Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T11:38:14.947Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Anatomy of an Eviction Campaign: The General Election of 1868 in Wales and its Aftermath

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Matthew Cragoe
Matthew Cragoe
Affiliation:
University of Hertfordshire, Watford, UK.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One of the most striking aspects of recent scholarship concerning electoral politics in the Victorian countryside is the widespread consensus that has developed that landlords did not – as was so commonly averred by Radical politicians at the time – use the threat of eviction as a weapon with which to terrorise farming tenants into voting as they were instructed. In the work of Norman Gash, Richard Olney and Frank O'Gorman, English tenants are represented as being quite happy to follow the lead offered them by their landlords, both from a ‘semi-feudal’ sense of loyalty and from a sense of gratitude for past favours and the hope of further favours to come. Even in Ireland, where a historiography dominated by Pomfret presented a much bleaker picture of landlord-tenant relations, the process of revision has considerably modified the received view. J. H. Whyte has argued that the landowners were far less tyrannical than had been generally thought, and regards as particularly erroneous the idea that landlords had regular recourse to eviction to punish tenants who had voted contrary to their wishes. This policy was not used, he suggests, because it patently did not work. Whyte's insights, though they have been modified in certain respects, were recently upheld in W. E. Vaughan's study of landlord and tenant relations in mid-Victorian Ireland. The history of politics in the Irish countryside is thus seen as having approximated that of England, and recent scholarship suggests a similar picture for Lowland Scotland, where, outside the Famine years, patterns of eviction were similar to those in Ireland. In only one country do the landowners still retain intact their reputation for electoral tyranny: Wales.

Type
Research Article
Information
Rural History , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , October 1998 , pp. 177 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Ashworth, Henry, Recollections of Richard Cobden (London, 1879), pp. 147, 171, 282.Google Scholar

2. Gash, N., Politics in the Age of Peel: A Study in the Technique of Parliamentary Representation, 1830–50 (2nd. edn., Hassocks, 1977), pp. 177–85Google Scholar; Olney, R., Lincolnshire Politics, 1832–85 (Oxford, 1973), pp. 32–48Google Scholar; O'Gorman, F., ‘Electoral Deference in Unreformed England, 1760–1832’, Journal of Modern History, 56 (1984), 391–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Pomfret, J. E., The Struggle for Land in Ireland, 1800–1923 (Princeton, 1930).Google Scholar

4. Whyte, J. H., ‘Landlord Influence at Elections in Ireland, 1760–1885’, English Historical Review, 80 (1965), 740–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Hoppen, K. T., Elections, Politics and Society in Ireland, 1832–85 (Oxford, 1984), p. 147.Google Scholar

6. Vaughan, W. E., Landlords and Tenants in Mid-Victorian Ireland (Oxford, 1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Devine, T. M., The Transformation of Rural Scotland: Social Change and the Agrarian Economy, 1660–1815 (Edinburgh, 1994), pp. 118–19Google Scholar; The Great Highland Famine (Edinburgh, 1988), pp. 178–89.Google Scholar The Highlands, however, did witness clearances.

8. Yr Amserau, 27Google ScholarEbrill, 1859, editorial, ‘Etholwyr Sir Feirionydd’Google Scholar; Jones, I. G., ‘Merioneth Politics at Mid-Century’ in Jones, I. G. (ed.), Explorations and Explanations: Essays in the Social History of Victorian Wales (Llandyssul, 1981), pp. 83–164Google Scholar, deals fully with this controversy.

9. PP 1868–9, VIII, Select Committee on Parliamentary and Municipal Elections, particularly the evidence of Thomas Hughes and Reverend Michael D. Jones.

10. For this fund see Cragoe, M., ‘John Griffith, Y Gohebydd, and the General Election of 1868 in Wales’, in Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (forthcoming).Google Scholar

11. Jenkins, R. T., ‘The Development of Nationalism in Wales’, Sociological Review, 27 (1935), 163–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Morgan, K. O., Wales in British Politics 1868–1922 (3rd. edn., Cardiff, 1980) pp. 22–7Google Scholar; Jenkins, P., A History of Modern Wales, 1536–1990 (London, 1992), pp. 321–4.Google Scholar

12. Hanham, H. J., Elections and Party Management: Politics in the time of Disraeli and Gladstone (London, 1959), pp. 13–14Google Scholar; Robbins, K., Nineteenth Century Britain: Integration and Diversity (Oxford, 1988), p. 110Google Scholar; Evans, E. J., The Forging of the Modern State: Early Industrial Britain, 1783–1870, 2nd. ed. (London, 1996), p. 374.Google Scholar

13. Pelling, H., ‘Land Reform and Class Conflict in Victorian Britain’, in The Structured Crowd: Essays in English Social History (Brighton, 1981), pp. 100–135Google Scholar; Biagini, E., Liberty, Retrenchment and Reform (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 50–60, 186–91.Google Scholar For a Welsh version of this, accusing landowners of giving short leases on chapels to force dissenters to vote as directed: Baner Ac Amserau Cymru, 14 Hydref 1868, 3–4, ‘Llythr Y Gohebydd’.Google Scholar

14. This paragraph is based upon Solow, B., The Land Question and the Irish Economy, 1870–1903 (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), pp. 54–7Google Scholar; Vaughan, W. E., Landlords and Tenants, pp. 21–3.Google Scholar

15. Jones, D. S., ‘The Cleavage Between Graziers and Peasants in the Land Struggle, 1890–1910’Google Scholar, in Clark, S. and Donelly, J. S. Jr., Irish Peasants: Violence and Political Unrest, 1780–1914 (Wisconsin, 1983), pp. 392–6.Google Scholar

16. Devine, , The Great Highland Famine, pp. 179–89.Google Scholar

17. Hoppen, , Elections, Politics and Society, p. 128.Google Scholar

18. Solow, , The Land Question, pp. 54–7.Google Scholar

19. Vaughan, , Landlords and Tenants, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

20. Beckett, J. V., ‘Landownership and Estate Management’, in Mingay, G. (ed.), The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. VI, 1750–1850 (Cambridge, 1989), p. 616.Google Scholar

21. Beastall, T. W., The Agricultural Revolution in Lincolnshire (Lincoln, 1978), p. 152.Google Scholar

22. Wordie, J. R., Estate Management in Eighteenth Century England: The Building of the Leveson-Gower Fortune (London, 1982), p. 184.Google Scholar

23. Wade-Martins, S., A Great Estate at Work: The Holkham Estate and its Inhabitants in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1980).Google Scholar

24. Spring, D., The English Landed Estate in the Nineteenth Century: Its Administration (Baltimore, 1963), p. 110.Google Scholar

25. Short, B., ‘The Turnover of Tenants on the Ashburnham Estate, 1830–1850’, Sussex Archaeological Collections, 113 (1975), 164.Google Scholar

26. Wade-Martins, , A Great Estate, pp. 111–12.Google Scholar

27. Thompson, F. M. L., English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1963), p. 202.Google Scholar

28. Taylor, M., The Decline of British Radicalism 1847–1860 (Oxford, 1995), pp. 53–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29. O'Gorman, F., ‘Electoral Deference in Unreformed England, 1760–1832’, Journal of Modern History, 56 (1984), 391–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30. Gash, , Politics in the Age of Peel, pp. 177–85.Google Scholar

31. Moore, D. C., The Politics of Deference (Hassocks, 1976)Google Scholar; Olney, , Lincolnshire Politics, pp. 32–48.Google Scholar

32. Fisher, J. R., ‘The Limits of Deference’, Journal of British Studies, 21 (1981), pp. 90–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33. Thompson, , English Landed Society, p. 203Google Scholar; Beckett, , ‘Landownership’, p. 616Google Scholar; Beastall, , The Agricultural Revolutionm, p. 152.Google Scholar

34. Whyte, , ‘Landlord Influence at Irish Elections’Google Scholar; Vaughan, , Landlords and Tenants, p. 33.Google Scholar

35. Hoppen, , Elections, Politics and Society, pp. 144–9.Google Scholar

36. Howell, D., Land and People in Nineteenth Century Wales (London, 1977), pp. 63–4.Google Scholar

37. Davies, J., Cardiff and the Marquesses of Bute (Cardiff, 1981), pp. 158–60.Google Scholar

38. Cragoe, M., An Anglican Aristocracy: The Moral Economy of the Landed Estate in Carmarthenshire, 1832–1895 (Oxford, 1996), pp. 44–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Colyer, R., ‘Some Aspects of Land Occupation in Nineteenth-Century Cardiganshire’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1981), 85–6.Google Scholar

39. Chester Record Office, Stanley of Alderley MS, DSA/105/2, ‘WO Stanley 1838, ‘Journals & Notes’ [unfoliated], ‘May 1838’.

40. Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 24th 07 1852Google Scholar, editorial. National Library of Wales/Chirk Castle MSS/C/96, Longueville & Williams to [unknown], 6th 07 1852, confirming this impression.Google Scholar

41. Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 17th 07 1852, advertisement.Google Scholar

42. Jones, , ‘Merioneth Politics at Mid-Century’, remains the authoritative treatment of this controversy.Google Scholar

43. Reports of pressure being applied to tenants on both estates surfaced during the campign; Yr Amserau, 11 Mai 1859, ‘Brwydr Fawr Sir Feirionydd’.Google Scholar

44. Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 22nd 07 1868, Denbighshire and Merioneth nominations.Google Scholar

45. Baner Cymru, 27 Gorphenaf 1859, p. 465Google Scholar, ‘Yr Erlidigaeth yn Sir Feirionydd’; Yr Amserau, 31 Awst and 21 Medi 1859Google Scholar, advertisement: ‘Etholiad Sir Feirionydd a Thenantiaid Digartref’; Baner Ac Amserau Cymru, 26 Hydref 1859, p. 64.Google Scholar The subscription raised £80.

46. Cragoe, , ‘John Griffith, “Y Gohebydd”’Google Scholar, for more on this.

47. Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 22nd 07 1868Google Scholar, ‘Merionethshire Contested Election’. Baner Ac Amserau Cymru, 26 Gorphenaf 1865, p. 6Google Scholar, ‘Y Bala a'i Helyntion’, claims that the ‘screw was again being used heavily in the vicinity of Bala’.

48. Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald, 20th 06 1868Google Scholar, editorial; Baner Ac Amserau Cymru, 22 Gorphenaf 1868, pp. 3–5, ‘Llythr Y Gohebydd’.Google Scholar

49. Baner Ac Amserau Cymru, 31 Mawrth 1869, p. 7Google Scholar, letter of ‘Tremydd’, ‘Sir Aberteifi: Dydd Dial y Toryaid’.

50. The Welsh-language Liberal newspapers printed Gohebydd's reports but not the landowners' responses. Baner Ac Amserau Cymru, 22 Rhagfyr 1869, pp. 4–5Google Scholar, ‘Y Merthyron Politicaidd’.

51. The tenants in question were David Davies of Rhosgoch, Llanycrwys (landlord, Mr. Harford of Falcondale); Joshua Thomas, Blaenina (Herbert Evans, Highmead); and David Evans of Penrhywddryce, Cydplwyf (Reverend Thomas Williams).

52. T. Williams, Nantbwlch (Reverend T. Jenkins); S. Jones, Dolgoy (D. Thomas, Llanfair); W. James, Corgan (Major Watkins, Llwynybrain).

53. Welshman, 17th 12 1869.Google Scholar

54. Western Mail, 22nd 12 1869.Google Scholar

55. One of these was Mr Jones, Maesyongiau, who was himelf accused of having evicted a tenant for political reason after the election – a fact which perhaps suggests that he was innocent of the charge made against him. This was not the only recorded instance: Cambria Daily Leader, 16th and 20th 12 1869.Google Scholar

56. Cambria Daily Leader, 27th 12 1869, letter of Davies, J..Google Scholar

57. Cambria Daily Leader, 29th 12 1869, letter of Davies, J..Google Scholar

58. Carmarthen Journal, 14th 01 1870.Google Scholar

59. Carmarthen Journal, 18th 02 1870.Google Scholar

60. Welshman, 24th 12 1869.Google Scholar

61. Carmarthen Journal, 24th 12 1869, letter of Longcroft, CharlesGoogle Scholar; Cambria Daily Leader, 28th 12 1869, letter of Jones, Morgan.Google Scholar

62. Cambria Daily Leader, 5th 01 1870, letter of Davies, ThomasGoogle Scholar; Jones, Morgan responded 10th 01 1870.Google Scholar

63. Welsh farms were often passed on in this way: Cragoe, , An Anglican Aristocracy, pp. 34–5.Google Scholar Morgan's case is complicated as he held land from two estates, Nanteos, and Gogerddan, : Welshman, 31st 12 1869.Google Scholar

64. The others were: Evan Beynon, Blaenycwm (Mr Davies, Bank House); Reverend W. M. Davies, Blaenycoed (Mr Green, Carmarthen); J. James, Wernddu (Colonel Powell, Nanteos); D. Jones, Brynchwyth (Colonel Powell, Nanteos); D. Evans, Erwen Fach (Colonel Saunders Davies, Pentre); Reverend D. Davies, Hafodhir (Earl of Lisburne).

65. Welshman, 17th 12 1869.Google Scholar

66. All four cases are reported in Welshman, 31st 12 1869.Google Scholar

67. Welshman, 24th 12 1869.Google Scholar

68. Welshman, 17th 12 1869.Google Scholar

69. Welshman, 17th 12 1869.Google Scholar

70. Welshman, 31th 12 1869.Google Scholar

71. The case of Lewis, Roderick and Owen appeared in Welshman, 17th 12 1869.Google Scholar

72. As John Bowen, Llwyn Einon Ucha described in a letter respecting the eviction of Evan Beynon of Blaenycwm, tenant of Mr Davies, Bank House: ‘the plumper for Sartoris [Liberal candidate in Carmarthenshire] … was as a microscope for Mr. Davies to perceive … small wrong things done by Mr. E. B. magnified, so he discovered through his new glass that Evan Beynon was a “notoriously slovenly and ruinously bad farmer” …2. Welshman, 7th 01 1870.Google Scholar

73. Welshman, 14th 01 1870, letter of Jones, M..Google Scholar

74. Welshman, 31st 12 1869.Google Scholar

75. Welshman, 17th 12 1869.Google Scholar

76. Bowen Thomas also held land of his own elsewhere, and had been removing fodder from his rented holding to feed cattle thereon, contrary to his leasing agreement: Welshman, 24th 12 1869, and 4th 01 1870, letter of Mr Thomas of Parke.Google Scholar

77. Welshman, 24th and 31st 12 1869.Google Scholar

78. These were a feature of the election in this area: Cragoe, M., ‘Conscience or Coercion? Clerical Influence at the General Election of 1868 in Wales’, Past and Present, 149 (1995), 163–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

79. Welshman, 14th 01 1870.Google Scholar

80. Hansard, third series, 12th 08 1871.Google Scholar

81. Cragoe, , An Anglican Aristocracy, pp. 176–7.Google Scholar

82. Gwynedd Record Office, Caernarfon: X/Vaynol/2783, Duff, R. G. to Millington, John, 7th 11 1868.Google Scholar

83. I intend to deal with the Owen case in more detail elsewhere.

84. Welshman, 21st 12 1869, letter of Gardiner, R..Google Scholar