How Bedfordshire Voted, 1685-1735: The Evidence of Local Poll Books. Vol. II: 1716-1735

Abstract

This second volume, like its predecessor for the years 1685 to 1715 (rev. ante, cxxiii [2008], 1039–40), is a lavish production printed on heavy high-quality paper. It is also 34 pages longer than the first volume, giving more for the same price. The extra length is partly due to the fact that it contains seven poll books, two more than the previous contribution. Although two of these document by-elections in Bedford (one held in 1725, the other in 1731), it is nevertheless striking, since the period 1716 to 1735 witnessed only three general elections compared with the thirteen held between 1685 and 1715. Quite why the survey ends in 1735, when the last of these occurred in 1734, is unclear. Indeed, in the Introduction, the editor makes the mistake of assigning the last to the year 1735, though this error is not repeated elsewhere. The reason for the discrepancy in the frequency of contests he rightly assigns to the Septennial Act of 1716. His claim that this ‘reduced the ruinous candidates’ and supporters’ expenses’, however, is at odds with his observation that ‘at least three Bedfordshire families [were] forced to sell their estates and leave the county’ between 1731 and 1748. It is also contradicted by the findings of previous psephological studies which led to the exact opposite conclusion. The prospect of winning seats for seven rather than for three years led to a sharp increase in expenditure on elections. Yet Mr Collett-White repeats the claim when criticising tory demands for the repeal of the Septennial Act on the grounds that ‘they possibly did not consider that more frequent elections would mean more costs and that the Whigs probably had longer purses than they did’. He also overlooks the presence of Country whigs among those demanding a return to triennial contests. More familiarity with other investigations, as with the first volume, could have avoided such assertions. Again, he has overlooked the History of Parliament's contributions to the field of electoral studies; with less excuse this time, as the relevant volumes for the years 1715 to 1754, edited by Romney Sedgwick, appeared as long ago as 1970. As with the previous study, however, this one is more a contribution to local social rather than political history. Most of the volume is devoted to the reproduction of poll books, which should provide rich pickings for students of Bedfordshire in the early eighteenth century.