Partisan Politics

Jon Rosebank

Description

New understandings of the middle order and of the post-1688 English Parliament have shifted the focus from Westminster to the constituencies in the study of eighteenth-century politics. It was the towns, and especially the smaller parliamentary boroughs, that set much of the legislative agenda and which defined partisanship. This is also where religious tension was most intense and enduring.

Yet there has never been a thoroughgoing comparative study of small-town economy, religion, government and politics. Deep in the archives, the history of a clutch of towns in south-west England in the early years of the eighteenth century offers revelatory insights. Their diverse economic structure and religious divisions made these towns extraordinarily difficult to govern, while late Augustan partisanship spread into the streets and taverns, threatening urban order. This precipitated heady local realignments, with three or even four factions in each place cutting across Whig and Tory lines in the pursuit of consensus. In this intensely urban politics, government patronage was peripheral; area gentry were drawn in but had little control. The impact of this many-sided partisanship on national politics was profound.

Building a clearer picture of significant change around the time of the Hanoverian accession, this book proposes a fresh approach both to the study of early modern politics and of towns far beyond its immediate region. It will be an important asset to scholars and students of both.

 

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

 

Chapter 1: Introduction—a new

understanding of towns and their politics

The perspective of the middling sort

Local government

Resistance to interference

Partisanship

Religion and party

In search of stability

The research deficit in smaller towns

 

PART 1: THE URBAN COMMUNITY

 

Chapter 2: Economy and community— the key contexts

The major industries: shipping

The major industries: textiles

Beyond the major industries

The distribution of wealth

Other solidarities

The relationship between economy, society and politics

 

Chapter 3: The significance of the Church

The structure of dissent

Dissent and local government

The Established Church

The challenge to order

 

Chapter 4: Town government

The structure of town government

Who served?

Was town government effective?

The threat to good government

 

PART 2: THE POLITICAL PROCESS

Chapter 5: Government patronage

The Excise service

The Customs service

Land Tax, Post Office, Army

The Admiralty

The patronage process

 

Chapter 6: The politics of leading townsmen and the gentry

Bridgwater: the humiliation of the Duke of Chandos

Plymouth: consensus and the failure of Sir John Rogers

Totnes: Amyites, Buckleyites and George Treby

Dartmouth: Holdsworth and Treby—amicitia perpetua

Tavistock: the third force

Taunton: the feud between council and meeting houses

Tiverton: the role of the Church party

Partisan politics

 

Chapter 7: The politics of the wider society

Taunton: mobs and voters

Bridgwater: popular Jacobitism

Totnes and Dartmouth: ‘Confidents and Intimados’ at the Hole in the Wall

Tavistock: fringe voters

Plymouth: the role of the freemen

Tiverton: playing with popular feeling

The broken cheese beam

 

Chapter 8: Wider contexts

Regions

The longer period

Where next?

 

Bibliography

Manuscript sources

Printed sources

Contemporary

Modern works

 

Index

Sujets

• Social History
• HISTORY
• POLITICAL SCIENCE
• Histoire
• Religión
• Political science of religion
• Prosopography
• History of the British Isles
• General officer
• Region
• 18th century
• Administrative division
• Politics
• History of Europe
• Great Britain
• Regional
• Religion
• General
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Exeter Press
• Date de parution: 14 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781905816682
• Langue: English

Extrait

Partisan Politics

Partisan Politics Looking for Consensus in Eighteenth-Century Towns

JON ROSEBANK

First published in 2021 by University of Exeter Press Reed Hall, Streatham Drive Exeter EX4 4QR, UK

www.exeterpress.co.uk

© 2021 Jon Rosebank

The right of Jon Rosebank to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The publishers acknowledge the generous financial support of the Marc Fitch Fund in the production of this volume.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-90581-667-5 Hardback ISBN 978-1-90581-668-2 ePub ISBN 978-1-90581-669-9 PDF

https://doi.org/10.47788/ITUP3527

Typeset in Perpetua by Palimpsest Book Production Ltd, Falkirk, Stirlingshire

Cover images: taken from the Holdsworth Bowl by Paul de Lamerie, 1723–24. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford