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Election politics in the borough of Antrim, 1750-1800
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 July 2017
Extract
Antrim was a ‘potwalloping’ borough. It had therefore no corporation nor any corporate function. By the terms of its charter of 1665 it existed simply to return two members to parliament, and this it continued to do till it was disfranchised by the act of the union in 1800. Its only borough official was the seneschal of the manor of Moylinny, who was appointed by the lord of that manor and acted as returning officer at borough of Antrim elections. The borough comprised, roughly speaking, the town and sixteen surrounding townlands of Antrim, known popularly as ‘Antrim and the sixteen towns’. The lord of its soil was the earl of Massereene, who, by a curious freak, was not lord of the manor of Moylinny. This lordship belonged to the earl of Donegall, to whom Lord Massereene also paid a chief rent for the Antrim estate. But because the interests of the two families had always been closely intertwined and had been drawn still closer together by marriage alliance in 1713, Lord Massereene had no difficulty in getting his nominee appointed seneschal of the manor, and in the period 1750–1800 the seneschal was invariably the receiver of the rents on his Antrim estate. The franchise in Antrim was vested by the charter in the inhabitants of the borough. It was limited by the election act of 1727 to the protestant inhabitants only, and further limited by the election act of 1795 to £5 householders, whether protestant or catholic. This was a drastic limitation, since up to then there had been no property qualification in the potwalloper type of franchise. The result in Antrim was an enormous fall in the number of voters. The second earl of Massereene estimated that the electorate prior to 1795 consisted of between 200 and 300 people, and of somewhere around 30 after that date. In 1801 there were 36 registered electors. Such was the constitution of Antrim borough. Although on the face of it simple enough, it was yet sufficiently complex to provide no less than five different parties with a claim to compensation for its disfranchisement in 1800.
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References
1 Rental of the Massereene estate, 1713 (P.R.O.N.I., Foster/Massereene papers, D.562/834. Subsequent references to the Foster/Massereene papers will omit their location and use the abreviation, F/M papers). I wish to thank Viscount Massereene and Ferrard and the owners of the other papers I have used for facilitating my research and making this article possible.
2 1 George II, c. 9, sect. 7.
3 35 George III, c. 29, sect. 55.
4 Draft petition of Lord Massereene to the commissioners for awarding compensation for boroughs disfranchised by the act of union, c. 1801 (F/M papers, D.207/10/37).
5 Mun. corp. Ire., rep., app. I, pp 645-7 [27], H.C. 1835.
6 Rough memo, of legal cases and papers concerning the Massereene family, c. i8oo (F/M papers, D.562/2781): copy recognizance entered into by the dowager countess as guardian of the second earl of Massereene, 1 Apr. 1758 (P.R.O.N.I., Wallace papers, T. 1009/25).
7 Rental of the Massereene estate, 1713 (F/M papers, D.562/834).
8 Bodkin, M. (ed.), Notes on the Irish parliament in 1773, in R.I.A. Proc, xlviii, C, no. 4, p. 175 Google Scholar.
9 Copy extract of an agreement between Lords Antrim and Hertford and the dowager countess of Massereene for apportioning among themselves the expenses of the 1761 election in County Antrim, c. June 1761 (P.R.O.N.X, Antrim papers, T., 473, p., 117).
10 Johnston, G.B. & Ire., p. 182.
11 Copy letter from Lord Ferrard to the marquess of Donegall, 26 June 1830 (F/M papers, D.562/3461 B): Chichester Skeffington to Lady Harriet Skeffington, 4 Apr. 1790 (F/M papers, T.2519/4/54).
12 Rev. Glasson Porter of Larne (writing under the pseudonym, ‘an old Whig’), County Antrim elections from 1776 to 1797, in the Northern Whig, 26 June 1841.
13 Reid, Presb. ch. in Ire., iii, 341 n.
14 Johnston, G.B. & Ire., pp 179-88.
15 Rev. George Macartney at Lissanoure to Earl Macartney in London, 29 Oct. 1805 (P.R.O.N.I., Macartney papers, D.572/18/106).
16 Francis Hutchinson (Lord Massereene’s tutor and companion on the grand tour) in Brussels to the dowager countess, 23 Jan. 1761 (F/M papers, D. 562/2353).
17 Report of evidence heard before a special jury at the County Antrim assizes in a lawsuit over the validity of the second earl of Masser eene’s will, printed in the Belfast News Letter, 24 Mar. 1809.
18 Lord Massereene to marquess of Carmarthen, 26 Nov. 1788, published in H.M.C. rep. II, app. VII, p. 56.
19 Draft letter from the dowager countess to the duke of Dorset, 18 Sept. 1787 (F/M papers, D.562/2777).
20 Draft letter from the dowager countess to an unknown correspondent at Antrim, c. 1783 (F/M papers, D.562/3576).
21 Belfast News Letter, 20-24 Nov. 1789.
22 Johnston, Edith M. (ed.), The state of the Irish house of commons in 1791, in R.I.A. Proc., lix, C, no. 1, p. 17 Google Scholar.
23 Belfast News Letter, 24 Mar. 1809.
24 Bodkin, Ir parl, in 1773, p. 175.
25 Account for the expenses of the 1769 by-election in Antrim borough, c. Nov. 1769 (F/M papers, D.562/2340).
26 Samuel Bristow (the agent on the Massereenes’ Antrim estate) to the dowager countess, 4 Sept. 1771 (F/M papers, D.562/293).
27 Belfast News Letter, 24 Mar. 1809.
28 Draft petition of Lord Massereene to the commissioners for compensation, c. 1801 (F/M papers, D.207/10/37).
29 Belfast News Letter, 24 Mar. 1809.
30 Mun. corp. Ire., rep., app. 1, p. 645.
31 Samuel Bristow at Antrim to the dowager countess, 18 Nov. 1769 (F/M papers, D.562/2740).
32 Ibid.
33 Samuel McCormick and John Ranken at Antrim to the dowager countess, 17 Jan. 1770 (F/M papers, D.562/2743).
34 William Lyndon at Antrim to the dowager countess, 6 Aug. 1774 (F/M papers, D.562/2757).
35 Atkinson, A., Ireland exhibited to England (2 vols, London, 1823 Google Scholar), i, 120.
36 Volume of Richard Griffith’s valuation of Ireland which relates to the barony of lower Massereene, 1836 (P.R.O.N.I., VAL. 1, B/163).
37 Hughes, Patentee officers, p. 128.
38 Lord Massereene to Lord Hardwicke, 10 Aug. and 17 Oct. 1803, printed in The viceroy’s post-bag, ed. MacDonagh, M. (London 1904), pp 419–21, 427-9Google Scholar.
39 A bill on behalf of the plaintiff in the chancery case of Lord Massereene v. Lord Ferrard in 1838 (F/M papers, D.1739/3/15, p. 86) shows that ‘the heirs of Robert Thompson’ held a perpetuity from the Massereenes of land in the townland of Muckamore, barony of lower Massereene, for which they paid £29 a year. This Robert Thompson was probably, though not certainly, the grandson of Thomas Thompson of Greenmount.
40 Henry Meredyth to dowager countess, 25 Jan. 1770 (F/M papers, D.562/2744).
41 Hughes, Patentee officers, p. 128.
42 Ibid.; also, Sir Charles Saxton at Dublin Castle to John Foster, 19 Jan. 1809 (F/M papers, D.562/10849).
43 Robert Thompson at Ravensdale to John Foster, 10 Nov. 1806 (F/M papers, D.562/4360).
44 Atkinson, A., Ireland exhibited to England, ii, 143 Google Scholar.
45 Johnston, G.B. & Ire., p. 163.
46 Copy agreement between the Fosters and the Tenisons for nominating alternately the borough officers, freemen and M.P.s for Dunleer, 30 June 1735 (F/M papers, D.207/19/56).
47 Belfast News Letter, 24-8 May 1776.
48 Commons’ in. Ire. (1796-1800), ix, 297, 319, 420-21.
49 Belfast News Letter, 18-21 Aug. 1783.
50 Draft letter from dowager countess to an unknown correspondent at Antrim, c. 1783 (F/M papers, D.562/3576).
51 Chichester Skeffington to Lady Harriet Skeffington, 22 Apr. 1790 (F/M papers, T.2519/4/62).
52 Same at Antrim to same, 28 Mar. 1791 (F/M papers, D.562/2660).
53 Same at Antrim to same, 26 Mar. 1791 (F/M papers, D.562/2659).
54 Belfast News Letter, 15-18 Mar. 1791.
55 Chichester Skeffington to Lady Harriet Skeffington, 16 Apr. 1791 (F/M papers, D.562/2662): for details of the petitions against the 1790 and 1791 elections, see Commons’ jn. Ire., xiv, 11, 38, 279, 4.37.
56 Lord Massereene to Lord Hardwicke, 10 Aug. 1803, printed in The viceroy’s post-bag, p. 419.
57 Draft letter from dowager countess to an unknown correspondent at Antrim, c. 1783 (F/M papers, D.562/3576).
58 Anonymous ballad addressed to Chichester Skeffington, 1776 (F/M papers, D.562/2840).
59 Mun. corp. Ire., rep. app. i, p. 645.
60 Lord Massereene to Lord Hardwicke, io Aug. 1803, printed in The viceroy’s post-bag, p. 419.
61 Bill on behalf of the plaintiff in the chancery case of Lord Masser eene v. Lord Ferrard, 1838 (F/M papers, D.1739/3/15, pp 81-6).
62 Memo, of deeds in Mr Clark’s possession, 1816 (F/M papers, D. 207/15/32).
63 Schedule of leases on Lord Massereene’s County Antrim estates sent by Messrs Dunn & Meade to George Wynne at Antrim, 17 Apr. 1846 (F/M papers, D.1739/3/14).
64 Chichester Skeffington to Henry, earl of Massereene, 1 Jan. 1811 (F/M papers, D.562/16451).
65 Entry in the records of the Antrim presbytery, 16 June 1821 (P.R.O.N.I., Antrim presbytery records, T.1053, p. 158).
66 Belfast News Letter, 8-12 Aug. 1783.
67 Classon Porter, County Antrim elections.
68 A collection of all the authenticated public addresses, resolutions and advertisements relative to the late election of knights of the shire for the county of Antrim (Belfast, 1790), pp 14 Google Scholar, 43.
69 William Lyndon at Antrim to the dowager countess, б Aug. 1774 (F/M papers, D.562/2757).
70 Bodkin, Ir. pari, in 1773, p. 175.
71 Commons’ jn. Ire., vii, pp 35, 95, 113.
72 Chichester Skeffington to Lady Harriet Skeffington, 11 Sept. [1779] (F/M papers, T.2519/4/139).
73 William McConchy at Antrim to Chichester Skeffington, 24 July 1782 (F/M papers, D.562/2343).
74 Account for the expenses of the 1769 by-election in Antrim borough, c. Nov. 1769 (F/M papers,, D.562/2340).
75 Receipt from Samuel Heron (a law agent of the Massereene family) to William and Chichester Skeffington, 7 Mar. 1778 (F/M papers, D.562/2918).
76 Samuel Heron at Lisburn to Chichester Skeffington, 26 May 1779 (F/M papers, D.562/2839 A).
77 Probably one of the two Metges who had sat for the borough of Ratoath, County Meath, in the previous parliament.
78 Jocelyn was a younger son of the earl of Roden, and Chichester Skeffington’s brother-in-law. The Jocelyns and the Wallers were connected in politics and by marriage.
79 John Foster. Like Metge, Jocelyn and Waller, Foster came from the Louth/Meath area and knew the Thompsons as a result of the Thompson’s landed and commercial interests in that part of the world.
80 Probably Rev. George Macartney, vicar of Antrim.
81 William Skeffington at Kingston to Chichester Skeffington in Dublin, io Aug. 1790 (F/M papers, D.562/141).
82 Thomas L. Stewart in Dublin to same in Belfast, 21 Dec. 1791 (F/M papers, D.562/2834).
83 Fragment of a letter from countess of Roden to Lady Harriet Skeffington, c. 1789? (F/M papers, D.562/3191).
84 Daniel Macnamara at Wimbledon to dowager countess at Leixlip Castle, Dublin, 12 Sept. 1772 (F/M papers, D.562/2759).
85 Same in London to same, 10 Aug. 1785 (F/M papers, D.562/2764).
86 William Skeffington to (Daniel Macnamara?), c. 1795 (P.R.O.N.I., miscellaneous collection of purchased items, D.914/6).
87 Alan Waring in Dublin to dowager countess at Antrim, 9 Oct. 1762 (F/M papers, D.562/2736).
88 Belfast Newsletter, 24 Mar. 1809.
89 Earl of Roden to Lady Harriet Skeffington, 6 Sept. [1785] (F/M papers, D.562/3550).
90 Earl Harcourt to Lord North, 27 Oct. 1775, quoted in Froude Ire. (1885), ii, 195.
91 Hughes, Patentee officers, p. 120.
92 Johnston, Irish house of commons in 1791, p. 17.
93 Robert Hobart at Dublin Castle to Chichester Skeffington, 11 Mar. 1791 (F/M papers, D.562/1921).
94 Chichester Skeffington in Belfast to Lady Harriet Skeffington, 13 May 1791 (F/M papers, D.562/2637).
95 Same (whereabouts unstated) to same, [1781] (F/M papers, D.562/ 2716).
96 Same in Dublin to same, u Aug. 1787 (F/M papers, D.562/1786).
97 Johnston, G.B. & Ire., p. 165.
98 Ibid., p. 162.
99 Thomas Burgh to lord chief baron Anthony Foster, 5 Apr. 1776 (F/M papers, D.562/15.16): Johnston, Irish house of commons in ijgi, p. 30.
100 Mun. corp. Ire., rep., app. Ill, pp 1032-3.
101 N. Kent, at Clifford’s inn to earl of Abercorn, 8 May 1754 (P.R.O.N.I., Abercorn papers, T.2541/I.A.1/3/18); earl of Abercorn to H. Pomeroy, 19 Feb. 1790 (ibid., T.2541/I.K.11, p. 12).
102 Lord Tyrone to earl of Antrim, 19 Jan. 1738 (P.R.O.NJ., Antrim papers, T.473, p. 108); John McNaghten to earl of Antrim, 14 May 1751 (ibid., T.473, p. 117).
103 Agreement between Lord Tyrone and Richard Jackson, 30 Sept. 1751 (P.R.O.N.I., Hezlett of Bovevagh papers, D.668).
104 Brief for plaintiff in the king v. Deane, 19 June 1759 (F/M papers, D.562/1659).
105 Brief to oppose defendant’s motion in the king v. John and Charles Ruxton, c. 1769 (F/M papers, D.562/5210).
106 Ridgeway, W, Reports of cases upon appeals and writs of error since the restoration of the appellate jurisdiction, (3 vols, Dublin, 1795-98)Google Scholar, ii, 445 ff.
107 W Mercer to [earl of Roden?], 6 Sept. 1782 (F/M papers, D.562/ 4648).
108 Ridgeway, Reports of cases upon appeals, ii, 445 ff.
109 Rev. William Foster to John Foster, 10 Sept. 1782 (F/M papers, D.562/4647).
110 Countess of Roden at Hyde hall to Lady Harriet Skeffington, 6 Oct. [1782?] (F/M papers, D.562/2588).
111 21 George II, c. 10, sect. 8.
112 Hyde, >H. Montgomery, The rise of Castlereagh (London, 1933), pp 11–33 H.+Montgomery,+The+rise+of+Castlereagh+(London,+1933),+pp+11–33>Google Scholar; opinion of John Toler on the Ponsonby family’s title to New townards borough, 1787 (P.R.O.N.I., Galedon papers, D.2433/28).
113 Mun. corp. Ire., rep., app. I, p. 108.
114 Johnston, G.B. & Ire., p. 175, Lord Massereene to Hon. John Skeffington, 5 Dec. 1713 (F/M papers, D.562/90), Fitzgerald, Brian, Lady Louisa Connolly, 1 y43-1821, an Anglo-Irish biography (London and New York, 1950 Google Scholar), p. 18.
115 Hon. Thomas Knox to earl of Abercorn, 21 Apr. 1790 (P.R.O.N.L, Abercorn papers, T.2541/I.B. 1/1).
116 Johnston, G.B. & Ire., p. 160.