1800s: Rioting over the right to vote

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John Dallison, of Derby’s Local Studies Library, looks at the people’s long struggle for electoral reform which resulted in fatal riots in the town in October 1831.

During one Saturday in October 1831, the mob thronging Derby’s Market Place was on the rampage. It massed outside William Bemrose’s home and shop, at number 14, which stood opposite the old Guildhall.

Bemrose, a relative newcomer to the town, was a bookseller, printer, stationer and vendor of musical instruments. Foolishly, perhaps, he had actively opposed voting reform by encouraging people to sign a petition against it.

The mob, in its avenging fury, looted his shop and made a bonfire of books and stationery in the square. Some of the more malevolent rioters even attempted to wreck the building itself, by demolishing a supporting pillar.

William and his wife must have been extremely courageous. They stood firm and were, fortunately, unharmed.

Nevertheless, they were concerned for the safety of their four-year-old son, Henry Howe Bemrose. He had to be bundled hurriedly through an open window, to the protection of neighbours.

The right to vote was, at that time, largely based on wealth. Fewer than three adult males in every 100 were eligible.

Between 1770 and 1830, the Tory Party had dominated the nation’s affairs and it vigorously prevented any increase in the franchise.

Electoral change was, for most of the population, long overdue.

In 1830, Earl Grey, a Whig, became Prime Minister. He supported Lord John Russell’s Reform Bill. The House of Commons passed the bill in September 1831, but the Tories went on to defeat it in the House of Lords.

As news of the bill’s defeat spread, regions of the country erupted. There were riots in a number of towns and cities, those in Bristol being the worst.

People who had travelled on the mail coach from London brought the bad news to Derby at 7pm on Saturday, October 8.

Our Derby Riots then began, continuing until the Monday morning. Angry mobs marched on Chaddesden Hall and Markeaton Hall.

Markeaton Hall

In Friar Gate, more than 1,000 rioters broke into the old jail and released all the prisoners. In Vernon Street, worse was to happen.

The governor of the new County Gaol ordered his armed guards to fire on the throng. A young man, aged 17, who was a mere onlooker, was shot in the stomach and died.

In the Market Place on Monday, further bloodshed occurred. As another crowd gathered there, the local magistrates, albeit unwillingly, had the Riot Act read. Soldiers from Nottingham were then ordered to break up the protestors.

The cavalry, armed with drawn swords and guns, advanced. People panicked and, during the confusion, two men were fatally injured.

Derby’s rioting then abated, but the underlying situation had not been resolved. The whole country was still dangerously close to civil war.

In May 1832, Earl Grey and Henry Brougham went to the King, William IV, and asked him to create a large number of Whig peers to enable the Reform Bill to be passed in the House of Lords.

The King would not comply, however, and so Earl Grey and his Government resigned.

Arthur Wellesley, the celebrated Duke of Wellington, was Tory leader. William IV asked him to form a government. Wellington attempted to do so but he failed to persuade other leading men to join a cabinet that would be directly opposed to the wishes of most people.

The King was now forced to recall Lord Grey. Again, the Earl asked William IV to create new Whig peers. The chastened King, having lost most of his popularity, at last agreed.

Accordingly, later in 1832, the House of Lords finally passed the Reform Bill. There was rejoicing in the country, yet many people were greatly disappointed with the new Reform Act.

In boroughs such as Derby, voting was restricted to men who occupied houses with an annual rateable value of £10 or more (a large sum in those days).

In effect, only five adult males in 100 had the right to vote. Those early steps towards democracy were faltering ones indeed!

When compensation was awarded to those Derby townsfolk whose property had been damaged during the rioting, William Bemrose was granted £200.

It was an amount of money far larger than that awarded to other victims, proving that Bemrose’s premises had suffered worst from the mob’s fury.

Electoral reform continued through the 19th century and into the 20th century. The Reform Act of 1867 extended the right to vote to 13 adult men out of every 100.

In 1872, an act was passed that introduced voting by secret ballot, which was an important advance.

Then there were the Representation of the People Acts of 1884 and 1918. The 1918 act was momentous in that some women at last had the vote after years of fighting by the Suffragettes.

In 1928, uniform voting rights were granted to all men and women over the age of 21. Some 99 adults out of every 100 could now vote. Sadly, some older men dismissively termed it the “flapper vote”, saying that few young women would vote wisely. In the 1920s, equality still had a way to go!

In 1969, the voting age was reduced to 18 and, in recent years, there has been talk of further extending the franchise.

Today, Derby Local Studies Library houses Derby’s Electoral Registers. Those volumes clearly record the gradual growth of the franchise from the1830s to the present century.

The early registers are small and slim; the later ones are far larger and thicker. Researchers frequently study our registers. But how often, I wonder, do people consider the drama and bloodshed that lie behind such apparently ordinary items?

Interestingly, William Bemrose printed Derby’s first Electoral Register after the 1832 act. As for the infant Henry Howe Bemrose, he grew up to become one of the town’s most illustrious men who was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1897.

And had Henry not survived the riots of 1831, Derby Local Studies Library would have lacked many of its prized possessions, for he built up a superb collection of more than 7,000 volumes of Derbyshire material.

After his death, in 1911, the collection became available and it was secured for and by the people of Derby in 1912.

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