This day in.....

[finsobruce]

1839

The election committee deciding on the result in Carlow Borough met at eleven o'clock, chaired by Mr George Grote Esq.

The petitioner objected to the vote of Thomas Green. Green's qualifying address was in Graigue and he was voter No. 315 on the roll. The grounds for objection were "having parted with his qualification since the period of registration".

To prove this objection, William Jackson, a tanner was called to give evidence, but he refused to do so until his expenses were paid. He had sent in a bill for forty five shillings. The chairman said it was reasonable that expenses should be paid and Mr Baker, agent to the petitioner confirmed that "he had plenty of money to pay the witness". Mr Austen stated that once the money had been paid he thought it likely that "his evidence will not be required or it will be worth nothing". The vote was nevertheless struck off.

The vote of James M'Donnell a "eating housekeeper"of Tullow Street was objected to on the same grounds. Giving evidence, James Young, turnkey to the Carlow jail, said that he had let the house to M'Donnell and then the next one, but then one had been let to a Mrs Kelly and was then registered as "two houses". Questioned by Mr Austen he said that the hall was common to both houses.

Mr Austen declared himself to be 'sick' at the continued presence of Young for every vote , and that he was anxious about the vote "not for the vote itself, but for the principle involved in its decision".

Strangers were asked to withdraw and on their return, the vote was declared to be a good one.

The next objection was to the vote of a locksmith John Murphy who had supported the Whig/Liberal Thomas Gisborne, but as it was three o'clock the committee adjourned until the next day (and went to the pub??).

The eventual result was the overturning of the three vote majority of the Tory (and former MP for the constituency) Thomas Bruen and the election of Gisborne. Gisborne had previously been MP for Stafford and North Derbyshire and after two years as MP for Carlow was elected for Nottingham.

[finsobruce]

1381

The Peasant's Revolt began.

[carlton43]

May 30, 2019 10:03:24 GMT finsobruce said:

1381

The Peasant's Revolt began.

..........Began What?

[finsobruce]

May 30, 2019 10:16:03 GMT carlton43 said:

May 30, 2019 10:03:24 GMT finsobruce said:

1381

The Peasant's Revolt began.

..........Began What?

I. Objects: (a) to obtain a free pardon for having revolted.

(b) to find out which was the gentleman when Adam delved and Eve span. (The answer was, of course, Adam, but the mystics of the Church had concealed this dangerous knowledge.)

(c) to find out who was King and which of them was the Leader of the Rebellion.

(d) to abolish the Villein.

[neilm]

May 30, 2019 6:58:34 GMT finsobruce said:

1839

The election committee deciding on the result in Carlow Borough met at eleven o'clock, chaired by Mr George Grote Esq.

The petitioner objected to the vote of Thomas Green. Green's qualifying address was in Graigue and he was voter No. 315 on the roll. The grounds for objection were "having parted with his qualification since the period of registration".

To prove this objection, William Jackson, a tanner was called to give evidence, but he refused to do so until his expenses were paid. He had sent in a bill for forty five shillings. The chairman said it was reasonable that expenses should be paid and Mr Baker, agent to the petitioner confirmed that "he had plenty of money to pay the witness". Mr Austen stated that once the money had been paid he thought it likely that "his evidence will not be required or it will be worth nothing". The vote was nevertheless struck off.

The vote of James M'Donnell a "eating housekeeper"of Tullow Street was objected to on the same grounds. Giving evidence, James Young, turnkey to the Carlow jail, said that he had let the house to M'Donnell and then the next one, but then one had been let to a Mrs Kelly and was then registered as "two houses". Questioned by Mr Austen he said that the hall was common to both houses.

Mr Austen declared himself to be 'sick' at the continued presence of Young for every vote , and that he was anxious about the vote "not for the vote itself, but for the principle involved in its decision".

Strangers were asked to withdraw and on their return, the vote was declared to be a good one.

The next objection was to the vote of a locksmith John Murphy who had supported the Whig/Liberal Thomas Gisborne, but as it was three o'clock the committee adjourned until the next day (and went to the pub??).

The eventual result was the overturning of the three vote majority of the Tory (and former MP for the constituency) Thomas Bruen and the election of Gisborne. Gisborne had previously been MP for Stafford and North Derbyshire and after two years as MP for Carlow was elected for Nottingham.

Sounds like a massive constituency- Graigue is somewhere near Thurles (I've been to the races there) so I guess Co Tipperary. Carlow is some distance.

[greatkingrat]

Graigue is also used as the name for the part of Carlow town that is west of the River Barrow.

www.townlands.ie/carlow/slievemargy/killeshin/graigue-urban/graigue/

The full boundaries of Carlow Borough constituency:

"From the Point below the Town at which the River Barrow is met by the Southern Wall of the Grounds of the House belonging to Mr. Carey, Adjutant to the Carlow Militia, Eastward, along the said Wall to the Point at which the same meets the Kilkenny Road; thence in a straight Line to the Southern Corner of the Infirmary; thence in a straight Line to the Point a little above the Barracks at which the River Burren is joined by a small Stream; thence up the said Stream, and across the Tullow Road, to the Point at which the same Stream is met by a Hedge which runs down thereto from opposite the Southern End of the Plantation attached to the House on the Baltinglass Road which belongs to Mr. Hunt and is occupied by Mr. Butler; thence along the said Hedge to the Point at which the same meets the Baltinglass Road; thence in a straight Line in the Direction of the Cupola of the Lunatic Asylum to the Point at which such straight Line cuts a Road which runs between the Baltinglass Road and the Dublin Road; thence in a straight Line to a Gate on the Eastern Side of the Dublin Road which is distant about One hundred Yards to the North of the North-eastern Corner of the Enclosure Wall of the Lunatic Asylum; thence in a straight Line to the Point at which the Road to Athy is met by the North Boundary of the Demesne of the Roman Catholic Bishop; thence along the said Boundary till it meets the River at the Point; thence along the River to the North Corner of the Wall of the Burial Ground; thence in a straight Line to the Spire of Graigue Church; thence in a straight Line to the Summer House in Mr. Wilson's Garden; thence in a straight Line to the Point first described."

Not sure what happened if any of the people mentioned moved!

[finsobruce]

1826

Was published by Mr W Neely of Change Alley 'A Pocket Dictionary of the General Law and Practise of Elections' price five shillings.

"Comprising all the cases decided (with correct references to all the 129 statutes and 27 books of authorities),from the issuing of the writ to the final decision of a committee of the House of Commons with practical observations. The whole alphabetically arranged and digested whereby an instant reference may be had".

Or in other words a compilation of the process and results of disputed election contests, to help clarify the law for agents etc. The British Library don't seem to have a copy.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Jun 1, 2019 20:00:23 GMT finsobruce said:

1826

Was published by Mr W Neely of Change Alley "A Pocket Dictionary of the General Law and Practise of Elections" price five shillings. Comprising all the cases decided (with correct references to all the 129 statutes and 27 books of authorities),from the issuing of the writ to the final decision of a committee of the House of Commons with practical observations. The whole alphabetically arranged and digested whereby an instant reference may be had.

Or in other words a compilation of the process and results of disputed election contests, to help clarify the law for agents etc. The British Library don't seem to have a copy.

Before election petitions were transferred to the courts by the Act of 1868, they were determined by committees of the House of Commons. Unless the committee found it an important case and made a report for publication, all that would be officiallly published was the decision. Accordingly there were several people who arranged independent publication of committee hearings. One of the first was by Lord Glenbervie in 1775. I bought a copy of Peckwell's reports of 1802-06 at a book fair a few years ago. Then there is a more or less continuous series from 1832:

1832-33: Cockburn and Rowe; also Perry and Knapp
1834-35: Knapp and Ombler
1837-39: Falconer and Fitzherbert
1841-43: Barron and Austin
1843-46: Barron and Arnold
1852-57: Power, Rodwell and Dew (2 vols)
1857-59: Wolferstan and Dew
1859-65: Wolferstan and Bristowe

[finsobruce]

1939

Mr John Lewis of New Brighton Road, Emsworth was elected unopposed as the member for the Warblington ward of Hampshire County Council.

He had previously been a member of Havant Rural District Council and the Board of Guardians and Havant and Waterloo Urban District Council, and replaced the departed Rear Admiral K.E.L Creighton MVO who had taken a government job in Scotland.

The headline to this article in the Portsmouth Evening News was "COULD BE USEFUL"

*charming!*

[finsobruce]

1939

And at Labour party conference in Southport the delegates discussed fish, and a general election "which might come within the next few months".

Delegates passed a motion expressing disapproval of a recent trade agreement that had agreed to the import of some fish caught by continental crews in exchange for the export of coal in the opposite direction. The motion demanded that preference was given to fish caught by British crews operating under Trade Union conditions (Topical, no?)

Deputy Leader Arthur Greenwood said that if the "international situation were to clear up, after some three power pact, reinforced by other nations, which I ferverently hope will come about, it may be that the election may fall upon us in three or four months. That election we can win and that election we must win".

Ah, the lost general election of 1939/40.

[finsobruce]

1784

Elisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon.

[finsobruce]

Jun 4, 2019 13:45:24 GMT @wattyler81 said:

Jun 4, 2019 13:30:20 GMT finsobruce said:

1784

Elisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon.

First Woman driver?

She was only 19, sang an operatic aria during the flight, and sprained her ankle when the balloon landed.

[finsobruce]

1844

The weekly (!) meeting of the Anti Corn Laws League was held at the Covent Garden Theatre. The attendance was so large that at least one attendee had to be carried out after a 'fainting fit'.

The Earl of Ducie chaired the meeting and confidently asserted that the laws would be repealed. He stated that this would clearly not be by the party "who advocate a fixed duty. Cries of 'No, No'" or by the Peelites who wanted a sliding scale, it would have to be by 'the people'.  (does this sound familiar?)

He derisively referred to the "Young England" organisation and quoted a poem from that group:

Let Crowded Cities and extensive towns
Fall into hamlets and unpeopled downs;
Let trade and learning, law and commerce die
But give us still our old nobility.

Cobden then spoke to the meeting and outlined how the Tories had managed to win the recent South Lancashire by-election (William Entwisle being the victorious candidate - the previous MP had died of influenza).

He narrated how he had been there for the previous contest in 1837 to support the two Reform candidates , travelling from Southport (which he called "a small watering place at the extremity of the Ormskirk district") to Ormskirk. At the place where the voters got their breakfasts a man pointed out to him two voters wearing the rosettes of the Reform party (interestingly coloured Orange and Green) and noted that the previous time had seen them wearing blue favours. In the intervening two years the landowner had changed his politics, and accordingly, so had they. The estate had then been sold and they changed again.

He then set out the strategy for victory, namely that as many free traders as possible invested money in becoming freeholders and thus qualify for the vote (this would cost about 40 shillings a year each man). The other side had already done this he noted, by large landowners having split their farms and pressurised tenants to settle parts on sons or brothers "in order that more votes may be at the command of the landlords". He was confident that if they followed his strategy, the next revision would see them in front ("cheers")

[finsobruce]

1899

Carrie Nation starts her famous campaign of attacking saloons and bars with a hatchet to further the temperance cause.

She had been involved in the Jaybird/Woodpecker war in Texas in which factions struggled violently for control of the Democratic party and which ultimately led to the disenfranchisement of black voters for almost seventy years.

[johnloony]

Theresa May, Gerard Batten, Margaret Hodge, Nigel Farage, Philip Hammond, David Sutch and John Tyndall were all candidates in the by-elections on 9th June 1994.

[finsobruce]

1775

The Salisbury and Winchester Journal noted that the "Commonality of Poole" had presented the barrister Mr Alleyne with an elegant silver cup for his work in defending their rights before the House of Commons committee chosen to determine the election in that town.

The paper also noted in the same edition that " The attempting to compel the Americsns by force of arms seems to be a project to speak of it in the mildest light to be attended with the greatest uncertainty".

[David Ashforth]

[David Ashforth]

[hullenedge]

A batch of by-elections for Huddersfield County Borough on Thursday 13th July 1967. (The vacancies created as councillors were elevated to the aldermanic bench following the May retirements). The Tories had already been returned unopposed in the Lindley and Marsh wards. Labour gained Newsome from the Tories but Paddock saw a switch from Liberal to Tory. Birkby was a solid Tory hold. Nothing out of the ordinary until the count in Longwood (a Liberal defence)… Davy (Con) 706, Earnshaw (Lib) 617 and Jardine (Lab) 706. A tie and the deadlock was only broken by a coin toss in Jardine’s favour. Davy had reason to feel a bit bitter. His family had travelled to Wales for their summer holiday before the by-election. He had returned to vote (presumably for himself) whereas his wife remained in Tenby looking after their children. No postal votes for holiday breaks in those days.

[finsobruce]

Yesterday was the anniversary of Harold Macmillan's "Night of the Long Knives".