NORTHUMBERLAND ELECTION BROADSIDE – To the Freeholders of Alnwick and the Neighbourhood – Alnwick, February 22nd, 1826

Alnwick: Davison, Printer, 1826.

Single-sheet election broadside, printed on one side only, with contemporary postal folds and manuscript endorsement to the reverse.

Folio (22.3 x 27.6 cm).

Condition: Very good condition. Fold creases. Light age toning, minor edge wear and signs of handling. Reverse with contemporary manuscript docketing and postal folds.

Description

A scarce and unusually forceful Northumberland election broadside issued by Thomas Wentworth Beaumont during the celebrated Northumberland county election of 1826.

Addressed specifically “To the Freeholders of Alnwick and the Neighbourhood”, the broadside was issued from Alnwick on 22 February 1826 during one of the most fiercely contested electoral campaigns of the late Georgian period. Beaumont thanks local freeholders for their favourable reception and urges them not to allow his temporary absence in London to weaken support for what he repeatedly characterises as the cause of political independence.

The document is notable for its direct and combative language. Beaumont openly attacks an anonymous critic writing in the Tyne Mercury, declaring in emphatic capital letters:

“THE AUTHOR IS A RASCAL, HIS ADVERTISEMENT IS CONTEMPTIBLE, AND HIS ASSERTIONS ARE FALSE.”

Such blunt public denunciations were characteristic of the heated atmosphere surrounding county elections before parliamentary reform and provide valuable evidence of the aggressive rhetorical style employed in electoral contests of the period.

The broadside also offers insight into Beaumont’s political positioning. He presents himself as an independent candidate resisting aristocratic influence and seeking to preserve what he describes as the independent principles of Northumberland politics. References to a “Noble Lord” seeking votes and to services offered “under the cloak of thanking you for past Favours” illustrate the ongoing struggle between traditional aristocratic patronage and emerging notions of independent electoral representation.

Historical Context

The Northumberland election of 1826 ranks among the most important county elections of the late Georgian era. The contest involved Matthew Bell, Henry Thomas Liddell, Thomas Wentworth Beaumont and Lord Howick, producing an extraordinary quantity of election literature including addresses, speeches, songs, satirical squibs, dialogues and broadsides.

Much of this material was intended for immediate distribution and destruction. Consequently, surviving examples are often unique or recorded in only a handful of copies. They provide invaluable evidence for the study of electoral politics, public opinion and political communication during the decades immediately preceding the Reform Act of 1832.

This broadside is particularly significant because it captures Beaumont actively defending his candidacy while responding to criticism in the local press. It therefore documents not merely campaign promises but the day-to-day political battles fought through newspapers, handbills and public addresses.

Institutional Records

Major collections including the British Library, Bodleian Libraries and Northumberland Archives preserve substantial holdings of Northumberland election material and nineteenth-century political ephemera.

However, no separate institutional record for this specific broadside has been traced. While election literature relating to Thomas Wentworth Beaumont and the Northumberland election of 1826 is represented within archival and library collections, this particular address dated 22 February 1826 and beginning “To the Freeholders of Alnwick and the Neighbourhood” does not appear to be separately catalogued in the principal online databases consulted.

In accordance with the standard applied throughout this collection, if an item has not been separately catalogued, it cannot be regarded as properly recorded.

Importance

This broadside survives as a rare contemporary witness to one of Britain’s most significant pre-Reform county elections. Its explicit defence of political independence, its attack upon anonymous press criticism, and its appeal to local freeholders provide a vivid picture of electoral culture in Georgian Northumberland.

The survival of the reverse manuscript endorsements and postal folds further enhances its interest as an authentic piece of working political ephemera circulated during the campaign itself.

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