East Retford (UK Parliament Constituency) - History - Corruption and Its Consequences

Corruption and Its Consequences

With the election results in Retford no longer a foregone conclusion, it became worthwhile for candidates to take some pains to secure victory, and Retford's voters began to exploit the commercial value of their votes. The Newcastle influence became very limited while that of Earl Fitzwilliam waxed (though he himself and his Whig allies were apparently unconvinced of their own power), and the borough eventually became notorious for bribery. Retford's corruption took an unusual form: unlike the voters in most corrupt boroughs, the freemen tried to prevent contested elections, demanding instead that hopeful candidates should buy enough votes to secure a safe majority and avoid the need for a poll. At the elections of 1818 and 1820, the going tariff was 20 guineas for a vote, and the freemen (having two votes each) received 40 guineas for votes they never needed to cast.

But the stability of the system depended on the electors being able to reach a consensus over two candidates who could meet their demands, and a balance had developed whereby the Fitzwilliam interest chose one candidate and the leading members of the Corporation the other. Late in 1825, the prospective Corporation candidate for the next election withdrew through ill health, and Lord Fitzwilliam provocatively brought forward a second candidate of his own. The Corporation found another candidate, secured the support of the Tory Duke of Newcastle, and the election of 1826 was fought with no holds barred. Both sides bought up all the votes they could at the usual rate, and several pubs were kept open for months before the election, serving free beer from six in the morning until midnight. The Tory stood on a "no popery" platform, with his supporters openly boycotting tradesmen who opposed them, and election day ended in a riot. The two Fitzwilliam candidates won, but the loser petitioned against the result and the extent of East Retford's corruption was displayed to the world.

Parliament was united in being determined to find a remedy for East Retford's misbehaviour, but less clear as to what the most appropriate remedy would be. In the last years of the 18th century, several other boroughs found guilty of similar offences had been "thrown into the hundred" (had their boundaries extended to include the freeholders from the whole surrounding division of the county, so as to ensure that the corrupt townsmen could no longer sway the vote). But demands for a wider Parliamentary reform and a redistribution of seats to the more populous parts of the country were now widespread, and in the most recent corruption case (that of Grampound), the offending borough had been abolished altogether and its seats transferred elsewhere.

There were therefore vigorous debates as to whether Retford's franchise should not be transferred to one of the larger unrepresented towns such as Manchester or Birmingham. But both the Tory government and Whig opposition were split on the issue - the harder-line anti-Reform Tories did not want to set a precedent for establishing new boroughs, while many of the Whigs were reluctant to weaken the case for wholesale Reform by making piecemeal improvements. The Whigs were further embarrassed because a leading Whig had been implicated in vote-buying, and the Tories aware that throwing the borough into the hundred (or in Retford's case, the Wapentake) might well re-establish the lost influence of the Tory Duke of Newcastle over the constituency.

The people of Retford themselves were by no means unanimous in wanting to retain the franchise. During the House of Lords debates on the Disfranchisement Bill, it emerged that the town had an active committee, led by a couple of attorneys and meeting at the Turk's Head Inn, who were trying to make the borough seem even more corrupt than it was and ensure its extinction. One of its members was later seen wearing a handsome gold watch, apparently presented in gratitude by well-wishers in Birmingham!

The first compromise reached by the House of Commons was to put East Retford into the wapentake while transferring the seats of another guilty borough, Penryn, to Manchester, but the latter bill was defeated in the House of Lords. The question dragged on through the whole of the 1826-30 Parliament, and the Whig amendment to transfer Retford's seats to Birmingham was eventually defeated by 126 votes to 99. The Act that was passed in 1830 therefore reverted to the earlier practice, and the borough's boundaries were extended to encompass the Wapentake of Bassetlaw (which included the whole of the northern end of Nottinghamshire, including the town of Worksop): all those within this area who were qualified to vote in the county elections being also given votes for East Retford.