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This thesis uncovers political culture in Northampton borough from 1768-1868 through the study of parliamentary elections. The thesis provides a comprehensive method of studying political culture at a local level. Northampton is an example of an 'open' pre-reform borough in which a large proportion of men were able to vote in parliamentary elections; pollbooks, political ephemera, newspapers and correspondence have been used to provide both a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the borough's elections. By analysing gender and space history alongside more traditional approaches to political history such as examining party politics, politicians and pollbook analysis, this thesis shows the importance of linking various methodologies to provide a complete picture of political culture. This study argues that the home was used as a political space during pre-reform elections due to election customs and the exchange of property. It shows the involvement of non-elite women in pre-reform elections through their role as homeowners and witnessses. By testing 'new political history' this study argues that the constituency was not solely constructed by politicians, and nor did it mirror national agenda: local political rhetoric was actually of a pragmatic nature, and shifted to suit the electorate and encompass common social terminology. This thesis argues that practical changes made by reforms of parliament facilitated ideological shifts and had unintended consequences. Finally, this thesis suggests that political culture must focus on the practicalities of politics at the local level.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on January 3, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

Texte remanié de: M.Phil. th.--University of Nottingham, 1998. / Bibliogr. p. 245-252.

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This thesis examines the role of private charity in the ‘mixed economy of welfare’ available to the rural poor in Northamptonshire in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is the first major study of this kind, as hitherto, historians of welfare have largely concentrated on the public charity of poor relief. It covers the basic needs of the poor, food, money, clothing, housing and access to land for fuel and cultivation and examines the various sources of private charity that addressed those needs. These were the endowed charities, the benevolence of individuals, mainly the major landowners and the clergy, and the establishment of the self-help charitable initiatives of allotment schemes, clothing societies and coal clubs. For each source, this thesis explores the key questions of how valuable the resource was to the poor, who were the main recipients and what factors affected the choice of recipients. Thus, it examines the gender, the stage in the life cycle and the respectability of the recipients. It also analyses the importance of residency in an ‘open’ or a ‘close’ parish in terms of the amount and quality of assistance given to the poor. This thesis also examines the extent of changes in national attitudes to private charitable provision with an emphasis on self-help and on more discrimination in the choice of recipients, mirroring the changes in poor relief in the period. Although these changes were in their infancy in the early decades of the nineteenth century, they became prominent in rural parishes in the second half. Thus this thesis shows that the years up to 1850 were critical in that the changes in charitable provision which arose out of the pressures encountered by rural society in that period came to be widely adopted by the end of the century

The objective of this thesis is to delineate and analyse Northamptonshire Caribbeans' consumption c.1955-1989. Author-collected and other oral histories alongside complementary primary and secondary references dovetail to unearth and analyse aspects of Post-War Caribbean consumption in a British provincial location that have been significantly unexplored previously. Central to the argument is the contention that identity is fundamentally significant in comprehending and analysing Northamptonshire Caribbeans' consumption. Various conceptualisations of identity facilitated development of consumer materialisations and aspirations. This thesis explores how multiple forms of identity as Caribbean, Black and British people were significant in shaping local Caribbeans' consumption. The succeeding pages address and analyse how these multiple identities influenced consumption and how provincial consumer behaviour was shaped by Caribbeans' relative co-ethnic isolation in Northamptonshire. Chapter 3 delineates and analyses consumer practices and practicalities of Northamptonshire Caribbeans. Integral within these consumer practices and practicalities are changes in consumption over time, intergenerational differences in consumption, as well as aspects of consumption that could be considered 'typical' and/or 'atypical' Northamptonshire Caribbean consumption; all of which are incorporated within this chapter. Chapter 4 connects identity and consumption through enhancing understanding of Northamptonshire Caribbeans' consumer networks. These networks interacted with the combination of identities local Caribbeans psychologically felt part of within various Caribbean, Black and British permutations. Furthermore, such identities varied more widely amongst the younger generation than their co-ethnic elders, a concept which is also addressed. Education and cultural currency are two novel strands through which to analyse connections between consumption and identity. The final two chapters deploy these concepts in an innovative manner creating and developing greater understanding of Northamptonshire Caribbeans' consumption. Chapter 5 expounds on the concept that education can be used as consumption whilst shaping future consumer behaviour, both ideas significantly under-explored previously. Chapter 6 introduces the theory of cultural currency, the idea that aspects of culture have finite, but changing, values and must be shared to have value similar to monetary currencies having exchange values for other monetary currencies. This chapter demonstrates how Northamptonshire Caribbeans shared aspects of Caribbean culture as cultural currency, fostering co-ethnic strength whilst gaining inter-ethnic respect for Caribbeans. Through comprehending Caribbean identity, correlations between empirical and social history, local consumption, as well as educational and cultural circumstances that stimulated and inspired Northamptonshire Caribbeans, this thesis distinctively illuminates how local Caribbeans' consumption interacted with various permutations of Afro-Caribbean, Black and/or British identities whilst representing idiosyncratic local nodes within these larger amalgamations.

The crusade against outrelief, which was promoted by the Local Government Board in the late-Victorian era, is a neglected topic of nineteenth century poor law studies. This thesis examines the crusade against outrelief that was implemented in the Brixworth Union of Northamptonshire because this board of guardians was one of the strongest and most renowned supporters of central government’s anti-outrelief policy between 1870 and 1896. For over twenty-five years guardians implemented a series of progressively harsh strategies to try to eradicate outrelief spending. Those anti-outrelief measures had a profound social cost with far-reaching political repercussions. From the start of the crusade campaign, working people organised to fight for the reintroduction of outrelief. When the poor law was democratised in the 1890s the working-classes succeeded in becoming guardians of the poor for the first time and they outvoted the anti-outrelief policy. The political contest over outrelief provides fresh insights into the complex nature of labour relations in the countryside and the impact of democratisation in the late nineteenth century. It traces the role of the poor law in rural society and how policy was shaped by central and local factors. The study, therefore, examines the politics of poor relief, the forces that shaped poor law policies and the impact those policies had on rural society in the context of the crusade against outrelief and its overthrow. In the process it questions some of our assumptions about working class political and social welfare aspirations before the advent of Welfare State legislation in the early twentieth century

The aim of this thesis is to add to the growing body of knowledge about the effects of local and national events on the survival and fortunes of individual families and to explore the contribution of these families to the political scene. The dates, circa 1460 to 1560, were chosen partly because this was a.period of change and partly because it is a relatively neglected period; bridging as it does the Medieval and Early Modern divide. The first part explores the financial and political fortunes of ten families. All of them came to be residents of Northamptonshire during this period but this is not a closed county study, a consideration of their activities on a broader front is crucial to the arguments presented. Similarly they were all members of either the upper gentry or lower nobility, but this is not a study of one class or the other. Movement up and down the social scale is an important feature under consideration. The second part of the thesis uses the family evidence to explore behaviour patterns and relationships and attempts to draw conclusions on routes to success and the impact of outside factors. The multi-faceted approach adopted by most of the families makes these questions very complex. Law and sheep farming emerge as very significant features overall, but political allegiance is a more elusive issue. An examination of power structures reveals the extent to which the Crown was willing to overlook past behaviour if a family retained the confidence of its peers. The final question concerns the operation of these families as part of a broader 'county community'. The conclusion must be that while they did form local networks, these were not necessarily confined by county boundaries.