In this article Dr Kathryn Rix and Dr Martin Spychal of our House of Commons, 1832-1868 project discuss a pivotal vote in the early nineteenth-century Commons – the selection of the Speaker in February 1835. They explore popular reaction to the vote, its short and long-term significance and the difficulties of compiling an accurate division list before the publication of an official record of parliamentary … Continue reading The Speakership election of 1835
On the anniversary of Swynfen Jervis’s return for Bridport in 1837, Dr Philip Salmon of the Victorian Commons explores the career of this ‘eccentric’ MP, focusing on the way in which he defied the Whig-Liberal government in 1839… One of the themes being explored by the Victorian Commons project is the decline of ‘independence’ in the 19th-century Commons and the rise of party-based voting by … Continue reading Defying the Whip: ‘rebel’ MP Swynfen Jervis (1797-1867)
Our 1832-68 House of Commons project has researched many MPs who were better known for their exploits outside Parliament than in the Commons. In this guest article, Dr Matthew McDowell, of the University of Edinburgh, who has contributed to our 1832-68 project with articles on Buteshire and its MPs, explores the career of the noted Arctic explorer James Lamont. At only four years old, a … Continue reading James Lamont (1828-1913), Arctic explorer and scientist
The ongoing research of our House of Commons, 1832-1868 project has found a surprising number of MPs who came from relatively humble backgrounds, using politics as a means of personal advancement. In this post our former colleague Dr Stephen Ball explores the career of Alfred Rhodes Bristow, a Greenwich draper’s son who became Liberal MP for Kidderminster. By the 1850s a seat in Parliament was … Continue reading From Greenwich to the green benches: Alfred Rhodes Bristow (1818-1875)
Continuing our Local History focus on Glamorgan, Dr. Kathryn Rix, Assistant Editor of our House of Commons, 1832-68 project looks at the constituency’s elections after the 1832 Reform Act, when the long-serving MP, Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, exerted a strong influence over the county. Described in 1841 as ‘the Lancashire of Wales’, Glamorgan was Wales’s wealthiest and most industrialised county. Coal mining employed almost one … Continue reading Representing Glamorgan, 1832-85: Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot and his colleagues
Alongside biographies of 2,591 MPs, our House of Commons 1832-68 project is also researching and writing articles on the 401 English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh constituencies in existence during this period. Following on from this month’s earlier local history post on York, this blog takes this constituency as an example to explain some of the key features of our constituency articles, and how they might … Continue reading York: exploring the local history of a Victorian constituency
Dr Kathryn Rix, Assistant Editor of the House of Commons 1832-1868 Section explains the relationship between women, Parliament and politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly focusing on their expanded role within local government in the prelude to the Representation of the People Act 1918. This post is based in part on Kathryn’s contribution to the book accompanying the ‘Voice and Vote’ exhibition currently … Continue reading Before the vote was won: women and politics, 1868-1918
Today’s blog ahead of our Parliaments, Politics and People seminar at the Institute of Historical Research this evening, is from Dr Matthew Johnson. Matthew is Associate Professor (Modern British History) at the University of Durham. He gave his paper at our last PPP seminar on ‘Ex-servicemen and the Liberal Party: the Great War generation and the electoral and parliamentary politics of the 1920s’… The political … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics and People seminar – Ex-servicemen and the Liberal Party: the Great War generation and the electoral and parliamentary politics of the 1920s
At our last ‘Parliaments, Politics & People’ seminar, Dr. Kathryn Rix, assistant editor of our Victorian Commons project, spoke on ‘The professionalisation of electoral politics: the Liberal and Conservative party agents, 1880-1910’. The professional party agents are the subject of her recent book, Parties, agents and electoral culture in England, 1880-1910, recently published by Boydell and Brewer in the Royal Historical Society’s Studies in History … Continue reading Parliaments, Politics & People Seminar: Kathryn Rix, ‘The professionalisation of electoral politics: the Liberal and Conservative party agents, 1880-1910’
Inspired by the political upheaval in many of our political parties after the Brexit vote, we’ve been looking this summer at some historic party splits. In today’s blog we move into the 20th century, and the personal and political rivalry between two Liberal Prime Ministers that pulled their party apart… At the declaration of war in August 1914, Herbert Asquith had been Liberal Prime Minister … Continue reading David Lloyd George and Herbert Asquith: Liberals at war
