NORTHUMBERLAND ELECTION BROADSIDE – “Liddell For Ever!!!” – Alnwick – 1826

Rare Northumberland election song sheet issued in support of Henry Thomas Liddell during the celebrated 1826 county election, one of the most fiercely contested and expensive parliamentary elections of the Georgian period.

Printed at Alnwick by J. Graham, the sheet is headed “LIDDELL FOR EVER!!!” and presents a lengthy celebratory campaign song urging Northumbrian freeholders to support Liddell. The verse praises Liddell as “our man of choice”, contrasts him with rival candidates, and calls for public celebration with “pipe, tabor, and fiddle”, making the sheet a vivid example of the performative and popular culture surrounding Georgian elections.

The broadside forms part of the extraordinary outpouring of printed propaganda generated by the famous Northumberland election involving Henry Thomas Liddell, Matthew Bell, Lord Howick, and Thomas Wentworth Beaumont. The contest became notorious for immense expenditure, accusations of coalition, religious controversy, aggressive canvassing, and highly personal printed attacks.

This piece is especially interesting as an election song sheet rather than a conventional address or handbill. Such material was intended not only to be read, but sung, circulated, and remembered at inns, hustings, committee rooms, and public gatherings. It therefore offers valuable evidence for the oral and communal dimensions of early nineteenth-century electoral politics.

No institutional copy of this precise song sheet has been traced in the British Library, Library Hub Discover, or WorldCat databases, and it therefore appears to be apparently unrecorded institutionally.

Single printed song sheet. Sheet size approximately 33.8 x 13.6 cm.

Condition: Fold lines as issued, light creasing, minor age toning, and handling wear consistent with original political use. Overall near fine.

A scarce and evocative survival of Georgian Northumberland election propaganda, combining political song, popular performance, and the electoral culture of one of the most famous county contests of the period.

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