The ‘Republican’ Publican: ‘Honest’ Sam House, Visual Culture, and the General Election of 1784*

Abstract

AbstractDespite his ‘highest situation’ in life being that of a publican, Samuel House was the most frequently depicted member of the lower orders during the 1784 Westminster election and was directly credited in at least 33 different caricatures. To warrant such attention and depiction implies that House played a significant role as Fox's primary bridge to the plebeian Westminster vote; a demographic that was essential for Fox's victory. In spite of his positive electoral role in the Foxite campaign, House was effectively weaponised in hostile caricature as a discrediting plebeian anti‐Foxite caricature symbol, emphasising the vulnerabilities of the mingling of aristocratic‐plebeian sociability. Yet, in spite of his significance, and consistent inclusion in contemporary caricature, pamphlets and songs, House has remained largely unexplored by historians. Only John Brewer has produced a dedicated work on House, though the likes of H.T. Dickinson, Herbert Atherton, Diana Donald, Marc Baer, George Rudé, Harriet Guest and E.P Thompson have studied the role and impact of the mob and plebeian electoral contribution. Based on new work on the Foxites and visual culture and using contemporary biographical sources, poll books, parliamentary registers and contemporary newspapers this article will redress this imbalance and attempt to establish House's significance as a plebeian electoral campaigner for Fox, and as a discrediting symbol of plebeian drunkenness, sociability, and electoral corruption deployed by hostile caricaturists to disgrace his patron. So effective was the anti‐Fox campaign, bolstered by the activities of caricaturists, that Fox was prevented from taking his Westminster seat for ten months – from May 1784 until March 1785 – during a Pittite enforced scrutiny.