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The Lisburn by-elections of 1863

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Stephen A. Royle
Stephen A. Royle*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Queen’s University of Belfast
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Extract

Nineteenth-century contested elections were by no means sedate affairs. Dickens’s ‘Eatanswill’, with its mob violence, voters being bribed, locked up, rendered insensible and thrown into canals, found echoes in real events. Bribery, violence, shouting, fighting and horse-play were ‘relatively minor’ features but certainly present in the election at Warwick in 1868 for example. The Victorian system introduced to Ireland could be an explosive mixture indeed. About a fifth of Dr Theodore Hoppen’s recent major work, Elections, politics and society in Ireland, 1832–1885, is devoted to violence including a section specifically on electoral violence. Corruption was also common, and petitions to parliament objecting to the conduct of individual elections and demanding a fresh ballot were not infrequent.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 25 , Issue 99 , May 1987 , pp. 277 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1987

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References

1 Dickens, Charles, Pickwick papers (1836–7).Google Scholar

2 Paterson, David, A Victorian election: Warwick 1868 (Coventry and Warwickshire Pamphlet 12, Coventry, 1982).Google Scholar

3 Hoppen, K.T, Elections, politics and society in Ireland, 1832–1885 (Oxford, 1984), esp. pp 341–435.Google Scholar

4 Walker, B.M., Parliamentary election results in Ireland, 1801–1922 (Dublin, 1978).Google Scholar

5 Hoppen, , Elections, p. 85.Google Scholar

6 Walker, , Parliamentary election results, pp 226, 294–5.Google Scholar

7 Hoppen, , Elections, p. 288.Google Scholar

8 P.R.O.N.I., Emerson Tennent papers, D2922/A/1/1

9 Ibid.

10 Walter Stannus to Emerson Tennent, 10 Dec. 1852 (ibid., D2922/C/28/102).

11 Harriet Stannus to Emerson Tennent, 8 Dec. 1852 (ibid., no. 101).

12 Admiral Meynell to Emerson Tennent, 17 Dec. 1852 (ibid., no. 104).

13 Walter Stannus to Emerson Tennent, 15 Dec. 1852 (ibid., no. 103).

14 Walter Stannus to Emerson Tennent, 10 Dec. 1852 (ibid., no. 102).

15 Minutes of evidence taken before the select committee on the Lisburn election petition together with the proceedings of the committee and index, p. 161 [C 182], H.C. 1864, x, 271 (hereafter cited as S.C. on June 1863 election).

16 Ibid., p. 161.

17 Hoppen, Elections, p. 453.

18 Ibid., p. 59.

19 S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 137

20 Belfast Newsletter (hereafter B.N.L.), 6 June 1863.

21 Hoppen, Elections, p. 42.

22 B.N.L., 25 June 1863.

23 Hoppen, , Elections, p. 38.Google Scholar

24 Report from the general committee of elections on the withdrawal of the Lisburn election petition with the proceedings of the committee and minutes of evidence, [C 246], H.C. 1863, vii, 9–48 (hereafter cited as Report on withdrawal, Feb. 1863 election).

25 Minutes of evidence taken before the select committee on the Lisburn election petition with the proceedings of the committee, [C 343], H.C. 1863, vii, 49–70 (hereafter cited as S.C. on Feb. 1863 election).

26 S.C. on June 1863 election.

27 Anon, ., A history of the late contest for the borough of Lisburn: Verner v. Barbour (Lisburn, 1863).Google Scholar

28 John Rea, ‘A list of voters at the Lisburn election held on 21st February 1863 with a few observations thereon’ (P.R.O.N.I., D1763/1).

29 B.N.L, July and Aug. 1863, passim.

30 Ibid., 3 Jan. 1863.

31 Northern Whig, 5 Jan. 1863.

32 Rea, John, To the liberal electors of Lisburn, 20 June 1863 (P.R.O.N.I., T 2283/1).Google Scholar

33 B.N.L, 14 Jan. 1863.

34 Anon, ., Verner v. Barbour, p. 1.Google Scholar

35 Ibid.

36 B.N.L, 15 Jan. 1863.

37 Anon, ., Verner v. Barbour, p. 3.Google Scholar

38 B.N.L, 6, 27 June 1863.

39 Anon., , Verner v. Barbour, p. 4.Google Scholar

40 S. C. on June 1863 election, p. 175.

4l B.N.L, 10 Feb. 1863.

42 Ibid., 17 Feb. 1863.

43 Ibid., 19 Feb. 1863.

44 Anon, ., Verner v. Barbour, p. 7 Google Scholar

45 Anon, ., The Barbours of Hilden, their Scottish ancestors and American relations (N.p., 1907).Google Scholar

46 Anon., , Verner v. Barbour, p. 5.Google Scholar

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48 B.N.L., 19 Feb. 1863.

49 Ibid., 20 Feb. 1863.

50 Hoppen, , Elections, pp 393–6.Google Scholar

51 Daily Express, 23 Feb. 1863.

52 B.N.L., 10 Feb. 1863.

53 Anon, ., Verner v. Barbour, p. 4.Google Scholar

54 B.N.L., 16 Feb. 1863; S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 150.

55 B.N.L., 25 Feb. 1863.

56 Ibid., 27 June 1863.

57 S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 157; B.N.L., 16 Feb. 1863.

58 Belfast and Ulster Directory, 1863–4; Second [Griffith’s] valuation of Ireland, 1856–64: union of Lisburn, 1862 (P.R.O.N.I., VAL 2B/3/24B).

59 B.N.L., 12 Feb. 1863.

60 Rea, ‘List of voters’

61 B.N.L., 16 Feb. 1863.

62 Ibid.

63 Ibid., 25 Feb., 6 Mar 1863.

64 Rea, ‘List of voters’

65 Anon., , Verner v. Barbour, p. 9 Google Scholar; S.C. on June 1863 election, pp 115, 154.

66 Anon., , Verner v. Barbour, p. 10 Google Scholar; S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 160.

67 Daily Express, 23 Feb. 1863.

68 Hoppen, , Elections, pp 76–9.Google Scholar

69 Daily Express, 7 June 1863.

70 B.N.L., 9 Apr 1864.

7l S.C. On June 1863 election, p. 195.

72 B.N.L., 9 Jan. 1863.

73 S.C. on Feb. 1863 election, p. iii.

74 B.N.L., 23 Feb. 1863.

75 Rea, ‘List of voters’

76 B.N.L., 11 Mar. 1864

77 S.C. on Feb. 1863 election, pp 13–14.

78 B.N.L., 20 June 1863.

79 Ibid., 19, 21 Mar. 1863.

80 S.C on Feb. 1863 election, pp 2–9; B.N.L., 23 Feb. 1863.

81 S.C. on Feb. 1863 election, p. v

82 S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 67

83 Anon., , Verner v. Barbour, pp 8–9.Google Scholar

84 S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 171.

85 Ibid., p. 301, Anon., , Verner v. Barbour, p. 8.Google Scholar

86 S.C. on Feb. 1863 election, p. 10; B.N.L., 19 Mar 1864.

87 S.C. on Feb. 1863 election, p. 5; S.C. on June 1863 election, pp 68–75.

88 S.C on June 1863 election, pp 75–88.

89 Ibid., p. 67

90 Ibid., p. 147

91 B.N.L., 11 Feb. 1863.

92 S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 175.

93 Report on withdrawal, Feb. 1863 election, p. 19.

94 Ibid., pp 1–8.

95 S.C. on June 1863 election, pp 170, 176.

96 Rea, ‘List of voters’

97 Report on withdrawal, Feb. 1863 election, p. 9.

98 Ibid., pp 21–4.

99 B.N.L., 8 June 1863.

100 Ibid., 6, 10, 14 Mar 1863.

101 Ibid., 30 May 1863.

102 Ibid., 18 June 1863.

103 Ibid., 19 Mar 1864.

104 Ibid., 23, 25 June 1863.

105 Ibid., 26 June 1863.

106 Ibid., 27 June 1863.

107 S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 39.

108 Ibid., pp 144, 171.

109 Ibid., p. 83.

110 B.N.L., 25, 27 June 1863.

111 S.C. on June 1863 election, p. x.

112 Northern Whig, 7 Apr. 1864.

113 S.C. on June 1863 election, p. 209.

114 This document is reproduced with the original punctuation, capitalisation and italicisation.