THE ELECTIONS TO THE FIRST GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Repr|nted from G|oucestersh|re H|story No 3 (1989) pages 9-11 by Bl’)/(Z71 Jerrard

The Local Government Act of 1888 broke the tra- dition and pattern of county government that had developed over the previous 400 years whereby the unpaid Justice of the Peace, qualified by his land hold- ing and oath taking, had slowly become the principal agent oflocal government. At the start ofthe nineteenth century there were l l3 in Gloucestershire, 30 ofwhom were clergymen, about the national average. Some were aristocrats and actively served in the Quarter Sessions, held four times a year at the newly-built Shire Hall. Well known landed families like the Berkeleys, the Bathursts from Cirencester and Lydney and the Somersets (Beauforts) at Badminton Housejoined with otherjustices in trade and manufacture like the famous prison reformer Sir George Onisipherous Paul in levy- ing, collecting and spending the county rate. Most of the rate went on law and order and much less on main roads and repairing the county"s bridges. Justices dispensed petty justice from their homes and in petty sessional courts, and criminal justice at the Quarter Session Courts. Several developments in the 19th century came to erode the prime position ofthe justices and led to a call for reform in county government. First, the increasing numbers able to vote at Parliamentary elections, with the extension of the franchise between 1832 and 1884, and to share in municipal government at Gloucester, Tewkesbury and later at Cheltenham gave them a taste of power, often encouraged by beer and money — but no share in county government. The second major development in the half century before reform was the opportunity for leading local men to participate in public life by being elected to such bodies as the Poor Law Unions, the Highway Boards and Sanitary Districts. This deprived the justices of their exclusive control of local affairs. Finally, the growing influence of central government in legislation which affected the county led to the appointment ofsalaried professionals to serve the justices in Quarter Sessions -— the county surveyor, the county architect, the county analyst and the chief constable, who all gave professional advice to the amateurs. And after 1871 the District Auditor verified the justices’ accounts.

THE ELECTIONS, JANUARY 1889 Under the Local Government Act, passed by a Con- servative government, Gloucestershire was divided into 53 electoral divisions which were to return 60 councillors, Cheltenham returning six and St George, Bristol three. All who had a parliamentary vote— about 60,000 men — and borough council voters — about 68,000 including some women — made up the 128,938 registered voters‘. Candidates for the new County Council had to come from those qualified to vote or peers with land in the county. The elections ofJanuary 1889 resulted in 35 justices (often called magistrates) being elected, 24 of them unopposed. These included Sir , the Chairman of the old Quarter Sessions since 1878 and Tory MP for Tewkesbury, Earl Bathurst, Baron Fitz- hardinge from Berkeley and Lord Moreton. Others like the Freeman-Mitfords at Moreton-in-Marsh defeated 9 rival candidates. Only three magisterial councillors Other new men were elected. Joseph Lenthall, a were not closely identified with the landed interest — Methodist layman, encourager of the agricultural George Witts, grandson of Revd F E Witts and a civil workers’ trade union and outfitter to the county police, engineer from near Cheltenham, Handel Cossham, a was elected Liberal for Central Cheltenham. James distinguished Liberal MP and colliery owner from near Kim mins, a corn merchant, represented the Liberals at Bristol and Revd G Drinkwater Bourne at Chipping Stonehouse while Robert Lister, the engineering genius Campden. at Dursley (who quickly came into conflict with There were 25 non-magistrates elected. These were Dorington in the debates of the new council) was the new blood. Six called themselves ‘gentlemen’ or elected for the town of his family’s adoption3. In fact ‘gentlemen farmers’; two came from Cheltenham, one Lister, Kimmins and Elsom were all returned at each from Nailsworth and the others from the rural divisions triennial election from 1889 to 1910 — quite a record. of Dymock, Pucklechurch and Chipping Sodbury. Kimmins went on to serve on the County Education Farmers represented Badminton (where the Duke of Committee from 1921 to 19304. Beaufort was elected for Monmouthshire), Bourton- on-the-Water and Wotton, near Gloucester where Thomas Priday continued a long family tradition of public service — and corn milling. DORINGTON’S INFLUENCE Dorington had feared that the elections would lead to the end ofthe primacy ofthe landed interest but there

S2‘.I;-. I Iv‘-""*'¢ is no doubt that the first Council was Tory. However, I-I,_ " Dorington had two cards up his sleeve which he played L-Q L ‘+0. '-"'

- Y I .- with consummate skill to strengthen the Tories’ politi- ‘d‘ an H.\l ‘>- cal hold. '.=..-‘E. '( ;I 1"-1". .'.-'-". ' ‘L 7’,.:Q,_-t.._ i‘_-‘°l".t.-It S‘t1"~- '4" ,1‘. in. _ K'r‘ :I’-“";_.'!0 ‘ids.- t”#_;1:}»_‘.$1‘mt,;- Dorin ton wanted the 20 aldermen allowed under ‘ L‘ ‘I:-5'?’ r-‘*"" -_"."l:.,'.-3 if '_.- 5'3 _ .' Q. _ . 0 I1. I 0 the Act lgor Gloucestershire to be chosen from outside -3.. $ I‘-' 0 Q Q ’ . . ,~...° .- an -u — ‘ ll .- . ~ the Council rather than from among its elected

'~'-'.' ,: - 1- " r ‘\- _'"'_ \. ~ _ 4» . members. Either procedure was legal under the Act. 9. _. _ O.-‘ ...'w..‘ no $0.. ‘5 I‘ The standard Liberal view in opposition to this was - -.- 0 - ‘F -- -. I ., - voiced by Handel Cossham but to no avail. Without a __, I-‘.-‘Q 0- ‘D ‘ "'9 - "' .. " T ‘_ °- '0 ~. K -0 _. U vote recorded in the Minutes the aldermen were chosen Q -.3'.-I. . I-r I as Dorington wished, This device was adopted in only \“ - .. —-.-5 I‘y("I - I -t-""1"J Q ., ' i '5 7' *0 " six other counties — Hertfordshire, Leicestershire,

Q- Middlesex, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and Somerset. From - IIID a list of 38 names 12 magistrates and eight non-magi- -n. 0 \-.., \_.""" strates were selected. The magistrates included the Lord Lieutenant, the Right Honourable Earl Ducie of J-|' Tortworth, and Sir William Marling ofStroud. Among the others were Thomas Bailey, one of Fitzhardinge’s tenant farmers, and William Priday, Chairman of Gloucester Highway Board, Thus the total Council of elected councillors and aldermen comprised 47 justices out ofa total of 805. The second card that Dorington played was quite singular in all County Councils in 1889. He aimed to perpetuate the position and power of the old guard from the Quarter Sessions by having 80 of them on the Standing Joint Committee to control the police, matched by the 60 councillors and 20 aldermen. A small committee of seven magistrates to deal with this Robert Aston Lister recommended (quite naturally) in favour ofthis move. County Councillorfrom Dursley Thus Gloucestershire had a S.J.C. of 160 nominal members, a ludicrous number, (The real number was 143 because 17justices were County Councillors.) The average for all 58 County Councils in 1889 was 26. In OTHER ECONOMIC INTERESTS fact only 60-80 attended regularly and solved what Some candidates were elected with manufacturing would have been an accommodation problem at the and trading interests. A paper manufacturer, a book Shire Hall“. maker, a chemical manufacturer, a draper and a stone Dorington, elected first Chairman ofthe new County merchant all represented divisions near or in Bristol, Council in 1889, and serving until 1908, thus played a men whom the Tory Dorington would not have seen as unique role in trying to stem the tide of democracy in ‘fit and proper persons’ to share in county government!’ Gloucestershire. Another coherent group of interests may be seen in the Liberal newcomers from the Forest ofDean. James Kear, a grocer, was elected for Cinderford (the scene of a serious riot in 1874 when a Tory MP was elected for SOURCES 1. Quarter Session Minute Book, Q/SM 3/ 1 5 Epiphany 1889. Glos. R.O. the Forest area); George Rowlinson, a Baptist layman 2. The concept of ‘fit and proper persons’ is well illustrated by E P Hennock, and the miners’ agent from Drybrook and Revd Sydney Fit and Proper Persons, Ideal and Reality in Nineteenth Century Urban Government, 1973, p.308. Elsom, an ex-miner and the Baptist minister from 3. Gloucester Journal 12,19 Jan, 11 May 1889, 22 June 1907, 24 Feb 1917. Yorkley who represented West Dean. Another new- 4. There were seven magistrates retumed at each election 1889-1910. Kelly's comer was Richard Beaumont Thomas, an entre- Directories, G.C.C. Attendance Book CC/M 1B/1, G.R.O. The Citizen 18 April 1936, Stroud News and Gloucester County Advertiser 24 April 1936, preneur in Lydbrook and South Wales of the well- George F Timpson, Kings and Commoners, Studies in British Idealism, known company of R B Thomas. He was president Cheltenham, 1936, pp. 1 64-6. of the local Radical Association, a leader of Llanelli 5. G.J., 12, 26 Jan 1889. The Times, 19 Jan 1889, J L Lee Social Leaders and Public Persons. A Study of County Government in Cheshire since I888, Temperance League and a friend of the ostracized Sir Oxford, 1963, p.228. Charles Dilke, the famous Liberal politician. Thus 6. Q.S.M.B., Q/SM 3/14 Trinity, 1888; Epiphany, 1890, CS J/M 1/1 5 April 1890, J P D Dunbabin, Expectations ofthe new County Councils and their these new councillors shared pronounced convictions realisation, The Historical Journal, vo1.11l,3, 1965, pp.357-376 at pp.373- and interests often in marked contrast to the traditional 4, GJ. 12 April 1890, J R Somers Vine, ed., The County Councils and Tory and Anglican leanings ofthe old Quarter Sessions. Municipal Corporations Companion and Diary 1892. 10 PU\__'___‘_:____;___u_\fi‘___.______?_____2\_CI“_~ _J‘wtIrII__ flu.‘_AIr'___H___‘__nH_‘__ QM,3 1%_“__|_I1.___Ina‘___B_II|_'~I|IF_"___H__rm._.I_'‘PI.___‘"_H___h‘“__‘\_h_I“o.‘I-‘LU_I. Il_I‘N___:ll _dunii_ __ ‘QrfiC’I1‘\ .______I‘._'8.....'I _‘ \___

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