Northumberland was noted for its coastal coalfield, shipping trade, corn and lead. Its six wards (Bamburgh, Castle, Coquetdale, Glendale, Morpeth and Tynedale), from which the detached districts of county Durham, Bedlingtonshire, Norhamshire and Islandshire, remained distinct, comprised 97 parishes and 646 constabularies. There were three parliamentary boroughs: the Border town and county of Berwick-upon-Tweed; Morpeth, a sessions town and popular location for county meetings, and the county corporate of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which had taken over the function of hosting the assizes from Alnwick, the usual venue for county elections. The other principal settlements and sources of petitions were Allendale, Alnmouth, Bamburgh, Belford, Bellingham, Blyth, Haltwhistle, Hartley, Hexham, Rothbury, Seaton, Warkworth and Wooler.
The sitting Members were the Whig Sir Charles Monck, first returned on Lord Percy’s elevation to the Lords in 1812, and the Tory renegade Thomas Wentworth Beaumont, who had been substituted for his father in 1818 and had the wealth of his Blackett mother at his disposal. Both were expected to seek re-election at the general election of 1820, when Beaumont’s votes with the Whig opposition against the repressive legislation introduced after the Peterloo massacre and his declared support for Catholic relief and parliamentary reform made a Tory challenge inevitable.
I could not have entered into any agreement the object of which was avowedly to displace Beaumont for having acted according to my view in a manner that did him the greatest honour, for the purpose of bringing in Brandling as the supporter of an administration whose existence I thought a national calamity.
Middleton mss B.16/V.
Refusing to back Brandling, Grey accused him of dealing a fatal blow to the independent interest.
We could have done the same thing against the duke, and the squirearchy (the basest set that ever existed) of Northumberland, if the Whigs had been united, and we could have found a candidate of character, resolution and money.
NLS, Ellice mss, Grey to Ellis, 20 Mar. 1820.
During the 1820 Parliament legislation was enacted for the construction of a new county gaol, 24 Mar. 1822, and improvements to the turnpike roads linking Newcastle and North Shields, 8 July 1820, Alnwick with Alnmouth, 28 May 1821, the Hexham hub, 21 Mar. 1821, and the great north road at Haggerston, 5 May 1826.
It is entirely and almost exclusively on the middle and lower classes of the freeholders on which I must depend for support. Most of our squires are bigoted Tories, or mean courtiers of the duke, and though we have some excellent friends, and these the representatives of the best families, I am sorry to say that their activity is not equal to their other merits.
Add. 30109, f. 140.
After the Tory sheriff William Clark of Benton refused to do so, 21 Dec. 1820, the meeting was convened at Morpeth in their capacity as magistrates by Grey, Lambton, Swinburne, Monck, Beaumont, Bigge and George Baker of Elmore, 10 Jan. 1821. With Swinburne as chairman, the meeting confirmed Grey’s ability to ‘carry anything with the middling and lower classes of freeholders’, who cheered his call for moderate reform. Monck also rallied for Grey and the queen, and the sole dissentient from the freeholders’ petition attaching ministerial incompetence to a plea for the restoration of the queen’s name to the liturgy was Orde, a signatory to the ministerialist loyal address circulated by the duke of Northumberland.
Our Tory country gentlemen in this county are of the most inveterate and bigoted description, yet even amongst them the tone of ultra loyalty is a good deal lowered. In every other class of the community the change of opinion is striking and decisive. Of this I cannot give you a better proof than that of the duke and the supporters of the present administration not having ventured to face us ... The attendance was most numerous and respectable, and the proceedings quite satisfactory in every respect. In the North then I may venture to state that there exists the same preponderance of public opinion against the present ministers as you describe in your part of the country.
Lansdowne mss, Grey to Lansdowne, 13 Jan. 1821.
Its presenter Beaumont endorsed the petition, 1 Feb., and echoing Grey’s comments on introducing it in the Lords, 5 Feb., he made Clark’s conduct the subject of a censure motion, 13 Feb., which was withdrawn only in deference to another on the Cheshire proceedings, 14 Feb.
From August 1823, when, in a fit of delusion, Beaumont accused his prospective mother-in-law Lady Swinburne of adultery, naming Grey and his brother General Henry Grey of Falloden among her paramours, the manoeuvring to replace him was relentless.
We knew the duke would not have offered any opposition to Monck, Bigge or Swinburne, but we thought he might have had had some personal dislike to the introduction of Lord Howick, and in compliance with your declared intention of not standing a contest we wished to ascertain this point, as ... once declared ... it would neither be creditable to the party or fair to Lord Howick to withdraw him and we certainly had no prospect of being able to provide for a contest.
Ridley (Blagdon) mss 25/35-81, Ridley to Grey, n.d.
Beaumont decided to stay on and stand a contest at the general election, even ‘if it cost £100,000’. The element of surprise was lost and the claims of Bigge, Monck, Ridley, Swinburne and the Morpeth Member William Ord of Whitfield to the Whig seat were revived. Bigge and Swinburne ruled themselves out on financial grounds, but not so Ridley and Monck, whose involvement in costly chancery proceedings was drawing to a close. Ord, suggested by Monck with a view to freeing a Morpeth seat, was apparently not consulted.
When, with a general election pending, Brandling’s death on 1 Feb. 1826 unexpectedly vacated the Tory seat, Liddell and Howick waited on Northumberland, who professed neutrality for ‘both elections’. Both declared next day: Liddell described himself as an independent constitutional candidate; Howick appealed to his family connections.
As to the result of this business, all one knows for certain is that from the next general election, Matt will have this county for his life, but as for this go, one does not quite see one’s way as yet because Liddell is a Tory candidate and has had the course to himself for ten days.
Creevey mss, Creevey to Miss Ord, 11 Feb. 1826.
On 2 Mar. (as again, 29 May), Ellice suggested to Grey that the Newcastle Whig barrister James Losh or Hedworth Williamson* should take soundings to determine which candidate the Whigs should back, as ‘anybody would have confidence in their decision’.
Entering the fray preparatory to the general election, Beaumont declared for parliamentary reform and Catholic relief and against colonial slavery. Canvassing personally, he ‘laboured on the Sabbath’, opened the most inns and initially favoured Liddell. Like Howick, who affected neutrality and lacked the perspicacity of his rivals, he canvassed avidly until the nomination at Alnwick, 21 Feb. 1826.
Despite his bitter departing words on the hustings, 7 Mar. 1826, such was the support for Liddell’s 44-carriage cavalcade as it passed, as was customary, through Newcastle that day, that a subscription to return him was immediately commenced. A central committee, chaired by lord chancellor Eldon’s nephew-in-law, the anti-Catholic Tory Sir Thomas Burdon of West Jesmond, supervised 17 district committees in his interest, in what Grey, who rued his own failure to collude with Bell and prevent Carlisle, Portland and Tankerville from backing Liddell, perceived as a ‘new and much unexpected attempt’ to return two Tories. This added to the ‘difficulty and confusion’ of the canvass.
At the county meeting at Morpeth, 13 June, Joseph Lamb of Lemington House, Newcastle and the ship owner Thomas Batson pressed the claims of the ‘liberal’ Beaumont, Loraine and Clavering sponsored the church and state Tory Bell, Ridley and Ord proposed Howick, and Clennell and Clark did the same for Liddell, ‘an eloquent supporter of government’. Each claimed a successful canvass. Proceedings were dominated by Lambton, who, backed by the Greys, ridiculed Beaumont by detailing his failings, notably his instability and absences from Parliament over the last eight years, and by comparing him unfavourably with Howick. Beaumont’s former tutor, the Rev. Christopher Bird, responded, and Beaumont and Liddell won the show of hands.
According to Stoker’s analysis, of 2,985 polled, 69 per cent had also voted in February, with Liddell’s supporters (85 per cent) more consistent than Bell’s (75 per cent). Seventy per cent of plumping was Tory, while 58 voted for at least one Tory and 42 for at least one Whig.
Liddell moved the address for the Liverpool ministry, 21 Nov. 1826, and had great difficulty afterwards reconciling his conflicting obligations to ministers, Canningites, and the agriculturists and ship owners of Northumberland, who constantly monitored their Members’ conduct. The seamen of North Shields petitioned the Commons for repeal of the corn laws, 30 Nov. 1826;
Concessions for coal and shipping and Liddell’s hostility to and his rivals’ support for the Northern Roads bill and the Newcastle-Carlisle railway were the main local issues at the general election of 1830, when, with Beaumont’s lavish preparations under way, Bell hosted dinners countywide and ordered a thorough canvass directly the death of George IV was announced. Unable to spend adequately despite a promise of support from Lord Carlisle, Liddell exposed his weakness in a blatant appeal to the freeholders to return him free of charge, 29 June, and had difficulty countering reports that he was standing down. He retired dispirited after canvassing personally for four days, 14 July.
The Whig lawyer Henry Brougham’s rallying speech at Newcastle, 11 Aug. 1830, following his Yorkshire election victory, boosted support for the campaign for the abolition of colonial slavery, for which both Houses received petitions, many of them publicly adopted, from congregations, presbyteries and towns countywide, 4 Nov. 1830-20 Apr. 1831. Bell’s wife was the president of the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society.
The only danger of opposition was from the farmers, who are not satisfied with the restriction to those who have leases for 21 years. It was, however, market day and we contrived, by seeing a good many of them, to prevent any public expression of their dissatisfaction. Mr. Bigge opened the business very well and Bird spoke vigorously. Mr. Grey (of Millfield Plains) was our chief orator and some parts of his speech were really excellent. I escaped as neither Mr. Liddell nor Mr. Ord (of Nunnykirk) appeared amongst us. They were both expected ... I think there is a very strong feeling that Lord Howick should be called upon to propose himself (at the present time) as Member for the county. I had a letter from Dr. Fenwick this morning suggesting the possibility of forming an association for the purpose of bringing him in free from expense ... I think such a scheme only wants a beginning to make it succeed.
Brougham mss, Losh to Brougham, 16 Mar. 1831.
A committee led by Bigge, Bacon Grey, Bird, Culley, Grey of Millfield and the Newcastle reformers was established to support the bill and secure the election for the county, at the first opportunity, of two reformers. They contacted Howick, then colonial under-secretary in his father’s ministry, who agreed to stand but not spend, and fomented public hostility to the Tories by publicizing the tactics deployed by the duke of Northumberland’s agents to get up an anti-reform petition. This became the subject of heated exchanges in the Commons between Beaumont and its presenter Bell, 20 Apr.
Both Members voted for the introduced reform bill at its second reading, 6 July 1831. Neither attended to its details in committee, Howick on account of departmental business and Beaumont because of illness and financial embarrassment following his mother’s death, 10 Aug.
We have so far been able to keep the ultra reformers quiet; and by a little management our public meetings in this district have gone off very well. But unless the reform bill be passed very soon, there will be a bursting out of public indignation which nothing can resist in the northern counties. What is called the ‘Northern Political Union’ has done mischief. A few ill judging men (Mr. Attwood, etc.) are the leaders and as they have no real influence themselves they have but too successfully enticed the pitmen and made them more restless and discontented than they were before.
Brougham mss, Losh to Brougham, 9 Nov. 1831.
The Northumberland reformers acquiesced in the reinstatement of Morpeth in schedule B in the revised reform bill announced in December 1831. The anti-reformers failed to have North Shields and Tynemouth combined with South Shields to free a Member for Toxteth or Merthyr Tydfil, 7 Mar. 1832, and in May, when the prospect of a ministry headed by Wellington threatened the bill’s passage, Alnwick, Glendale, Newcastle, North Shields and Tynemouth met to petition in protest. Bigge, anticipating a dissolution, also reconvened the 1831 committees. A requisition for a county protest meeting was started but abandoned as superfluous later that month when the Grey ministry and reform were secure. Several local petitions accordingly remained unpresented.
The registration of 2,322 voters in Northumberland North (population 91,974) and 5,192 in Northumberland South (77,707) before the 1832 general election was closely scrutinized.
Number of voters: 2985 in 1826
Estimated voters: 4,000