HISTORIC MALDON DISTRICT: Punch-ups, booze and bribes – the troubled history of Maldon elections
While Maldon's recent District Council meetings may have attracted some controversy, this is very small beer (literally) compared with the goings-on seen in the 19th Century.
In 1800, the only Essex Parliamentary representatives were two Knights of the Shire for Essex, plus two MPs each for Colchester, Maldon and Harwich. In Maldon, most 'Freemen' (male property owners aged over 21) could vote. But this right could be inherited, given away or purchased, allowing people from outside the town to vote in its elections.
Candidates made the most of this, and in 1826 the three candidates spent £50,000 between them acquiring and transporting voters from Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Hertfordshire and all across Essex.
The Mayor of Maldon pitched in on the side of the Tories by shutting the polls when Whig supporters were arriving, and re-opening them later when more Tory voters arrived.
Successive Reform and Ballot Acts in 1832 and 1870 greatly reduced the chances of corrupt practices.
This didn't stop a major scandal in 1880, documented in David Hughes' book 'The Maldonians'. Liberal George Courtauld and Conservative Sir William Abdy spent significant amounts of money on their campaigns. While 'election expenses' nowadays are strictly accounted for and primarily refer to printing and circulating leaflets, in those days it meant money spent on beer for the voters, and hired thugs to scare off the opposition.
On the day, Abdy's supporters started to fill the public houses and were plied with drink by '600 men from Halstead' with the intention of keeping them from casting their votes.
Abdy's friend, Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny countered this by hiring prize-fighters from London, while his ally Dr John Salter got more from Colchester. These men assembled at the bottom of Market Hill, wearing large blue rosettes and carrying even larger cudgels.
Fights started to break out in the High Street, in spite of appeals for calm, and a demonstration of democratic unity by leading men of both sides who processed arm-in-arm to show that political differences shouldn't be settled by violence.
All this was in vain, and the massed forces of the Conservatives looked as if they would win, when suddenly 'the Heybridge Basin Men' arrived. Originally paid 30 shillings each to support the Tories, they were outbid by the Liberals, and helped secure a 670 to 661 majority for Courtauld.
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