The early 1770s was a period of particularly turbulent domestic politics played out against the backdrop of increasing unrest in the American colonies. A generational divide, which had emerged in the social sphere, was spilling into the political arena, and focusing upon the parliamentary election of 1774 brings this age-based tension into sharp relief. In Newcastle this was the first contested election there had been in three decades. It followed in the wake of a high-profile confrontation between the civic authorities and the freemen. Few have concurred with Lewis Namier's appraisal of the politics in the town as essentially parochial, but questions about the nature and derivation of the popular tumult have remained unresolved. Re-examining the election from an intergenerational perspective adds a new dimension to these debates, while revealing the political implications of the cultural turn uncovered in Chapter 5.

Newcastle provides a useful case study because it was a freeman borough, and so all those entitled to take up membership of an incorporated trade had the right to vote. As a result, by eighteenth-century standards, the town had a relatively large and socially diverse electorate. More significantly, information about age-based voting patterns can be obtained by linking the poll book to guild records. Although this procedure is not without its limitations, it does provide insight into politics at the grassroots, making it possible to determine the extent to which the propaganda and political street theatre in 1774 reflected behaviour at the hustings. Attention is then turned to the repercussions of these generational tensions, considering what had changed by the time that this political turmoil eventually came to an end a decade later. Before this, briefly surveying the politics of the period from a national perspective gives context to the events that unfolded in Newcastle.

Political Instability

The political arena had been transformed during the 1760s as a complex set of factors converged. After four decades of Whig hegemony, the accession of George III had reordered the political environment in Westminster as the young king sought to assert his authority.