391; 12/393, 400; Wellington mss WP1/1025/20; Ellenborough Diary, ii. 55. In fact, nothing came of the intended candidacy of Meade, whose family had done well out of the registration, and Castlereagh was returned unopposed in July 1829. PRO NI, Clanwilliam Meade mss D3044/F/18/123; PRO NI, Meade mss MIC259/2, Brush to Meade, 27 June, 13 July; Belfast News Letter, 3, 17 July 1829.

In August, when an attempt was made to use the county races for political purposes, Downshire’s agent reported:

I did hear some whisper of the establishment of clubs, but did not learn for what object, nor do I think they have yet made any great progress. At the same time the strong Presbyterian and Protestant party, or the Independents as they call themselves, joined and led forward by [William] Montgomery [of Rosemount], Ruthven and [Edward] Wolstenholme [of Thelyness House] (or the liberals as they call themselves) to invite General Meade and Colonel Forde to head them, will form no inconsiderable array, looking at the materials the elective franchise of this county is now composed of. Downshire mss C/2/396/1; 12/403-4; Letters of Great Irish Landlord, 148.

The following two months saw the establishment of the Down Independent Club, apparently organized, among others, including Forde, by the attorney Hugh Wallace of Downpatrick, where the radical potwallopers were active. Downshire mss C/75/89; Meade mss 2, Brush to Meade, 7 Nov. 1829; Narrative of Down Election (1830), 11, 12. Londonderry, although he noted that ‘every institution which gives small gentry a notion of their own consequence and importance will be eagerly embraced’, was inclined to be dismissive of its challenge to his combined interest with Downshire, for whom a dinner was held by his Kilwarlin tenantry in January 1830, but remarked in February that another by-election would be inconvenient. Downshire mss C/12/418; Newry Commercial Telegraph, 29 Jan.; Grey mss, Durham to Grey [15 Feb.] 1830. Forde used the county meeting on 19 May, when he, Bateson (soon to become Member for county Londonderry) and others condemned the increased Irish stamp and spirit duties, to raise his profile still further. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 14, 21, 25 May 1830; Wellington mss WP1/1116/7; 1118/9; Narrative of Down Election, 17. The ensuing petition was presented to the Lords by Downshire, 10 June, and to the Commons by Hill, 14 June 1830. LJ, lxii. 698; CJ, lxxxv. 547.

Although it had to be stressed on Hill’s behalf that he had opposed the raised taxes, that issue was really aimed at Castlereagh, whose ministerial position (as well as his father’s non-residence in the county) made him vulnerable. Yet he, who had insisted that he would oppose government when he thought it necessary, had in fact privately offered to resign and so could face the electors with a clear conscience. At the general election that summer, Forde immediately offered in fulfilment of his former promise, in order to release the county from the control of its aristocratic coalition. He looked certain to win, receiving the enthusiastic backing of the Independent Club; the interests of Annesley, Bangor and de Clifford; the assistance of some of the leading gentry, including William Sharman Crawford† of Crawfordsburn, kinsman of the former Old Sarum Member Arthur Crawford*, and Ruthven, who now regained his seat for Downpatrick; and the support of the radicals, notably in nearby Belfast. PRO NI, Pilson diary D353/1, 10 May; Durham CRO, Londonderry mss D/LO/C/83/29; Newry Commercial Telegraph, 25 June, 2, 6, 16, 23, 27 July 1830; PRO NI, Sharman Crawford mss D856/D/11; Castlereagh mss N/216, 238, 239; Narrative of Down Election, 10-18; Jupp, ‘Co. Down Elections’, 202. As Castlereagh, with almost all the principal interests behind him, As listed by ‘A Down Elector’, whose numerous addresses can be found in Narrative of Down Election, 21-43, 49-56, 66-68, 72-74. was considered secure, the contest was between Forde, who was desperate for plumpers, and Hill, whose canvassing was bolstered by several meetings of Downshire’s tenants. Meade mss 5, Forde to Meade, 8, 26 June; Belfast News Letter, 9, 23 July; Newry Commercial Telegraph, 3, 6, 10 Aug. 1830; PRO NI, Leslie mss MIC606/3/J/7/17/20, 21; Castlereagh mss N/202, 204, 207, 217, 227, 250, 252, 265; Add. 40338, f. 223; Maguire, Downshire Estates in Ireland, 205. Londonderry, who despite his quarrels with Wellington continued to receive much needed government support, maintained his by now notorious and extremely unpopular alliance with Downshire, even though this was reckoned likely to cause the defeat of one of the sitting Members. Wellington mss WP1/1126/24; 1130/47; 1131/15, 32; Castlereagh mss N/208, 211, 212, 220, 228, 240; Downshire mss C/2/429, 439/1. He also used emotional blackmail against Nugent, who retracted his promise to vote for Forde, after Londonderry had reminded him of the patronage bestowed by his family on Nugent’s brother, on this occasion (though not in 1831). Nugent mss 6/6/22-35, 38, 40, 46, 47.

In a heat ‘nearly tropical in its intensity’, 14 Aug. 1830, both Hill, nominated by Robert Ward and Crommelin, and Castlereagh, proposed by Price and Gordon, vindicated their individual conduct and denied collusion with one another. Forde, whose sponsors Holt Waring and Sharman Crawford each explained their reasons for breaking with their former political associates, criticized his opponents for making ‘a hereditary property of the county’ and emphasized his views on reform and economies, which were echoed by Montgomery and Ruthven. Deemed to have won on a show of hands, Forde led narrowly on the first day, but trailed Castlereagh thereafter and fell behind Hill on the sixth day, finishing 71 adrift when the return was made on the 21st. Given the disturbances which marred the final days of the contest, the Members departed quickly from Downpatrick to celebrate separately at Mount Stewart and Hillsborough.Newry Commercial Telegraph, 17, 20, 24, 27 Aug., 3 Sept. 1830; Wellington mss WP1/1134/44; 1136/9; Narrative of Down Election, 77-158. With his son heading the poll, Londonderry could not resist boasting that he had effectively brought in the other Member. Add. 51959, Lady Londonderry to Miss Fox, 30 Aug. [1830]; Buckingham, Mems. Will. IV and Victoria, i. 50. Forde was attacked for not having withdrawn before the start of the poll, as it was clear from the surprisingly accurate forecasts that he could not have succeeded. Nugent mss 6/6/33; Jupp, ‘Co. Down Elections’, 193. According to the manuscript pollbook, 1,570 of the 1,825 registered electors voted, with Castlereagh receiving the support of 59 per cent, Hill 53 per cent and Forde 49 per cent. Whereas the winners drew a negligible proportion of their vote in plumpers - they mostly shared splits - the defeated candidate had 487, representing 64 per cent of his total vote. On the estates of Downshire, Londonderry and four other major interests, 476 (or 94 per cent) of the 505 voters split for Castlereagh and Hill (372 on their relatives’ estates alone), and on Forde’s and his supporters’ nine largest estates, 274 (or 93 per cent) of the 296 voters plumped for him. PP (1830-1), x. 202; PRO NI T761/19; Jupp, ‘Co. Down Elections’, 196, 197, 206. Claiming that his opponents would have lost without the backing of their family’s tenants and that he had a majority among the more respectable of the electors (193 of the 317 £50 voters, on his figures), Forde made an embittered farewell speech and reiterated these points in his parting address. He was given a consolation dinner in Downpatrick, 16 Sept. 1830, when Ruthven, in the chair, and other members of the Independent Club spoke in his favour. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 27, 31 Aug., 10, 17, 21 Sept.; Belfast Guardian, 1 Oct. 1830; Narrative of Down Election, 159, 160. Considerable efforts were made to increase the size of the registry that autumn and Downshire, referring to the contested county treasurership, pressed Londonderry to understand that ‘any difference of opinion, on this matter between us, would give a sort of triumph to a party who are now aspiring to rule the country in every thing’. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 17 Sept. 1830; Downshire mss C/2/434, 436, 442/1; Londonderry mss T1536/3G, H.

The Down Independent Club met to pass resolutions for parliamentary reform and lower expenditure and taxation, 15 Dec. 1830, and was the motivating force behind the requisition, headed by the former Irish MP William Ogilvie of Ardglass, for a county meeting on these subjects. This was held on 20 Jan. 1831, when the advanced Whigs, notably Ruthven, secured petitions calling for extensive changes, including triennial parliaments. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 21 Dec. 1830, 14, 25 Jan., 5 Apr. 1831; Downshire mss C/2/447/1, 449; Dufferin mss B/C/20/1/49. The one to the Lords was presented and endorsed by the prime minister Lord Grey, 24 Mar., when Londonderry condemned it as the work of the ‘lowest rabble’. The following day in the Commons, Castlereagh had to retract this patently derogatory statement at the bidding of Ruthven, who, after its rejection by the county Members, brought up the petition there on the 30th. LJ, lxiii. 369; CJ, lxxxvi. 465. Hill, like his brothers Downshire and Lord George (now Member for Carrickfergus), soon gave his support to the Grey ministry’s reform bill, but Castlereagh’s refusal to vote for it deprived him of the offer of the vacant Down militia colonelcy that month. Anglesey mss 28A-B/48, 49. Having since the beginning of the year been urging a county meeting to reassert the dominance of the Tory interests, Dufferin organized a requisition, very generally signed, for one to address the lord lieutenant against repeal of the Union. This took place on 25 Mar., when Dufferin’s address was opposed by Wallace, Montgomery and Ogilvie, who insisted that it should mention reform, and the proceedings eventually had to be abandoned. The sheriff declined to sanction a further gathering on reform, which had been the abortive compromise acceptable to some of the members of the Independent Club, and it was left to the grand jury to issue the address against repeal in April 1831. Dufferin mss B/C/14/1/144, 145, 525, 526; 20/1/48, 52, 64, 67, 90, 92, 94, 139, 602; Perceval-Maxwell mss E/7/54; G/1/73; Newry Commercial Telegraph, 18, 29 Mar., 22 Apr.; Pilson diary 1, 25 Mar. 1831.

At the general election of 1831 the sitting Members offered again, but Forde declined to stand because of ill health. The independents, who held their own reform meeting in Downpatrick, 2 May, sought an alternative candidate and settled on Sharman Crawford, whom Daniel O’Connell*, who wanted Castlereagh removed, described as ‘one of the most suitable men in Ireland to be in Parliament’. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 29 Apr., 3, 6 May; Pilson diary 1, 2 May; Derby mss 920 Der (14) 121/2, Gosset to Smith Stanley, 28 Apr. 1831; O’Connell Corresp. iv. 1799. Such was the cry for reform that Hill, whose elder brother was evidently concerned at the damage that would be done by continuing the junction with Londonderry, announced that he stood ‘single-handed’ and that Downshire’s tenants could give their second votes to the independent reformer. Sharman Crawford’s call for landlords to abstain from influencing their tenants’ votes angered Tories like Dufferin and this became a highly contentious issue during the contest. Yet, under considerable pressure from the tenacious Londonderry, who angrily repeated that Hill owed his previous election to Castlereagh’s efforts, Downshire apologized to him, secretly reinstated the pre-existing coalition and allowed Castlereagh’s agents to canvass the tenants on his estates. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 6, 10 May; Meade mss 2, Brush to Meade, 8, 11 May 1831; Down Squib Bk. (1831), 3-5; Nugent mss A/6/6/43; Dufferin mss B/C/21/1/97; PRO NI, Londonderry mss T1536I-N; Downshire mss C/2/451; Wellington mss WP1/1184/15, 20, 29. Castlereagh, who spoke for moderate reform, and Hill, who supported the reform bill, were opposed on the hustings by Sharman Crawford, who, introduced by Ogilvie and Ruthven, advocated some radical measures, opposed repeal of the Union and stated that he hoped to secure the ‘free voice of the county’. Being united ideologically with Sharman Crawford and electorally with Castlereagh, Hill led the poll on all six days, while Castlereagh only overtook Sharman Crawford on the fifth, finishing 150 ahead of him and 104 behind Hill, out of 2,016 voters. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 13, 17, 20, 24 May 1831; Down Squib Bk. (1831), 16-72. Londonderry gloried in the triumph, which it was thought would benefit the Tory cause in neighbouring counties, and Edward Ellice*, the patronage secretary, attributed Castlereagh’s success to ‘some weakness of his old colleagues’. Add. 40402, f. 52; Wellington mss WP1/1184/34; Brougham mss, Ellice to Brougham [17 May 1831]. Sharman Crawford, whose expenses amounted to at least £1,800, was praised for his endeavours on behalf of the independent interest at dinners given by his supporters in Belfast, 20 May and 19 July 1831. He blamed his defeat on collusion between his opponents, and it was shown that on the Downshire and Dungannon estates, in addition to many plumpers for Hill, there were 226 splits for Hill and Castlereagh compared to only 122 for Hill and Sharman Crawford. In his final address he complained that the representation was ‘now reduced to a nonentity’; the following year the friends of reform gave a dinner to the brewer Peter Johnston of Newtownards, who had been evicted by Londonderry for voting against his son. Sharman Crawford mss D/12; Belfast News Letter, 24, 27, 30 May, 3, 7 June; Newry Commercial Telegraph, 27, 31 May, 26 July 1831; Newry Examiner, 2 June 1832.

Downshire’s adhesion to the cause of reform was additionally secured by his appointment as lord lieutenant of Down in the autumn of 1831, when he was also made a knight of St. Patrick. Cassidy mss 100; M. Brock, Great Reform Act, 233. At the end of the year Londonderry, who continued to oppose the reform bill, was active in getting up an address in defence of the Protestant interests, and a meeting to this effect took place at Rathfryland on 3 Jan. 1832. Add. 40402, f. 142; Newry Commercial Telegraph, 6 Jan. 1832. Following a gathering in Bangor, 23 Feb., Dufferin and Sharman Crawford, who quarrelled, supervised petitions respectively against and for the ministerial plan for national education in Ireland, which were presented by Castlereagh and Ruthven, 18 Apr. Belfast Guardian, 28 Feb. 1832; Sharman Crawford mss D/17-20; Dufferin mss B/C/21/1/104, 105, 112, 626; CJ, lxxxvii. 287, 291. Mutual antagonisms continued for much of the year and in October Londonderry recorded that he was ‘very much tempted to strike a blow at Downshire, for his shabby conduct to me on the last occasion’. Wellington mss WP1/1236/8. In fact, it was well understood that the electoral compromise would continue and at the general election of 1832, when there were 3,138 registered electors, Hill and Castlereagh were returned unopposed. [W. Carpenter], People’s Bk. (1831), 210; Key to Both Houses (1832), 321; Northern Whig, 10 Dec.; Newry Commercial Telegraph, 11, 21, 25 Dec. 1832. Hill sat until he succeeded to his mother’s peerage in 1836, when he was replaced by Downshire’s eldest son Lord Hillsborough, who held the seat as a Conservative until he inherited the marquessate in 1845. Castlereagh represented Down as a Conservative until 1852, after which he was followed consecutively by Ker’s son David Stewart Ker, 1852-7, Forde’s nephew William Brownlow Forde, 1857-74, Sharman Crawford’s son James (a Liberal), 1874-8, and his own nephew Viscount Castlereagh, 1878-84.