NB John Buckmaster speaks of the origins of these farcical elections having been in defence of a part of Wandsworth Common - presumably the various fragments of Garratt Green, then facing enclosure [c.1740].
MAY 20
(traditionally, but could be other days)
----
British History Online:
Daniel Lysons, 'Wandsworth', in The Environs of London: Volume 1, County of Surrey( London, 1792),https://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-environs/vol1/pp502-518 [accessed 18 January 2025].
Garrett election.
The hamlet of Garrett appears to have been about two centuries ago a single house called "the Garvett (fn. 56)." It now contains about fifty houses, and is well known as the scene of a mock election which took place there for many years upon the meeting of every new parliament; when several well-known characters in low-life appeared as candidates, being furnished with fine clothes and gay equipages for the occasion by the publicans, who made a good harvest of the day's frolic. This piece of burlesque had been some time in the decline, it was wholly dropped at the last general election, and a short time hence perhaps its memory will be preserved only in Foote's diverting comedy of the Mayor of Garrett.
British History Online:
Edward Walford, 'Wandsworth', in Old and New London: Volume 6 (London, 1878), https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol6/pp479-489 [accessed 18 January 2025].
At some little distance on the south side of the High Street is the hamlet of Garratt, which, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, appears to have consisted of a single house, called "the Garrett," or, as Lysons says, "the Garvett." This building was sold towards the end of the sixteenth century by William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, to a Mr. John Smith. The mansion was afterwards the residence of the Brodricks, Viscounts Midleton, but was pulled down about the middle of the last century, and the grounds which surrounded it were subsequently let to a market-gardener to grow vegetables.
When Lysons wrote his "Environs of London," in the year 1792, this hamlet consisted of about fifty houses by the side of a small common; but the buildings in Garratt Lane—the thoroughfare connecting Wandsworth with Tooting—and its neighbourhood have greatly increased in number within the present century. Various encroachments on the above-mentioned common, about the middle of the last century, led to an association of the neighbours, when, as Sir Richard Phillips tells us, in his "Morning's Walk from London to Kew," they chose a president, or mayor, to protect their rights; and the time of their first election of a mayor being the period of a new Parliament, it was agreed that the "mayor" should be re-chosen after every general election. "Some facetious members of the club," he adds, "gave in a few years local notoriety to this election; and when party spirit ran high in the days of Wilkes and Liberty, it was easy to create an appetite for a burlesque election among the lower orders of the metropolis." With a keen eye to their own interests, as well as to that of their village and their country, the publicans at Wandsworth, Tooting, Battersea, Clapham, and Vauxhall, "made up a purse," to give it character. Foote, Garrick, and Wilkes, it is stated, wrote some of the candidates' addresses, for the purpose of instructing the people in the corruptions which attend elections in the legislature, and of producing those reforms, by means of ridicule and shame, which are vainly expected from the solemn appeals of argument and patriotism. "Not being able to find the members for Garratt in 'Beatson's Political Index,' or in any of the 'Court Calendars,'" says Sir Richard Phillips, "I am obliged to depend on tradition for information in regard to the early history of this famous borough. The first mayor of whom I could hear was called Sir John Harper. He filled the seat during two Parliaments, and was, it would appear, a man of wit, for on a dead cat being thrown at him on the hustings, and a by-stander exclaiming that it stunk worse than a fox, Sir John vociferated, 'That's no wonder, for you see it's a poll-cat!' This noted baronet was, in the metropolis, a retailer of brick-dust; and his Garratt honours being supposed to be a means of improving his trade and the condition of his ass, many characters in similar occupations were led to aspire to the same distinctions."
He was succeeded by Sir Jeffrey Dunstan, who was returned for three Parliaments, and was the most popular candidate that ever appeared on the Garratt hustings. His occupation was that of buying old wigs—once an article of trade like that in old clothes, but become obsolete since the fullbottomed and full-dressed wigs of both sexes went out of fashion. Sir Jeffrey usually carried his wigbag over his shoulder, and, to avoid the charge of vagrancy, vociferated, as he passed along the streets, "Old Wigs!" but having a person like Æsop, and a countenance and manner marked by irresistible humour, he never appeared without a train of boys and curious persons, whom he entertained by his sallies of wit, shrewd sayings, and smart repartees, and from whom, without begging, he collected sufficient to maintain his dignity of knight and mayor. He was no respecter of persons, and was so severe in his jokes on the corruptions and compromises of power that, under the iron régime of Pitt and Dundas, this political punch, or street-jester, was prosecuted for using what were then called seditious expressions; and, as a caricature on the times, which ought never to be forgotten, he was, in 1793, tried, convicted, and imprisoned! In consequence of this affair, and some charges of dishonesty, he lost his popularity, and at the next general election was ousted by Sir Harry Dimsdale, muffin-seller, a man as much deformed as himself. Sir Jeffrey could not long survive his fall; but in death, as in life, he proved a satire on the vices of the proud: for in 1797 he died—like Alexander the Great and many other heroes renowned in the historic page—of suffocation from excessive drinking! Sir Harry Dimsdale dying also before the next general election, and no candidate starting of sufficient originality of character, and, what was still more fatal, the victuallers having failed to raise a "public purse"—which was as stimulating a bait to the independent candidates for Garratt as it is to the independent candidates for a certain assembly—the borough of Garratt has since remained vacant, and the populace have been without a "professional political buffoon."
"None but those who have seen a London mob on any great holiday," adds Sir Richard Phillips, "can form a just idea of these elections. On several occasions a hundred thousand persons, half of them in carts, in hackney-coaches, and on horse and ass-back, covered the various roads from London, and choked up all the approaches to the place of election. At the two last elections I was told that the road within a mile of Wandsworth was so blocked up by vehicles that none could move backward or forward during many hours, and that the candidates, dressed like chimney-sweepers on a May-day, or in the mock fashion of the period, were brought to the hustings in the carriages of peers, drawn by six horses, the owners themselves condescending to become the drivers!"
Robert Chambers, in his "Book of Days," gives a full and detailed account of the scenes enacted here at the mock elections for the "borough of Garratt," which, as we have stated above, always accompanied a general election, as the shadow attends on a substance. He tells us that the local publicans found it to be their interest to encourage the managers of the fun to constitute themselves a committee en permanence. On these occasions local wits drew up and printed election addresses, squibs, and counter-squibs, &c., and the successful candidates were "chaired" round the town like veritable "knights of the shire." The two last and the most celebrated members for Garratt were those eccentric characters, "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan and "Sir" Harry Dimsdale, who flourished at Wandsworth whilst Lord North and Pitt ruled in Downing Street. Of these individuals Mr. Chambers writes:—"In 1785 the death of 'Sir' John Harper left 'Sir' Jeffrey Dunstan without a rival; but in the election of 1795 he was ousted by a new candidate, 'Sir' Harry Dimsdale, a muffin-seller and dealer in tin-ware, almost as deformed as himself, but by no means so great a humourist. The most was made of his appear ance by dressing him up in a tawdry and illproportioned court-suit, with an enormous cockedhat. He enjoyed his honour, however, only a short time, dying before the next general election. He was the last of the grotesque mayors, for no candidates started after his death; the publicans did not, as before, subscribe towards the expenses of the day, and so the great saturnalia died a natural death." Of "Sir" Jeffrey Dunstan we have already given some particulars in our account of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, (fn. 6) which was generally the scene of his daily avocations.
THE GARRATT ELECTION. (From a Drawing by Valentine Green.)
The Garratt election has gained more than its fair share of notoriety from the fact that Samuel Foote—who was present here in 1761, and paid nine guineas for a window to view the proceedings—made it the subject of a farce, entitled The Mayor of Garratt, which was put on the stage at the Haymarket. The character of "Snuffle" in this play was derived from John Gardiner, a local cobbler and grave-digger, who was one of the candidates, under the title of "Lord Twankum;" that of "Crispin Heeltap" was copied from another candidate, also a shoemaker, who came forward as "Lord Lapstone." The other characters also are identified by Mr. Chambers; "Beau Silvester" being the prototype of "Matthew Mug," the principal candidate in Foote's drama, who says, in his address to the worthy electors, "Should I succeed, you, gentlemen, may depend on my using my utmost endeavours to promote the good of the borough, to which purpose the encouragement of your trade and manufactures will principally tend. Garratt, it must be owned, is an inland town, and has not, like Wandsworth, and Fulham, and Putney, the glorious advantages of a port; but what nature has denied, industry can supply. Cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers may be deemed at present your staple commodities; but why should not your commerce be extended? Were I, gentlemen, worthy to advise, I should recommend the opening of a new branch of trade—sparrowgrass, gentlemen, the manufacturing of sparrowgrass! Battersea, I own, gentlemen, at present bears the bell; but where lies the fault? In ourselves, gentlemen. Let us but exert our natural strength, and I will take upon me to say that a hundred of grass for the corporation of Garratt will in a short time, at the London markets, be held as at least an equivalent to a Battersea bundle." We have already spoken of asparagus as one of the chief products of Battersea. (fn. 7)
There are in existence three very curious etchings, by Valentine Green, representing the Garratt elections, the scenes in the streets, and the chairing of a successful candidate. All these will be found given in Chambers' "Book of Days," and one of these we reproduce on page 487. It must be owned that the licence assumed during these seasons of misrule was somewhat Fescennine in its character, and that mirth occasionally degenerated into vulgar buffoonery; but, after all, the scene was little more boisterous than that which was witnessed in our fathers' days at many a county and borough election, where popular feeling ran high—especially those at Brentford; and doubtless, the mock elections of Garratt had their redeeming qualities in the safety-valve which they afforded to discontented spirits.
In 1826 an attempt was made, though without success, to revive the whimsical farce. A placard was prepared and issued to forward the interests of a certain "Sir John Paul Pry," who was to come forward, along with "Sir Hugh Allsides" (one Cullendar, the beadle of All Saints' Church) and "Sir Robert Needale" (Robert Young, a surveyor of roads), described as "a friend to the ladies who attend Wandsworth Fair." This placard, which may be read in Hone's "Every-day Book," displays a "plentiful lack of wit" compared with those of the last century. The project, therefore, failed, and Garratt, in consequence, has had no representative since the worthy muffin-seller mentioned above.
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol6/pp479-489
Garrat Elections
18th century mock elections in England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Discussion (3)
The Garrat Elections were a carnival of mock elections in Wandsworth, Surrey (now part of London), England in the 18th century. The events were organized around 20 May and would see crowds of tens of thousands travelling five miles (8.0 km) from London to take part. The elections were held for at least fifty years before declining after the death of Mayor "Sir" Harry Dimsdale in 1796.
Thumb
"Sir" Harry Dimsdale, a muffin seller elected as the final Mayor of Garrat in 1796
Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally published in 1785 by Francis Grose, described the Garrat Election as:
A ludicrous ceremony, practiced every new parliament: it consists of a mock election of two members to represent the borough of Garret [sic] (a few straggling cottages, near Wandsworth, in Surrey). The qualification of a voter is, having enjoyed a woman, in the open air, within that district: the candidates are commonly fellows of low humor, who dress themselves up in a ridiculous manner. As this brings a prodigious concourse of people to Wandsworth, the publicans of that place jointly contribute to the expense, which is sometimes considerable.
History
In the 17th century, Garrat was a small hamlet in the parish of Wandsworth. Its residents had met in a conclave and elected a "commons" president to exert authority over a small common. They felt that the president should hold the office of "mayor" during the parliamentary period between general elections and should be re-elected with the new one. The minor political spectacle aroused some amusement and locals ended up parodying the affair in their mock election.
The Garrat "elections" were chaired at Garratt Lane, and were popular events, with up to 80,000 attendees and sponsorship from local innkeepers and pub keepers who profited from the occasion. People put forth unusual candidates to parody the features of the real election, with the successful candidate being "the most deformed and stupid". Candidates would deliver speeches with promises and appeals to sentiment, making pledges such as "that they will lower the prices of gin, bread, beer, &c.; make old women bishops; and that they will not accept any place in the House".
The fame of the Garratt elections was spread by Samuel Foote's 1763 farce, The Mayor of Garret, and from 1768 candidates often came from London and its surroundings rather than just the Wandsworth area.
After the death of Mayor Harry Dimsdale towards the end of the 18th century, the festival began to lose its drive and innkeepers no longer agreed to pay the expenses. An 1826 attempt to revive the event failed.
Mayors and candidates
Thumb
The Garrat Election
There is no record of the identity of the candidates before 1747. At that particular year, the "clerk and recorder" from a nonexistent town hall issued notification of election between Squire Blowmedown and Squire Gubbins (waterman and pubkeeper, respectively, in their day-to-day jobs). Both candidates gave out handbills where they praised their own merits and mocked those of their opponent, imitating political leaflets of the day. Same two candidates attended the next election in 1754, again abusing each other and their supporters in their handbills.
Year 1761 saw the number of candidates rise to nine; in addition to previous two there were Sir John Crambo, Kit Noisy (waterman), Lord Lapstone (shoemaker), Lord Paxford, Lord Twankum (cobbler), Lord Wedge and Beau Silvester. The candidates elicited flowering elocutions praising their own efforts, promising prosperity if they were to be elected and threatening impending disaster if their opponents should be elected instead. Beau Silvester merited himself with resisting the extra tax on ale and giving orders to increase the number of local pubs.
In 1763 candidates Lord Twankum, Kit Noisy and Sir John Crambo mocked each other in electoral contest. In 1768 there were seven candidates; Lord Twankum, Sir Christopher Dashem, Sir George Comefirst, Sir William Airey, Sir William Bellows, one "Batt from the Workhouse", and Sir John Harper who ended up being the most popular in the following elections. Lady Twankum promised an opulent party for the entertainment of the populace. 1775 election introduced Sir William Blaize, "Nephew to the late Lord Twankum" and Sir Christopher Dashem.
The 1781 election again had nine candidates; old hands Sir John Harper, Sir Christopher Dashwood, and Sir William Blaize and the new ones Sir Buggy Bates (chimney-sweep), Sir John Gnawpost, Sir Thomas Nameless, Sir William Swallowtail (basketmaker), Sir Thomas Tubbs (waterman) and Sir Jeffrey Dunstan (wigseller). The latter proved to be the most popular ever in the following elections due to his wit, small size and grotesque and unkempt appearance. Swallowtail had come to the poll in a wicker-chariot of his own design and preceded by hand-bell players. Dashwood was pulled around in a boat. Swallowtail and Buggy Bates were blamed of having government contracts, of baskets and soot, respectively. Sir John Harper and Sir Jeffrey Dunstan were "returned to parliament".
In 1785 elections Sir Jeffrey Dunstan was left without opposition when Sir John Harper died. In 1796 the new candidate Sir Harry Dimsdale won but he died before the next election.
See also
Mock election in the King's Bench Prison: In July 1827, the inmates of the King's Bench Prison, in Borough, South London, organised a fantastical mock hustings, to elect an MP to represent "Tenterden" (a slang name for the prison) in Parliament.
Derby Day (the annual Epsom Derby and fair) on the North Downs.
Garratt Lane remnant of the former small neighbourhood within present-day Earlsfield, Wandsworth, the London Borough of Wandsworth, London.
Notes
Chambers 1869.
[2]
Egan 1823, p. 130.
[3]
Barker 1888, p. 231.
[4]
Foote 1824, p. [page needed].
References
Foote, Samuel (1824). The Mayor of Garratt: A Farce, in Two Acts. Charles Wiley.
Egan, Pierce, ed. (1823). Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. London: Pierce Egan.
Barker, George Fisher Russell (1888). "Dunstan, Jeffrey" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 16. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 231–232.
Attribution
Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Chambers, Robert (1869). "May 20, Garrat Elections". Chambers Book of Days.
Further reading
Anonymous (22 December 2006). "The Mayor of Garrat: Mock elections in 18th century South London" (PDF). Past Tense.
Irving, William (2008). The Mayor of Garratt. Archived from the original on 16 May 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2019. An historical novel based on the life of Sir Jeffrey Dunstan
Timbs, John (1862). "Appendix: Sir Richard Phillips, in his Morning's Walk from London to Kew, 1817, gives the following interesting details of the Garrett Elections". Lives of wits and humourists. Vol. 1. R. Bentley. pp. 124–126, 385, 386.
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Garrat_Elections
From Chambers' Book of Days (1869)
A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection with the Calendar, including Anecdote, Biography, & History, Curiosities of Literature and Oddities of Human Life and Character
THE GARRAT ELECTIONS
A comparatively obscure act of local injustice originated during the last century a political burlesque, which was so highly relished by the British public, that sometimes upwards of 80,000 persons assembled to take part in or enjoy the fan. The inhabitants of the hamlet of Garrat, situated between Wandsworth and Tooting, in Surrey, had certain rights in a small common, which had been encroached upon; they therefore met in conclave, elected a president, resisted, and obtained their rights. As this happened at the time of a general election, it was determined that their president, or mayor, should hold office during parliament, and be re-elected with a new one. It was impossible that the ridiculous pomposity of the whole affair should not be felt and joked upon. When, therefore, party-spirit ran high, its effervescence was parodied by 'the storm in a tea-pot' of a Garrat election.
The public soon began to enjoy the joke, and the inn-keepers and publicans of Wandsworth and the neighbourhood reaped so rich a harvest, that they ultimately made up a purse to pay necessary expenses; the queerest and most facetious of candidates were brought from all quarters; and all the paraphernalia of a serious election were parodied in this mock one. The culminating point of its popularity was reached in 1761, when Foote attended, and soon afterwards produced his farce, Die Mayor of Garrat, at the Haymarket Theatre, where it had a great and deserved success, and immortalized elections that else would have been long since forgotten.
We possess no information as to who were the candidates for this important borough before 1747, when Squire Blowmedown and Squire Gubbins contested the honour. These were, as usual, assumed titles�the first being borne by John Willis, a waterman of Wandsworth; the second by James Simmonds, keeper of a public-house known as the 'Gubbins' Head,' in Blackman Street, Borough. 'The Clerk and Recorder' issued from an imaginary town-hall, at the order of the mayor, a due notification of the day of election; and each candidate gave out handbills, in which he asserted his own merits, and abused his opponent in the style of the genuine elections. An 'Oath of Qualification 'was administered to electors, which was couched throughout in a strain of double entendre, and nothing was left undone that was usually done to insure success to the candidates.
From a somewhat large and curious collection of handbills and broadsides, printed during these elections, we may be enabled to give an idea of the wit of the day. In 1747 the pretensions of Squire Blowmedown were enforced in 'a letter sent from an elector of the borough of Garrat to another,' and dated from St. James's Market, in which we are assured that 'the greatest stranger must look upon himself as void of reason, entirely barren of wisdom, extinct of humanity, and unworthy the esteem of men of sense and veracity, should he neglect any opportunity to testify how ardent his wishes are that this Phaenix may be unanimously chosen.' For, 'as our worthy candidate judiciously observes, if drinking largely, heading a mob majestically, huzzaing eloquently, and feeding voraciously, be merits in any degree worthy the esteem of the good people of this land, a Garrat, I must ingeniously confess, is too mean an apartment for such a worthy; for Envy herself must confess, if the above qualifications are of any efficacy, the universal voice of the whole realm of Great Britain would not be equivalent to his wondrous deserts.'
In 1754, the same candidates came forward again, and, in imitation of their betters, bespattered each other in handbills. Thus Gubbins, while declaring himself 'zealously affected to his present Majesty King George, the Church and State,' asks�'where was Esquire Blowmedown when the Jew Bill, Matrimony Bill, and Wheel Bill passed?' Worse still, Blowmedown 'washes his boat every Sabbath-day, that he may not be induced to rise on Monday morning before high-water! ' Of course, this meets with an indignant reply from the friends of the party attacked, 'a large majority of the most substantial and wealthy freeholders, electors of the ancient borough of Garrat' who state themselves to be not ashamed, much less afraid, to publicly declare that Blowmedown is the pride and glory of our minds, and that we will support him to the last.' The bill ends with an important�'N.B. The Esquire entertains his friends at all the houses in Wandsworth on the day of election, which will be elegant and generous, without any other expense than that of every one paying for what they call for.'
The election of May 20, 1761, was alike remarkable for the number of candidates and for the efficient aid of their friends. Nine candidates came forward, and it is said that Foote, Garrick, and Wilkes wrote some of their addresses. Foote attended the election, and paid nine guineas for a room opposite Wandsworth church, for himself and friends to see the proceedings. The character of Snuffle, the sexton, in Foote's play, was derived from John Gardiner, a cobbler of Wandsworth and the parish gravedigger, who was one of the candidates under the name of Lord Twankum. That of Crispin Heeltap was copied from another candidate, a shoemaker, who came forward as Lord Lapstone.
The other five were Kit Noisy, Esq. (one Christopher Beacham, a waterman), Lords Wedge and Paxford, Sir John Crambo and Beau Silvester. The claims of the latter were strongly enforced in an address to the electors of 'the antient, loyal, and renowned Boroughwick,' the principal point of the appeal being the resistance he is reputed to have made to an extra tax on beer, which at that time excited much popular ire. A lengthy and high-flown address was also issued by the Beau, in which he declares, 'I have given necessary orders for opening great plenty of public-houses in every hamlet throughout the electorate, for the reception of my friends and their acquaintance, desiring at the same time that they will be punctual in paying for what they call for; and not to overgorge, as it may endanger their health, and prejudice my election.' He then alludes to his fellow-candidates, giving his highest praise to Lord Lapstone, whose powers of drinking, he thinks, will produce 'a vast revenue' to his country, if he be 'spared for a long life! 'We reprint entire another of his harangues, as it is one of the host specimens of the Garrat literature:
'To the worthy Electors of the Antient and Opulent Borough of Garrat.
I return my unfeigned and hearty thanks to the numberless and worthy electors that have exerted themselves in my interest, in support of my election; and should I be so happy (as by almost a general voice I am already declared) to be your representative, the honour so conferred will lay on me such high obligations, as my best endeavours can never discharge; but my service shall be always at your command, and my study ever for your welfare. Without flattery I promise, and without delay I perform; and, worthy gentlemen, I doubt not your peculiar penetration, unbiased integrity, and renowned prudence in the choice of another,'' worthy of such high honour and important trust.
In your choice thereof, with submission I entreat you neither to choose one of fancied high blood, and certain low fortune, for by him your privileges will be at stake, either to maintain or advance his honour; nor one either mean in descent or fortune, as the integrity of such will be always doubtful; nor yet proud, as your highest esteem of his merit will serve only for a footstool to his ambition; nor covetous, for he will be enamoured with your verdant lawns, and never rest till he has enclosed your extensive plains in his parchment noose, and confined your wide-spread space within the secure bounds of his coffers; nor impudent, because ignorance will be his only guide and your sure destruction.
If one too venerable, he will require more respect from you than ever you will have service from him; and your remarkable temperance and sobriety demonstrates your abhorrence of a beastly glutton and a stupid sot; and common prudence will direct you to beware of one prompted by a complication of iniquities, for to his will the antique charter of your borough, your public treasure, your private properties, without remorse will he grasp, and without mercy snatch away your lives to feed his insatiable cruelty; against either of these may fate protect your borough and me from such connexions, but in them the devil will get his due. As for your humble servant, if my religion is not the most profound, 'tis the most universally applauded (20s. to the pound); and I fear not but by my pious example to increase the practice thereof.
In honour I am upright, and downright in justice; immovably attached to my king and country, with an unbiased hatred to their enemies; my manners are untainted with gaudy politeness or fawning complaisance. My abilities will procure you the knowledge of your wants, if not the gratification of your desires; and those that dare advance the present price of the darling essence of Sir John Barley will highly incur my displeasure, if not feel the weight of my resentment. Through my purer and universal connexion, your liberty and commerce shall be spread to the Antipodes, and I will order yet undiscovered regions to be alarmed with your fame; in your borough I will erect a non-existent edifice for the transaction of your timber business, and in your suburbs plant an imaginary grove for your private affairs. My unknown fortune shall be ever ready for your assistance, my useless sword drawn in your defence; and my waste blood I'll freely spill in your protection. And, with permission,
'I will, for ever and a day,
Subscribe myself, gentlemen,
Your most obedient servant,
'Bull Hall, May 4th 1761. 'BEAU SILVESTER.'
N. B. �The Election will be the 20th instant. The Angel at Bull Stairs will be opened every day for the reception of all friends that please to honour me with their company.'
It is impossible to read this address without being forcibly reminded of Matthew Mug, the principal candidate in Foote's drama. He is a specious promiser of all good things to Garrat and its inhabitants, and, like Beau Silvester, particularly dilates on improving their trade. Should I succeed, you gentlemen may depend on my using my utmost endeavours to promote the good of the borough; to which purpose the encouragement of your trade and manufactories will most principally tend. Garrat, it must be owned, is an inland town, and has not, like Wandsworth, and Fulham, and Putney, the glorious advantage of a port; but what nature has denied, industry may supply. Cabbages, carrots, and cauliflowers may be deemed at present your staple commodities; but why should not your commerce be extended? Were I, gentlemen, worthy to advise, I should recommend the opening a new branch of trade; sparrowgrass, gentlemen, the manufacturing of sparrowgrass! Battersea, I own, gentlemen, bears at present the bell; but where lies the fault? In ourselves, gentlemen; let us, gentlemen, but exert our natural strength, and I will take upon me to say, that a hundred of grass from the corporation of Garrat will, in a short time, at the London market, be held at least as an equivalent to a Battersea bundle!' There can be little doubt that Beau Silvester is 'the great original' of Matthew Mug.
Kitt Noisy's pretensions are summed up in a grandiloquent placard, which ends by confidently prognosticating his success: 'For I am well assured you know a Demosthenes from a madman, a Lycurgus from a libertine, and a Mark Anthony from a mountebank.' All this is sneered down by Sir Humphry Gubbins, who desires Noisy 'not to make so free with those capital ancients, Demosthenes, Lycurgus, &c.; as they are gentle-men as little acquainted with the majority of his readers as with himself.' His abuse of his fellow - candidates is dismissed with the remark, that 'the regions of his ignorance and scurrility are so extensive, that was the ocean converted into ink, the sky into paper, and the stars into pens, it would not be adequate to the task ' of exposing it. He ends with�'A word or two by way of conclusion. It was the common saying of an old philosopher to his son, "I know what you have been doing, by knowing what company you have been in." As Moorfields, St. Giles's, and Hockley-in-the-Hole are such recent and familiar phrases in the mouth of Mr. Noisy's advocate, it requires no great skill in philosophy to learn at what academies he received his education. Probatum est.'
In 1763, we have again Lord Twankum, Kit Noisy, and the new candidate, Sir John Crambo, who declares, 'I will not only use my best endeavours to get repealed the late act on cyder and perry, but also my strongest efforts that you shall have strong beer again for threepence a quart.'
Seven candidates came forward for the next election in 1768. These were Sir Christopher Dashem, Lord Twankum, Sir George Comefirst, Sir William Airey, Sir William Bellows, one who signs himself 'Batt from the Workhouse,' and Sir John Harper. The latter was one James Anderson, a breeches-maker of Wandsworth, who became one of the most popular candidates during several elections.
This year's election was formally commenced by the following announcement:
'Whereas divers persons have thought proper to nominate themselves as candidates for this most antient and loyal borough without conforming to the several previous modes, forms, and methods to be observed and taken before such putting-up.
This is therefore to give notice, that by antient records of the borough, each and every candidate who enters the list of fame must subscribe his name (either real or fictitious), his place of residence (if he has one), and occupation (if any), in the Doomsday-book of this borough, kept at the Mansion House, lest any disqualified person should dare to infringe, but the least atom, on the privileges and immunities of this antient and most loyal borough.
Mayor and keeper of the Archives. 9th of April, 1768.'
In another broadside the same mayor complains:
'That it hath been a custom of late for several people, strangers and foreigners, to erect booths for vending of beer and other liquors on this occasion, who have neither right, title, nor pretension to that privilege; and that this custom is highly injurious to all the publicans of Garrat, to whom solely that privilege belongs by right of inheritance from time immemorial.' He there-fore earnestly adjures the public not to patronize them, and ends his harangue thus: 'Now I must exhort you all to order and good breeding; let the spirit of love reign amongst you�yea, and the spirit of Englishmen. Then, and in that there case, will the greatest decorum and brightest example shine throughout your con-duct; which shall be the fervent prayer of him who will certainly suffer by the contrary, viz.,
Cross, Mayor. (His own fist!)'
On this occasion Lady Twankum played a conspicuous part with her lord. His bills announce that 'Lady Twankum desires those ladies who intend to honour her with their company to send their servants for tickets.' In a second announcement, 'Lady Twankum desires those ladies who are in the interest of her lord to come full dressed, and clean about the heels.' She also hopes they will honour her so far as to drink chocolate, tea, coffee, or any other liquor they please to order, on the morning of election;' and adds, 'The lane and the whole borough will be grandly illuminated, according to custom, during the ball.'
Lord Twankum concludes his address by informing his constituents, 'The election will be on the 7th of June ensuing; when I have given strict orders that every house on the road between Greenwich and Farnham shall be open from five o'clock in the morning to nine, and from nine all day long; where you may please, drink, amuse, and regale yourselves at the mode-rate price of paying for what you use. Also by water, boats, barges, lighters, and wherries; and by land, proper vehicles, viz., sand-carts, dust-carts, dung-carts, carrion-carts, trucks, and truckadoes, will be ready at the most convenient places for you all�if you will only take the trouble to seek them. and pay the hire.'
The election of 1775 is announced by 'Richard Penn, Mayor, Deputy Ranger of Wandsworth Common, and Superintendant of all the Gravel-pits thereto belonging;' who recommends Sir William Blaize and Sir Christopher Dashem, and announces that two places of subscription are opened in Wandsworth and four in London, at various public houses, 'that the candidates shall not put themselves to a shilling expense.' He deprecates bribery, and notes a report 'as a caution to the worthy electors, that Sir John Harper has engaged a certain famous dancing Punch, who will exhibit during the whole election.' Sir William Blaize announces himself as 'Nephew to the late Lord Twankum,' and that he 'went as a volunteer from the artillery in the City of London to St. James's, with 11,000 men to serve his majesty in the rebellion in the year '45, under the command of Sir William Bellows and Sir Joseph Hankey; [he] has been fourteen years since in the Surrey Militia, and exerted his abilities in such a manner [as] has gained him the applause of his country in general.'
The election of 1781 was as remarkable as those of 1761 and 1768 for the number of candidates; no less than nine contested the borough. Among them were our old friends Sir John Harper, Sir Christopher Dashwood, and Sir William Blaize; the new candidates being a Sir John Gnawpost, Sir William Swallowtail (one William Cook, a basketmaker, of Brentford), Sir Thomas Nameless, Sir Thomas Tubbs (a waterman), Sir Buggy Bates (one Robert Bates, a waterman and chimney-sweep), and Sir Jeffrey Dunstan, an itinerant dealer in old wigs, who turned out to be one of the most popular of the candidates that ever appeared on the Garrat hustings, and was retained member for three successive parliaments. He came forward in his own name with merely the prefix of a title, was much of a humorist, and possessed a fund of vulgar wit, and an extremely grotesque personal appearance. He had been long known about London, from his whimsical mode of crying his trade; and it was his pride to appear hatless, and regardless of personal grace, by wearing his shirt and waistcoat open to the waist, his breeches unbuttoned at the knees, and his stockings ungartered. He, however, assumed much mock dignity, spite of his dwarfish size, disproportioned head, and knock-knees; spoke of his daughters as 'Miss Dinah' and 'beautiful Miss Nancy,' the latter being elevated into 'Lady Ann' after she married ' Lord Thompson,' a dustman of Bethnal Green, where Sir Jeffrey resided until his death, by excess of drink, about 1797. He was in the habit of rehearsing his election speeches, and giving his imitations of popular London cries, on stated occasions, at the White-chapel public-houses, in company with 'Ray the Tinker,' and 'Sir Charles Hartis,' a deformed fiddler and an unsuccessful candidate for Garrat. His quaint figure appears on some of the London tradesmen's tokens, and was used as a sign to public-houses.
Sir John Harper, in his address, speaks of having had the honour of serving Garrat in the last two parliaments out-of-doors;' calls himself ' principal rectifier of all mistakes and blunders;' promises 'to promote the trade and commerce of this land in general, and of every freeman in particular of this ancient and loyal borough of Garrat; to establish a firm, lasting, and universal peace with America; chastise the insolence and ingratitude of France, Spain, and Holland; and restore this nation to its ancient glory.' He also promises to call public servants to account in high places, to lighten taxes, shorten parliaments, and bring forward a scheme for the liquidation of the National Debt. He at the same time solemnly declares that he 'will never accept from government either place, pension, title, contract, or emolument whatsoever.' Sir John Harper and Sir Jeffrey Dunstan were unanimously returned, though an imputation was cast on the latter, to the effect that his daughter was to marry the son of the Premier, Lord North. Other candidates had wicked allegations levelled at them: Sir John Swallowtail was declared to have a contract to supply government with baskets; and Sir Buggy Bates another 'for a supply of soot, for the powder to destroy vermin in biscuit.'
There are preserved three very curious drawings by Valentine Green, delineating the chief features of this great electioneering farce. The most curious of the series represents Lady 'Maize in her state barge passing through Wandsworth; the principal inns, 'The Spread Eagle' and 'The Ram,' are indicated, with the entrance to Garrat Lane. Her ladyship carries in her boat a 'dancing Punch,' similar to that noted in 1775. She has also two pages, one to shield her beauties under a huge umbrella, the other to ply an enormous fan. She was graphically described to Hone by an old lady of Wandsworth.
'I remember her very well,' said she, 'and so I ought, for I had a good hand in the dressing of her. I helped to put together many a good pound of wool to make her hair up; I suppose it was more than three feet high, at least; and as for her stays, I also helped to make them, down in Anderson's barn. They were neither more nor less than a washing-tub without the bottom, well covered, and bedizened outside to look like a stomacher; as she sat in the boat she was one of the drollest creatures for size and dress ever seen!'
The boats were mounted on wheels and drawn by horses, though in one instance we see them dragged by men. The racket and semi-masquerading of the populace is a notable feature; many are habited in quaint wigs and hats, one drummer is in female costume; women join the rowers, quarrels and fights abound, and the scaffolding in front of the 'Spread Eagle' falls with its occupants. There is one remarkable spectator in the right-hand corner of this scene�a coatless, loosely-dressed, bald-headed man, with a porter-pot in his left hand; this is the publican, Sam House, celebrated at all Westminster elections for his zeal in the cause of Fox. He was never seen to wear either hat or coat, and has been spiritedly depicted by the famed caricaturist Gillray.
Sir John Harper addresses his constituents from a phaeton drawn by six horses, with mounted postilions, and preceded by horsemen carrying mops and brooms. Upon his
carriage is inscribed, Harper for ever! No Whigs!' an allusion, possibly, to Sir Jeffrey Dunstan. He is speaking opposite the inn known as 'The Leathern Bottle,' which still stands unchanged in Garrat Lane, nearly opposite the common, which was the glory of the place. Sir William Swallowtail came to the poll in a wicker-chariot made by himself, and was preceded by hand-bell players. Sir Christopher Dashwood was drawn in a boat, with drums and fifes, and a Merry-Andrew mounted beside him. The road was kept by ' the Garrat Cavalry,' consisting of forty boys of all ages and sizes, so arranged that the smallest boys rode the largest horses, and vice versa''; who were commanded by a 'Master of the Horse,' in caricature regimentals, with a sword seven feet long, boots reaching to the hips, provided with enormous spurs, and mounted on the largest dray-horse that could be procured.
At the next election, in 1785, the death of Sir John Harper left Sir Jeffrey Dunstan without a rival; but in that for 1796 he was ousted by a new candidate, Sir Harry Dimsdale, a muffin-seller and dealer in tin-ware, almost as deformed as himself, but by no means so great a humorist. The most was made of his appearance, by dressing him in an ill-proportioned tawdry court suit, with an enormous cocked hat. He enjoyed his honour but a short time, dying before the next general election; he was 'the last' of the grotesque mayors, for no candidates started after his death, the publicans did not as before sub-scribe toward the expenses of the day, and the great saturnalia died a natural death.
'None but those who have seen a London mob on any great holiday,' says Sir Richard Philips, 'can form a just idea of these elections. On several occasions a hundred thousand persons, half of them in carts, in hackney coaches, and on horse and ass-back, covered the various roads from London, and choked up all the approaches to the place of election. At the two last elections, I was told that the road within a mile of Wands-worth was so blocked up by vehicles, that none could move backward or forward during many hours; and that the candidates, dressed like chimney-sweepers on May-day, or in the mock fashion of the period, were brought up to the hustings in the carriages of peers, drawn by six horses, the owners themselves condescending to become their drivers.'
After a lapse of thirty-four years, when the whim and vulgarity of a Garrat election was only remembered by a few, and recorded by Foote's drama, the general election of 1826 seems to have induced a desire to resuscitate the custom. A placard was prepared to forward the interests of a certain 'Sir John Paul Pry,' who was to come forward with Sir Hugh Allsides (one Callendar, beadle of All Saints' Church, Wandsworth), and Sir Robert Needall (Robert Young, surveyor of roads), described as a 'friend to the ladies who attend Wandsworth Fair.' The placard, which may be read in Hone's Every-Day Book, displays 'a plentiful lack of wit.' The project of revival failed; and Garrat has had no parliamentary representative 'out-of-doors ' since the worthy muffin-seller was gathered to his fathers at the close of the last century.
https://www.thebookofdays.com/months/may/20.htm
See also
https://www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/pdf/stealing-the-commons.pdf
Open Space - or Closed Space?
It's easy to take open space for granted in the city...
Parks, commons, woods, from the heaths to the slivers of green at the edge of the canals… Green places in the heart of London, places of refuge, pleasure, places for picnics, games… They can be a lifesaver, when work and stress and all rises up and threatens to overwhelm you… you can lie on your back while the wind dances in the trees. When you've got no garden, when your family drives you nuts, when you just love the grass. For the mad endless football matches, falling out of trees, hide and seek as the sun dapples the moss; for dancing round your phone in the summer evenings… trying not to giggle at the t'ai chi bloke, wiping the tear away as you daughter's bike wobbles round the lake for the first time, even for when you're masochistic enough to go running on rainy mornings…
The benefits of having access to open green space are obvious, for exercise, mental health and wellbeing, teaching children about wildlife and nature, having somewhere green to just relax; quite apart from the playgrounds, sports facilities, water features, running tracks, that go with them.
But we shouldn't assume that the open green spaces that we know and love are just there, an entitlement. In most cases they exist because people fought hard in the past, for access, to save them from being built on or sold off, or walled off for the exclusive use of the rich. And because we have free access to them now doesn't mean it will always be like that… We have grown used to access to green space.
Centuries of hard fought battles saved many beloved places from disappearing, and laws currently protect parks, greens and commons. But times change… Pressures change. Space in London is profitable like never before. For housing mainly, but also there are sharks ever-present looking to exploit space for 'leisure'. And with the current onslaught on public spending in the name of balancing the books (ie cutting as much as possible in the interests of the wealthy), public money spent on public space is severely threatened.
Many are the pressures on open green spaces - the costs of upkeep, cleaning, maintenance, improvement, looking after facilities… Local councils, who mainly look after open space, are struggling. Some local authorities are proposing to make cuts of 50 or 60 % to budgets for parks. As a result, there are the beginnings of changes, developments that look few and far between now, but could be the thin end of the wedge.
>https://www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/stealing-the-commons.html
Today in London's satirical history: the traditional date of mock elections for the Mayor of Garratt
! -------------------------------------------------->May 20, 2019
Rebel History Calendar
In the eighteenth century, Garratt was a tiny village in the fields between Wandsworth and Tooting, now part of South West London. It had little political significance whatsoever and certainly no parliamentary representative. But from the 1740s to the 1800s mock elections for the fictional office of "Mayor of Garratt" attracted huge crowds to this tiny (now vanished) South London hamlet.
Garratt Green and its Leather Bottle Inn were the centre of a huge rowdy satirical pisstake of the election process of the times. Elections normally coincided with actual parliamentary elections and, at first, two Mayors were elected each time.
Eighteenth-century elections were noisy, chaotic and often violent. Only a tiny percentage of the population, the property-owning upper class and small numbers of the middle classes were eligible to vote. Many areas had no representation in Parliament, while many rotten boroughs with little or no residents elected MPs. There was huge pressure for reform of this farcical system, especially from the rising middle class, who were pushing for political clout to go with their increasing economic power.
Despite lacking the vote, huge crowds would often gather at election platforms, to cheer or jeer, fight, drink and generally take the piss…
Popular candidates were often feted and pulled around the streets in procession… Not so favoured would-be MPs might be pelted with mud or dung and chased out of town!
The whole electoral process overflowed with riot, drunkenness, theatre and an element of farce, which all classes appreciated and took part in. Elections were the subject (and were themselves riddled with) satire; this found its most extreme expression in the bizarre annual ritual of the election of the Mayor of Garratt, where the world turned upside down for a day to allow comic speeches, vulgar banter and political impersonation.
In its heyday up to 80,000 people assembled to take part in or enjoy the fun.
The first recorded election was in 1747. There are disputed views as to how the event originated… According to a 1754 account by a leading local Quaker, the first Mayor had been elected in about 1690 by some watermen who were "spending a merry day at the Leather Bottle".
A 1781 description of the election, however, claimed the elections had begun about 30 years earlier as a result of successful local opposition to the illegal enclosures on Wandsworth Common, the leader of this opposition becoming known as the Mayor of Garratt.
"The inhabitants of the hamlet of Garrat, situated between Wandsworth and Tooting, in Surrey, had certain rights in a small common, which had been encroached upon; they therefore met in conclave, elected a president, resisted, and obtained their rights. As this happened at the time of a general election, it was determined that their president, or mayor, should hold office during parliament, and be re-elected with a new one. It was impossible that the ridiculous pomposity of the whole affair should not be felt and joked upon. When, therefore, party-spirit ran high, its effervescence was parodied by 'the storm in a tea-pot' of a Garrat election."
This fits with the date of the first recorded election, though there doesn't seem to be any surviving evidence of a 1740s campaign against enclosures. Garratt elections thereafter were held to coincide and mock the national General Elections.
The fame of the Garratt elections was spread by Samuel Foote's farce, The Mayor of Garret (1764), and from 1768 candidates often came from London and its surroundings rather than just the Wandsworth area.
The candidates were always poor tradesmen, usually with a drink problem and sometimes with a physical deformity. The main qualification was a quick wit. They assumed such titles as Lord Twankum (a cobbler and gravedigger), Squire Blowmedown (John Willis, a waterman of Wandsworth) and Sir Trincalo Boreas (a fishmonger), Squire Gubbins (James Simmonds, keeper of a public-house known as the 'Gubbins' Head,' in Blackman Street, Borough).
A somewhat large and curious collection of handbills and broadsides, were printed during these elections. In 1747 the campaign of Squire Blowmedown was endorsed in 'a letter sent from an elector of the borough of Garrat to another,' and dated from St. James's Market, in which we are assured that 'the greatest stranger must look upon himself as void of reason, entirely barren of wisdom, extinct of humanity, and unworthy the esteem of men of sense and veracity, should he neglect any opportunity to testify how ardent his wishes are that this Phaenix may be unanimously chosen.' For, 'as our worthy candidate judiciously observes, if drinking largely, heading a mob majestically, huzzaing eloquently, and feeding voraciously, be merits in any degree worthy the esteem of the good people of this land, a Garrat, I must ingeniously confess, is too mean an apartment for such a worthy; for Envy herself must confess, if the above qualifications are of any efficacy, the universal voice of the whole realm of Great Britain would not be equivalent to his wondrous deserts.'
The candidates first walked or rode in procession from Southwark, and then paraded in Wandsworth, sometimes in carts shaped like boats.
"'None but those who have seen a London mob on any great holiday,' says Sir Richard Philips, 'can form a just idea of these elections. On several occasions a hundred thousand persons, half of them in carts, in hackney coaches, and on horse and ass-back, covered the various roads from London, and choked up all the approaches to the place of election. At the two last elections, I was told that the road within a mile of Wands-worth was so blocked up by vehicles, that none could move backward or forward during many hours; and that the candidates, dressed like chimney-sweepers on May-day, or in the mock fashion of the period, were brought up to the hustings in the carriages of peers, drawn by six horses, the owners themselves condescending to become their drivers."
In 1747, the "clerk and recorder" from a nonexistent town hall announced an election contested between Squire Blowmedown and Squire Gubbins (in fact a waterman and pubkeeper, respectively). Both candidates issued handbills full of their own merits and deriding those of their opponent, in the style of political leaflets of the day. These two candidates fought the next election in 1754, again abusing each other and their supporters in their handbills.
In 1761 the number of candidates rose to nine; in addition to Gubbins and Blowmedown, there were Sir John Crambo, Kit Noisy (waterman), Lord Lapstone (shoemaker), Lord Paxford, Lord Twankum (cobbler), Lord Wedge and Beau Silvester. The candidates promised prosperity if they were elected and foreseeing disaster if their opponents should be favoured instead. Beau Silvester cannily stood on a platform of resisting extra tax on ale and giving orders to increase the number of local pubs.
From the 1760s the elections were associated with radical politics, and the hero of the bourgeois reform party and darling of the "London mob", John Wilkes, and his supporters wrote some of the candidates' addresses. The candidates usually stressed their patriotism and loyalty to the King, while protesting economic hardships and the lack of liberty for the labouring classes.
Gradually the Mayoral election became more and more seditious, especially in the turbulence of the increasingly radical and rebellious 1790s.
In 1763 candidates Lord Twankum, Kit Noisy and Sir John Crambo mocked each other in electoral contest. In 1768 there were seven candidates; Lord Twankum, Sir Christopher Dashem, Sir George Comefirst, Sir William Airey, Sir William Bellows, one "Batt from the Workhouse", and Sir John Harper – the last being elected. Lady Twankum promised a huge party to entertain the populace. The 1775 election introduced Sir William Blaize, "Nephew to the late Lord Twankum" and Sir Christopher Dashem.
In 1781 there were "scaffoldings and booths erected in Wandsworth at every open space; these were filled with spectators to the topmost rows, and boys climbed to the topmost poles, flags and colours were hung across the road, and the place was crowded by a dense population full of activity and noise". The candidates then rode in procession along Garratt Lane, accompanied by the Clerk, the Recorder and the Master of Horse, who in 1781 rode at the head of the 'Garratt Cavalry', a troop of 40 boys mounted on ponies. At the hustings, on Garratt Green, each candidate had to swear an oath (their right hand resting on the sign of the mob – a brickbat!), "handed down to us by the grand Volgee, by order of the great Chin Kaw Chipo, first Emperor of the Moon".
This oath was too rude to be repeated by Victorian folk historians; it scrutinised voters' property qualifications (the test to see if you had enough property to be eligible to vote) in the language of sexual innuendo:
That you have admitted peaceably and quietly, into possession of a freehold thatched tenement, either black, brown or coral, in hedge or ditch, against gate or stile, under furze or fen, on any common or common field, or enclosure, in the high road, or any of the lanes, in barn, stable, hovel, or any other place within the manor of Garratt; and, that you did (Bona fide) keep (ad rem) possession of that said thatched tenement (durante bene placito) without any let, hindrance, or molestation whatever; or without any ejectment or forcibly turning out of the same; and that you did then and there and in the said tenement, discharge and duty pay and amply satisfy all legal demands of the tax that was at that time due on the said premises; and lastly, did quit and leave the said premises in sound, wholesome and good tenable repair as when you took possession and did enter therein. So help you…
The huge crowds, said in 1781 to be 20,000, but at other times to have been as many as 100,000, blocked the streets for hours. Pub landlords donated funds to provide the candidates' lavish costumes, and were well-rewarded: on one occasion the pubs ran dry and only water was left, selling at 2d per glass. Local and later London publicans also sponsored candidates and supported the event, to boost their own profits.
In 1781 there were nine candidates:
"About three o'clock the candidates proceeded with their several equipages towards the hustings; his Lordship [Lord Viscount Swallowtail, a basketmaker] was elegantly seated in a wicker cage, which was mounted on a cart and driven by a servant in a laced livery. The next in order was Sir John Harper [in reality James Anderson, a breeches-maker & inkle-weaver] who rode uncovered in a phaeton drawn by six horses, and was dressed in white and silver, with a blue ribband round his shoulder; this worthy knight recruited his spirits every furlong by a glass of Geneva [gin] … After him came Sir William Blaize [a blacksmith] mounted on a cart-horse, with a pack-saddle and halter, and paper ears reaching to the ground. Sir Christopher Dashwood [a waterman] rode triumphantly in a boat drawn by four horses and filled with many emblematical devices."
Also standing were Sir Buggy Bates (chimney-sweep), Sir John Gnawpost, Sir Thomas Nameless, Sir Thomas Tubbs (waterman) and Jeffrey Dunstan. In the counter-claim of ther candidates handbills, Swallowtail and Buggy Bates were accused by their rivals of holding government contracts, of baskets and soot, respectively. The press of carriages, wagons and horses prevented several candidates reaching the hustings, but Dunstan, "proceeding without noise or ostentation', arrived at the Green on his own and proceeded to address the electors until interrupted by the hustings platform collapsing. 'The other candidates then not appearing, and a message being received from Sir John [Harper] that he was too drunk to attend, [Dunstan] was declared duly elected".
In fact both Harper and Dunstan were elected.
Dunstan, the most celebrated of the Mayors, was a second-hand wig seller in the West End. He was a foundling who took his name from the parish of St Dunstans-in-the-East in the City of London, where, in 1759, he was discovered on the step of the churchwarden's house. He was brought up in the workhouse, had knock-knees and a disproportionately large head, and only grew to a height of 4 feet … He had "a countenance and manner marked by irresistible humour, and he never appeared without a train of boys and curious persons whom he entertained by his sallies of wit, shrewd sayings and smart repartees". Dunstan's lively sallies made him popular with the crowd, who twice more returned him to office. He became a close friend of controversial populist MP John Wilkes. A man fond of his drink, Dunstan became too outspoken against the establishment and in 1793, at the height of the French Revolution, he was tried, convicted and imprisoned for seditious expressions. Dunstan remained Mayor until 1796 and died the following year, allegedly as the result of a drinking spree.
Dunstan's successor was Henry Dinsdale (Sir Harry Dimsdale), described as "a deformed dwarf, little better than an idiot, who used to sell muffins in the streets about St Anne's Soho". He lived in a small attic near Seven Dials (a notoriously poor and rowdy area north of Covent Garden). He was almost as deformed as Dunstan, "but by no means so great a humorist. The most was made of his appearance, by dressing him in an ill-proportioned tawdry court suit, with an enormous cocked hat.
In 1804, he stood as the Emperor Anti-Napoleon, addressing his subjects as the 'Emperor of Garratt'. This being the same year the French revolutionary hero Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, this was a nice raspberry – possibly aimed at the radicals who had previously supported Napoleon, as Dinsdale was championed by the more reactionary elements, where Dunstan had been a figurehead for the radicals),
Dinsdale died in about 1810. "He was 'the last' of the grotesque mayors, for no candidates started after his death, the publicans did not as before sub-scribe toward the expenses of the day, and the great saturnalia died a natural death."
The Garratt election seems to have declined in popularity from the 1790s, losing both its patronage by the aristos and its support from political radicals. There were several reasons for this. In its heyday, the whole grand show had been a spectacle for people of all backgrounds: many of the better-off to come and enjoy the rough and tumble of lower-class rowdiness: and even sponsored the candidates. The wealthier classes were attracted to the rowdiness and the edginess of mingling with the plebeians at Garratt or the many local popular fairs; at least while there seemed to be no political implications to the gatherings (although middle class and even aristocratic reformers wrote speeches and used the Mayoralty to further the cause of reform).
Like many carnivals, festivals, fairs Garratt had become a letting of steam, a release for social and political tensions in a relatively harmless satirical free for all. This wasn't unusual for the times, according to long-established codes, even a certain level of violence and direct action could be acceptable, as in bread riots, when crowds forcibly redistributed bread at times of high prices. This has been labeled a "moral economy" by some radical historians, who identify the prevailing paternalistic social system as allowing for a certain amount of ritualistic rebelliousness – to keep food prices reasonable for example, or curb anti-social, adulterous or marginal behaviour – as long as it stayed within traditional and expected boundaries. Exceed these limits and the powers that be would crush you: as striking and rioting silkweavers and coalheavers found out in the 1760s.
As the 18th Century went on however, not only did pressure for reform from below grow, but the authorities fear of "the Mob" and plebeian rebelliousness increased. The riots of the 1760s in support of Wilkes' campaign against corruption in Parliament, increasing economic violence, and above all, the shattering events of the Gordon Riots in 1780, when rioting crowds virtually took over the city and drove the rich into flight, terrified the upper class. Any occasion for crowds to come together became a potential riot situation. The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, and the violent social upheaval it created, inspired many radicals in England – and further alarmed those in power.
Certainly from 1793, the year of the height of the radical violence of the Revolution, the Garratt elections were frowned upon (Dunstan was jailed for sedition in '93). Through 1794-5, radical reformers like the London Corresponding Society (as well as many similar societies in other cities) were holding mass rallies and pressing for changes in political structures – and often this was linked to economic actions by the growing working class, as well as rioting in times of hardship (especially during the long war with France 1792-1815). Popular protest was increasingly vocal and repression increasingly violent. In this context Garratt was less of a harmless show and took on a more threatening aspect.
Hand in hand with this of course, a moral trend was developing which was aimed at driving society, especially the poor, away from rowdiness and drunken troublemaking, and towards hard work, sobriety, respectability. This found its expression in the mass growth of Christian sects like the Methodists, but also in the springing up of repressive middle class societies such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and many local campaigns which were set up to press for the banning of Fairs and closing other local trouble spots. Between 1768 and 1855 most of the large London Fairs, as well as many further afield, which were traditionally held once a year, and often became rowdy, bawdy riotous free for alls, were restricted or banned. Morally Fairs and other licentious gatherings were a danger to the working classes because they distracted them from the true path of hard work, religion and sacrifice; the cost of policing and repressing the riots that erupted was also falling more and more on the ratepayers who controlled the local Vestries. Even the very open spaces where such events were held were disappearing, as London spread into the surrounding fields, profitable developments replaced commons and Greens where such events could be held; to the relief of the gentry who often identified un-landscaped open spaces as immoral in themselves, requiring fencing, landscaping and ordering if they were to remain unbuilt on – an ordered park was held to have a civilizing effect on the disorderly poor in its own right.
Not only were the authorities keen to get rid of fairs, mass gatherings etc where the plebs' baser passions could break out, but reformers and radicals themselves also more and more internalised the drive for a respectable, sober, orderly and educated movement for change. Artisan radicals increasingly saw such unruly traditions as embarrassments to their properly directed political efforts to improve their lot.
This movement developed into the powerful London artisan radical scene, which produced the London Corresponding Society, Owenism, the Cooperative Movement and the Chartism. Although these were strong and important manifestations of the self-organised working class, you can't help feeling that leaving behind wild outbreaks of carnival and satire like the Garratt Elections, something was lost…
Interestingly many radical artisans and working men did in fact use the structure or name of a 'Parliament', in the Working Men's Institutes and Radical Clubs, to describe their debating societies and political discussions. This seems to have been more of a gesture towards respectability and legitimacy, not questioning or mocking the institution of the Election but affirming it and seeking to extend it into their own political experience.
What with repression and changes in working class culture, there were no more Mayor of Garratt elections after 1804, apart from an unsuccessful attempt to revive the custom in 1826:
"After a lapse of thirty-four years, when the whim and vulgarity of a Garrat election was only remembered by a few, and recorded by Foote's drama, the general election of 1826 seems to have induced a desire to resuscitate the custom. A placard was prepared to forward the interests of a certain 'Sir John Paul Pry,' who was to come forward with Sir Hugh Allsides (ono Callendar. beadle of All Saints' Church, Wandsworth), and Sir Robert Needall (Robert Young, surveyor of roads), described as a 'friend to the ladies who attend Wandsworth Fair.' The placard, which may be read in Hone's Every-Day Book, displays 'a plentiful lack of wit.' The project of revival failed; and Garrat has had no parliamentary representative 'out-of-doors ' since the worthy muffin-seller was gathered to his fathers at the close of the last century."
The year after this failed attempt to bring the Garratt election back, there was however, a mock election held in the Kings Bench Prison…
In the eighteenth century, Garratt was a tiny village in the fields between Wandsworth and Tooting, now part of South West London. It had little political significance whatsoever and certainly no parliamentary representative. But from the 1740s to the 1800s mock elections for the fictional office of "Mayor of Garratt" attracted huge crowds to this…
One response to "Today in London's satirical history: the traditional date of mock elections for the Mayor of Garratt"
Today in penal history: Kings Bench Prisoners hold mock election, 1827. | past tense
July 16, 2019 at 8:32 am
[…] elections were all the rage at one time… for many years the Mayor of Garratt elections in South London were the highpoint of the social […]
[See also https://pasttense.co.uk/2016/07/16/today-in-penal-history-kings-bench-prisoners-hold-mock-election-1827/]
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https://www.alphabetthreat.co.uk/pasttense/stealing-the-commons.html
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Samuel Foote, Mayor of Garret [A comedy in two acts, 1797)
https://archive.org/stream/bim_eighteenth-century_the-mayor-of-garratt-a-_foote-samuel_1794/bim_eighteenth-century_the-mayor-of-garratt-a-_foote-samuel_1794_djvu.txt
No refs (that I can find) to commons or wandsworth
Wandsworth having been the once famed scene of those humorous popular elections of a mayor, or member for Garrat; and the subject serving to illustrate the manners of the times, and abounding in original features of character, I collected among some of its elder inhabitants a variety of amusing facts and documents, relative to the eccentric candidates and their elections.
Southward of Wandsworth; a road extends nearly two miles to the village of Lower Tooting, and nearly midway are a few houses, or hamlet, by the side of a small common, called Garrat, from which the road itself is called Garrat Lane.
Various encroachments on this common led to an association of the neighbours about three-score years since, when they chose a president, or mayor^ to protect their rights ; and the time of their first election, being the period of a new parliament, it was agreed that the mayor should be re-chosen after every general election. Some facetious members of the club gave, in a few years, local notoriety to this election ; and, when party spirit ran high in the days of Wilkes and Liberty y ii>iwaisj easy to create an appetite for a burlesque election among .the lower orders of the metropolis. The publicans at Wandsworth, Tooting, Battersea, Clapham, and Vauxhall, made a purse to give it character ; and Mr. Foote rendered its interest universal, by calling one of his inimitable farces, "the Mayor of Garrat ".
I have indeed been told, that Foote, Garrick, and Wilkes, wrote some of the candidates' addresses, for the purpose of instructing the people in the corruptions which attend elections to the legislature, and of producing those reforms by means of ridicule and shame, which are vainly expected from solemn appeals of argument and patriotism.
Not being able to find the members for Garrat in Beatson's Political Index, or in any of the Court Calendars,. I am obliged to depend on tradition for information in regard to the early history of this famous borough. The first mayor of whom I could hear was called Sir John Harper.
He filled the seat during two parliaments^ and was, it appears, a man of wit, for, on a dead cat being thrown at him on the hustings, and a bye-stander exclaiming that it stunk worse than a fox. Sir John vociferated, "that's no wonder, for you see it's poll-cat." This noted baronet was, in the metropolis, a retailer of brick-dust; and, his Garrat honours being supposed Hy be a means of improving his trade and the condition of his ass, many characters in similar occupations were led to aspire to the same distinctions.
He was succeeded by Sir Jeffrey Dunstan, who was returned for three parliaments, and was the most popular candidate that ever appeared on the Garrat hustings. His occupation w^as that of buying old wigs, once an article of trade like that in old clothes, but become obsolete since the full-bottomed and full-dressed wigs of both sexes went out of fashion.
Sir Jeffrey usually carried his wig-bag over his shoulder, and, to avoid the charge of vagrancy, vociferated, as he passed along the streets, "old wigs;" but, having a person like Esop, and a countenance and manner marked by irresistible humour, he never appeared without a train of boys, and curious persons, whom he entertained by his sallies of wit, shrewd sayings, and smart repartees; and from whom, without begging, he collected sufficient to maintain his dignity of mayor and knight. He was no respecter of persons, and was so severe in his jokes on the corruptions and compromises of power, that, under the iron regime of Pitt and Dundas, when freedom was treason, and truth was blasphemy, this political punch, or street jester, was prosecuted for using what were then called seditious expressions ; and, as a caricature on the times, which ought never to be forgotten, he was in 1793 tried, convicted, and imprisoned 1 In consequence of this affair, and some charges of dishonesty, he lost his popularity, and, at the general election for 179^, was ousted by Sir Harry Dimsdale, muffin-seller, a man as much deformed as himself. Sir Jeffrey could not long survive his fall; but, in death as in life, he proved a satire on the vices of the proud, for in 1797 he died, like Alexander the Great, and many other heroes renowned in the historic page — of suffocation from excessive drinking !
Sir Harry Dimsdale dying also before the next general election, and no candidate starting of sufficient originality of character, and, what was still more fatal, the victuallers having failed to raise a PUBLIC PURSE, which was as stimulating a bait to the independent candidates for Garrat, as it is to the independent candidates for a certain assembly ; the borough of Garrat has since remained vacant, and the populace have been without a ^r^e^^ ed political buffoon.
None but those who have seen a Lon don mob on any great holiday can form a just idea of these elections. On several occasions, a hundred thousand per sons, half of them in carts, in hackney coaches, and on horse and ass-back, co vered the various roads from London, and choaked up all the approaches to the place of election. At the two last elections, I was told, that the road within a mile of Wandsworth was so blocked up by vehicles, that none could move backward or forward during many hours ; and that the candidates, dressed like chimney sweepers on May-day, or in the mock o
fashion of the period, were brought to the hustings in the carriages of peer^y drawn by six_ horses, the owners them selves condescending to become their drivers I
Whether the effect of inculcating useful principles by means of these mock politicians, was compensated by the ridicule thrown on the sacred exertions of patriot* ism, may perhaps be doubted. These elections served, however, to keep alive the feelings of the people on public questions, and tended to increase those discussions and enquiries which support the arterial circulation of the body politic.
The deadly plague of despotism, and the equally fatal disease of ministerial cor-ruption, find victims of their influence only among people who are devoid of moral energies and public spirit, and whose stagnant and torpid condition gene rates morbid dispositions that invite, rather than resist, the attacks of any public enemy.
I am a friend, therefore, on principle, to the bustle and tumult of popular elections. They are the flint and steel, the animating friction, the galvanic energy, of society. Virtue alone can face them.
Vice dreads them as it dreads the light.
With uncourtly hands, they tear the mask from Hypocrisy ; they arraign at the bar of public opinion, political Culprits, amenable to no other tribunal ; and they probe to the quick, the seared consciences pf Peculators and Oppressors. If the sycophants of courts, and the sophistical apologists of arbitrary power, should craftily urge that the people are sometimes misled by fraud and falsehood, and there fore unable to distinguish between patriots and plunderers, we should not forget that occasional errors are misfortunes which do not abrogate general rights ; and that popular elections are never adopted in well trained despotisms, as part of the machinery of the state, calculated to subjugate the bodies and minds of their slaves.
Do we hear of the suffrages of the people among the Turks, the Russians, the Moors, or the Algerines? Rather, as the means of eliciting the public voice, and of exciting enquiry, are they not of all despotisms, the bane ; and of all usurpations and ^ abuses of power, the terror; while, by generating that public spirit which is the animating soul of freedom, they serve as tests of dauntless public virtue, afford the last and the best hope of patriotism, and constitute national schools, in which impressive Lessons of Liberty are taught to the whole people.
SEE ALSO
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/articles/Jeffrey_Dunstan
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