A walk around Dresden, Longton, Stoke-on-Trent Dresden & the Longton Freehold Land Society

THE 1865 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN NORTH STAFFS & THE DRESDEN ELECTORS

One of the aims of the Longton Freehold Land Society was to increase the number of Liberal electors. How successful they were can be judged by the results of the Parliamentary election held in 1865. The three candidates for the two seats were Edward Duller, Esq., Liberal; Charles B Adderley, Esq., Conservative; and Viscount Ingestre, also Conservative. In the poll book published after the election each elector was listed with their address and the candidates they voted for. The first page of the Longton Polling District is reproduced above. In that list it is possible to identify 119 electors living in Dresden - very much a minority of the population on an estate which already contained 505 houses. Those who had the vote voted overwhelmingly for Duller, the Liberal candidate.

The votes cast were as follows:

CANDIDATES VOTES RECEIVED IN DRESDEN

Adderley 1
Buller 84
Ingestre 2
Adderley & Ingestre 9
Buller & Adderley 9
Buller & Ingestre 4
Abstained (or voted elsewhere) 10
TOTAL 119

75 out of the 119 electors are also listed in Keates & Ford’s Directories of 1865-66 and 1867, with 66 of these given an occupation. Not surprisingly the largest group (22) are listed as “manufacturer”, followed by “publican” or “beerseller” (7), “grocer” (6), and “manager" (5). The other occupations are builder/joiner (4), merchant (3), traveller (3), agent (2), shopkeeper (2), and one each of coal master, clerk, lawnweaver, cratemaker, blacksmith, tailor, painter, bricklayer, chemist, draper, and fruiterer. It might appear from this that the society had achieved one of its objectives. However Buller also had the overwhelming support of electors elsewhere in Longton and in many other urban areas while the conservatives relied heavily on the rural vote. The two successful candidates in 1865 were Edward Buller and Charles Adderley.