NORTHUMBERLAND ELECTION BROADSIDE – To The Freeholders Of Northumberland – Alnwick – 1826

Rare Northumberland election broadside issued 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 broadside is addressed “To the Freeholders of Northumberland” and attacks an alleged coalition between Henry Thomas Liddell and Thomas Wentworth Beaumont. It declares that “the Juggle is now exposed” and claims that the “long-continued and warm Embraces” of Liddell and Beaumont on the hustings at Morpeth reveal an “odious” and “unnatural Arrangement” between the two interests.

The text is particularly valuable for its detailed references to electoral organisation and local political geography. It names Shields and Hexham as respective strongholds, refers to lead miners supporting Liddell, Beaumont’s agents canvassing for Liddell, and Liddell’s “Plumpers” allegedly offering half their votes to Beaumont in return for reciprocal support. It also accuses Liddell’s friends of spreading false reports prejudicial to Lord Howick’s interest and recalls Liddell’s earlier negotiations with Mrs Beaumont and his conduct concerning the Catholic question.

The broadside forms part of the extraordinary outpouring of printed propaganda generated by the famous four-cornered Northumberland election involving Lord Howick, Matthew Bell, Henry Thomas Liddell, and Thomas Wentworth Beaumont. The contest became notorious for immense expenditure, coalition rumours, religious controversy, aggressive canvassing, and highly personal printed attacks. The wider campaign also produced the well-known duel on Bamburgh Sands between Beaumont and John Lambton, later Earl of Durham.

This broadside is especially interesting as a direct attack upon alleged tactical voting and coalition management. Its references to “plumpers”, regional strongholds, colour symbolism, and candidate agents provide important evidence for the mechanics of county electioneering in the pre-Reform period.

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.

Single printed broadside. Sheet size approximately 27.8 x 22.3 cm.

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

A scarce and historically significant survival of Georgian Northumberland electoral propaganda, especially notable for its references to coalition tactics, plumper voting, regional canvassing, and the political machinery of the 1826 county election.

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