Not Just Free Drink: More from Mr. Lowndes' 'Observations'

Description:Unfortunately for Granville Leveson-Gower (1721-1803), Lord Stafford, it wasn’t just free alcohol that he had to pay for. Elections were very expensive for candidates and their supporters required rewards and reimbursement for their expenses.

Lowndes notes that ‘the leading members of the Corporation’ also required reimbursement. He advises Lord Stafford that paying these men in full was most important in order to avoid offending those ‘who could do most mischief’.

Other costs included the maintenance of the Burgesses. Lowndes’ report states that ‘every resident burgess his wife and family considered themselves as having a right to be maintained during the poll at the expence of the candidates…for not one of the men earned a shilling by labor’. Temporary residents who had been brought in from further afield for their votes also needed to be reimbursed. Lowndes notes ‘there is to be taken into consideration all the Outvoters fetched in from various parts of the kingdom, great number of witnesses to support the voters of the party, or to repel the votes of the adversary’. He notes that ‘the expence of such a body, neither inclined nor encouraged to be frugal or moderate, must unavoidably be very large’.

The Price of Success

Lowndes' report reveals that costs continued to spiral ‘after the Poll ended’ and the Trentham party candidate had been elected. Lowndes refers to expenditure on ‘some Treat in Newcastle’ put on for ‘the whole body of burgesses’ who were setting out to Trentham to be ‘regaled’. He reports that ‘publicans took advantage of it’, which he suggests ‘considerably increased the reckoning’.

What did Lowndes Conclude?

Lowndes advised Lord Stafford to pay the expenses, concerned about ‘the effect that non payment of the full demand would produce’ on Gower’s ‘interest in the borough’. He saw Lord Stafford’s ‘situation with Newcastle very critical’ and advised ‘the utmost caution’ in ‘dealing’ with the bill.

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