(Oxfordshire. Election.) THE POLL
of the freeholders of Oxfordshire,
taken at the County Court held in Oxford on the 17th of April, 1754, by Tho. Blackhall, Esq. High-Sheriff...
Description:
owner's name on title-page, and on first and final leaves of text, pencilled running addition of voter numbers at foot of each page, other ms. annotations on last leaf (see note), lightly browned and slightly dog-eared, with faint foxing,
pp. 115+[1], 8vo, final page is an index;
untrimmed, stab-sewn as issued, disbound.
Publication Details:
Oxford Oxford: W. Jackson... [1754]
Notes: A scarce poll book with contemporary annotations, recording a historically important election. Just nine locations listed by ESTC. As the two Tory-held county seats of Oxfordshire had not been contested since 1710, the 1754 election was spectacularly corrupt and riotous. Elections were expensive enterprises in mid-eighteenth century England; winning depended on being able to 'persuade' a majority of the freeholders, men with land worth forty shillings a year, to cast their votes for you. Direct bribery and 'entertaining' were an inevitable aspect of the process. The general election of 1754 wa...moreA scarce poll book with contemporary annotations, recording a historically important election. Just nine locations listed by ESTC. As the two Tory-held county seats of Oxfordshire had not been contested since 1710, the 1754 election was spectacularly corrupt and riotous. Elections were expensive enterprises in mid-eighteenth century England; winning depended on being able to 'persuade' a majority of the freeholders, men with land worth forty shillings a year, to cast their votes for you. Direct bribery and 'entertaining' were an inevitable aspect of the process. The general election of 1754 was 'recorded' in four paintings (and subsequently prints) by Hogarth entitled 'An Election'. It was the race for the Oxfordshire seats in particular - recorded here - which attracted Hogarth's attention and inspired his attack on the widespread corruption which accompanied the process. The contemporary owner of this copy was Joseph Henley of Waterperry, who does not himself seem to have been a voter but was evidently an interested resident of Oxfordshire. There are multiple annotations in his hand. It was a remarkably closely fought election, 43 votes being the difference between the winner and the fourth and last candidate. The poll is arranged alphabetically by hundred, then parish. It records voters' place of residence and for whom they cast their votes. Loosely inserted are two small pieces of paper on which are noted, in what looks like Henley's hand, the 'list of objections made by Wenman and Dashwood against Parker and Turner'. The list records the numbers (but not the names) of the opposition voters who in the opinion of two of the candidates, Viscount Wenman and Sir James Dashwood, ought not to have qualified, for various reasons, to vote for their Whig opponents. The reasons include 'not charged to land tax... 67; not having 40/- value... 270; two polling for one freehold... 2; etc.' 548 objections in all. Wenman and Dashwood were elected. There were two quarto printings of this poll book, as well as the present octavo. HIDE
Bibliography: (ESTC: T99422; Cordeaux and Merry 'Oxfordshire' 661; Sims p.174)
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