1862 Preston by-election

UK parliamentary by-election September 2024 August 2024 1862 Preston by-election parliamentary Preston constituency no 1859 United Kingdom general election 1859 1865 United Kingdom general election 1865 1862 04 04 2,541 Thomas Hesketh Conservative Party (UK) 1,527 60.1% George Melly Liberal Party (UK) 1,014 39.9% +9.1 MP R. A. Cross Tories (British political party) Thomas Hesketh Conservative Party (UK) United Kingdom The 1862 Preston by-election was held on 4 April 1862, after the incumbent Conservative MP R. A. Cross resigned to enter a private banking business in Warrington.Sir Richard Cross (Hansard) https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/sir-richard-cross/index.html 2024-08-31 api.parliament.ukhttps://jstor.org/stable/60241860 Preston Elections in the Nineteenth Century: Reprinted from the Preston Chronicle. W. & S. Dobson 1865 Preston 7 60241860 The by-election was won by the Conservative candidate, Thomas Hesketh.Sir Thomas Hesketh (Hansard) https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/sir-thomas-hesketh/index.html 2024-08-31 api.parliament.uk Hesketh was related to two previous MPs for the constituency, both also named Thomas Hesketh, one from the 16th century and one from the 18th.Dobson William https://books.google.com/books?id=Kz9cAAAAcAAJ History of the Parliamentary Representation of Preston, during the last hundred years W & J Dobson 1868 London 30 en Opposing Hesketh was the Liberal candidate, George Melly, who would later go on to represent Stoke-upon-Trent. Melly faced religious opposition on two fronts. As a Unitarian, he was viewed as barely better than an atheist by many of the electors belonging to the Church of England, while he was also opposed by Catholics, influenced by Papal hostility towards the foreign policy of the incumbent Liberal government led by Lord Palmerston.p.122 The aftermath of the by-election was captured in the painting The Preston By-Election of 1862 by the Anglo-Russian artist Vladimir Osipovich Sherwood, who was based in nearby Blackburn at the time.The Preston By-Election of 1862 Art UK https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/the-preston-by-election-of-1862-152403 2024-09-01 artuk.org en Sherwood's painting, which features Hesketh addressing a crowd amid Conservative party iconography, also includes veiled accusations of voter bribery, with people scrabbling for coins appearing prominently in the foreground. Supporters of the Liberal candidate attributed Hesketh's win to the Conservative's spending power. This included accusations that voters were being offered as much as £25 in exchange for their support, an attractive prospect as the constituency was badly affected by the ongoing Lancashire Cotton Famine.Taylor H. A. 15 September 1955 Politics in Famine-Stricken Preston: An Examination of Liberal Party Management, 1861–65 https://www.hslc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/107-7-Taylor.pdf 30 June 2018 The Historic Society of Lancashire & Cheshire 121–139pp.127–129 A subsequent recall petition against Hesketh was initiated after the by-election, instigated by the perceived financial impropriety.p.130 However it was ultimately unsuccessful, due to a combination of the potential cost, and because Melly's allies doubted that he would win the re-run campaign.p.130 Result By-Election 4 April 1862: PrestonCraig F. W. S. F. W. S. Craig British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 1977 Macmillan Press London 978-1-349-02349-3 1st e-book Conservative Party (UK) Thomas Hesketh 1,527 60.1 -9.1 Liberal Party (UK) George Melly 1,014 39.9 +9.1 513 20.2 +11.6 2,541 91.6 +17.9 2,773 Conservative Party (UK) −9.1 References Category:1862 elections in the United Kingdom Category:1862 in England Category:April 1862 in the United Kingdom Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Lancashire constituencies Category:1860s in Lancashire