NORTHUMBERLAND ELECTION BROADSIDE – LORD HOWICK’S COMMITTEE – 1826

Rare Northumberland election broadside issued by Lord Howick’s Committee during the celebrated and extraordinarily expensive 1826 Northumberland county election — one of the most dramatic and fiercely contested parliamentary elections of the Georgian period.

Printed at Newcastle by T. and J. Hodgson and dated from the Committee Room, 10 March 1826, the broadside disavows reports “circulated with great Industry” that a coalition had been formed between Lord Howick and Mr Bell. The notice insists that Lord Howick was “totally unconnected with any other Candidate” and rested his hopes of success entirely upon “the unbiased Votes of the Independent Freeholders.”

The broadside relates directly to the famous four-cornered Northumberland election involving Lord Howick, Matthew Bell, Henry Thomas Liddell, and Thomas Wentworth Beaumont. The contest became notorious throughout Britain for its immense expenditure, prolonged canvassing, political hostility, public meetings, and flood of printed propaganda. Contemporary estimates suggest that the candidates collectively expended well in excess of £180,000, placing the election among the most expensive county contests of the Georgian era.

The bitterness of the campaign culminated in a duel fought on Bamburgh Sands between Thomas Wentworth Beaumont and John Lambton — the future Earl of Durham and son-in-law of Earl Grey — following disputes arising from the election. Although bloodless, the duel became one of the defining episodes associated with the contest and illustrates the extraordinary political tensions surrounding the campaign.

The present broadside is especially interesting because it captures an earlier phase of the election before Lord Howick ultimately withdrew and advised his supporters to transfer their votes to Bell. The printed denial of coalition therefore preserves an important moment in the rapidly shifting political manoeuvring of the contest.

Printed in bold display typography with strong visual emphasis to “LORD HOWICK’S COMMITTEE,” the broadside survives as an evocative example of Georgian electoral printing and political communication. Contemporary manuscript docketing to the reverse identifying the piece as relating to Lord Howick’s committee and the denial of coalition further enhances its historical interest.

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

Condition: Single printed broadside. Sheet size approximately 28 x 22 cm. Fold lines as issued, light creasing, minor age toning and handling wear consistent with original political use. Manuscript notes verso.

Overall a important and highly unusual survival relating to one of the defining political contests in nineteenth-century Northumberland history in near fine condition.

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