The largely Protestant county of Londonderry, which had about 200,000 inhabitants and was notable for its linen manufactures, derived its name from the English plantation of the early seventeenth century.
Nor were the two dominant families of the Stewarts and the Beresfords, who usually controlled one seat each, entirely immune to this trend.
The sitting Members were returned unopposed as ministerialists at the general election of 1820, when Castlereagh commented that both there and in Down, success ‘cost nothing, but a good dinner to friends’.
Castlereagh, who inherited his father’s Irish marquessate in April 1821, committed suicide in August 1822, when Lord Stewart, then ambassador to Austria, succeeded as 3rd marquess of Londonderry. He, who had already been appointed custos rotulorum of Londonderry on his father’s death, sought to extract the maximum possible patronage from ministers in exchange for his continued support. In particular, he maintained that his late half-brother had intended to relinquish the colonelcy of the Londonderry militia to Alexander Stewart junior, and he was mortified when, in his absence abroad, ministers appointed the Beresfords’ candidate, the city Member Sir George Hill. This, he maintained, represented an unwarrantable transfer of interest to his rivals, especially as it was a position ‘infinitely important in electioneering’. Liverpool, irritated like other ministers by Londonderry’s conduct, could hardly dismiss Hill, the Irish vice-treasurer, and found unacceptable the terms he demanded in exchange for his resignation, namely a colonial office for himself and a dukedom for Waterford, so nothing could be done. The family continued to resent the episode as a slur on Castlereagh’s memory, but Stewart reluctantly agreed to serve under Hill in order to minimize their loss of face and influence. The row continued until July 1823, when the king refused to intervene, but, as he had wished, Londonderry secured numerous sweeteners, including the governorship of his titular county.
Londonderry had told the duke of Wellington in March 1823 that Hill’s refusal to withdraw would ‘entirely destroy the union that has subsisted between the Beresford family and ours so long’.
strongly the importance of families possessing considerable influence and equally attached to the system and politics of His Majesty’s present government continuing towards each other in the same county a cordial and mutual support, as much for the convenience, comfort and tranquillity of their county, as for their own sakes ... I therefore candidly and distinctly reply to your question by deprecating a break up ... and declare my readiness to make common cause with you at the next election. Prudence of course will require such an arrangement, if made, to be kept secret.
PRO NI, Hill mss D642/A/21/9, 12.
Raising further quibbles, 16 Feb. 1824, Londonderry insisted on knowing how long the relationship could be expected to last. Waterford answered on 8 Apr. that ‘mutual support heartily given at the next election would be a better cement and security for further goodwill and co-operation than a more extended arrangement’ and declined to commit himself beyond that event.
the feeling of that party is to keep well with us while we were possessed of a formidable power in the county, and that when that is gone, they will attempt to return an immediate member of their own family in [?conjunction] with Dawson, who will then appear as an independent Member.
He added that he disliked acceding to Waterford’s proposal, but doubted whether another alliance, for instance with the Ogilbys, would do anything more to guarantee the future of their interest. Using the excuse of Waterford’s declining health, Londonderry therefore postponed any meeting between the two patrons and left matters to be settled at a later date.
Religion had long been a divisive factor in county Londonderry, where in August 1823 the magistrates addressed the lord lieutenant to express their uneasiness about the revived activities of the Catholics.
Waterford died in July 1826, leaving an under age heir, and thereafter his interest was managed by the senior members of the family, particularly Archbishop Beresford and his illegitimate brother Viscount Beresford. The resident co-ordinator, however, was Henry Barré Beresford of Learmount, and it was he who got up the anti-Catholic county meeting which was held at Limavady on 3 Nov. 1826.
Justifying his highly indiscreet speech in favour of granting concessions to the Catholics, Dawson wrote to Wellington that ‘there were not more than say half-a-dozen gentlemen of property or influence in the county present’ among the rabid Protestants whom he addressed in Londonderry on 12 Aug., but his change of heart, which was attributed to his fear of being ousted by the Catholic Association, caused an enormous row.
Conduct such as Dawson’s in a man who had with consistency but with moderation opposed the Catholic claims would have been bad enough; but here is a man who has hallooed the Protestants on to Orangeism, who has laughed at the timidity of the more cautious, who has heaped personal insults upon the leaders of the Catholic Association and who has tortured his brain to hold up to ridicule those who have changed their opinions upon the question.
Add. 40397, f. 157.
Making specific reference to Londonderry, Lord Beresford observed to Wellington in September 1828 that Dawson
never consulted any one of us upon it, though he must have been aware how much he staked the interest of the family in the country, and he has in truth placed us in a very awkward predicament. According to present feelings there he could have no chance of being re-elected, and the second boy [the 3rd marquess’s brother] Lord William, will not be of age for the next election, even at the latest period it could take place.
Wellington mss WP1/953/14.
In its repercussions, therefore, his speech destabilized the already weakened Protestant interests in the county.
On the motion of Sir James Bruce of Downhill at a meeting on 17 Sept. 1828, the city and county of Londonderry Brunswick Club was established, under the presidency of Sir Robert Ferguson* of The Farm, near Londonderry. Among other clubs formed were those at Limavady (under Lord George Beresford), 3 Oct., and Magherafelt (under William Lenox Conyngham of Springhill), 16 Oct.
The applause was universal. It was not the compliance of tenants to a landlord, for by their leases they are quite independent of him ... but the people of his district from the long influence and example of the family had kept away from clubs which are the bane of this country, and had preserved the right use of their understandings. Yet they are most of them high Tories.
Ibid. 31 Oct., 4 Nov. 1828; Add. 38757, f. 91.
Opinion was not unanimous on the question, therefore, and a pro-Catholic declaration was forwarded to the king at this time.
As a result of the Irish Franchise Act, which raised the qualification to £10, the number of electors fell from 4,803 on 1 Jan. 1829 to 866 a year later.
During the second half of 1829 the Beresfords attempted to come to terms with their increasingly wayward Member, who seemed oblivious to the fact that they considered him a liability or that his constituents hated him as an arrogant traitor, partly perhaps heeding Hill’s warning that ‘a breach with George Dawson at this time will throw the county open to turmoil, expense and doubtful result hereafter, to any interest’.
Lord Beresford, who played down Barré’s assessment that the family would itself lose credit for his having supported emancipation, feared the ruin of Waterford’s inheritance and told the primate, who recommended abandoning Dawson in August 1829, that
we will indeed be laughed at if he succeeds, ousts us of the representation, and at the same time shows our ignorance of its real state. This will be worse than losing the county of Waterford [in 1826], where at least we did not bring the thing upon ourselves, and if the two go the family will be totally reduced in political importance.
Primate Beresford mss A/4/42-44; Hill mss 217A, 220-2.
The intricacy of the struggle manifested itself in bitter and symbolic efforts by each side to take credit for the promotion awarded to the Rev. John Young, in order to demonstrate to the minor interests that they were the best conduit for ministerial patronage.
At a county meeting at Limavady on 31 May, Barré Beresford and Ferguson moved resolutions against the increased Irish stamp and spirit duties; despite the remonstration of John Acheson Smyth of Ardmore, the ensuing petition was entrusted to Dawson, who presented it on 8 June 1830, with another from the county for inquiry into Irish manor courts.
Confronted with a tacit coalition, Dawson had no choice but to withdraw from what would have been an expensive electoral battle, though his wife claimed that an Orange outrage at Magherafelt was ‘the cause of his abandoning the contest’.
As Bateson told the Commons, 22 Mar. 1831, the county was divided on reform, both favourable and hostile petitions being forwarded to the Members, who were threatened with an opposition for their votes against the Grey ministry’s bill.
The Protestants of Loughinshollen met at Magherafelt under Graham’s chairmanship, 12 Jan. 1832, to pass resolutions against the influence of the Catholics and in favour of the Members.
Number of voters: about 1000 in 1831
Registered freeholders: 4,803 in 1829; 866 in 1830