Elite Women in English Political Life, c. 1754-1790 (review)

During recent years there has been a series of biographical studies of prominent aristocratic women of the eighteenth century, focusing particularly on their political influence. Frances Harris on Sarah, duchess of Marlborough, Amanda Foreman on Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire and Stella Tillyard on the Lennox sisters are familiar examples, while the whig hostesses of Holland House continue to exercise fascination. Although each of these women, and particularly the duchess of Devonshire, feature predictably in Elaine Chalus's meticulous and well-researched book, that book takes a much more thematic than a biographical form. Its purpose is set out succinctly at the start: it aims 'to perform the dual historical tasks of recovering women as political figures and reintegrating them to form a more comprehensive picture of the political culture of the eighteenth-century political elite' (p. 12). Each of these objectives is manifestly achieved.

The definition of 'élite' for these purposes is essentially (and understandably) aristocratic. Women who themselves held aristocratic titles or who were related to the peerage were the most likely to be able to exert political influence, especially as the number of seats in the house of commons which came under peerage control is generally reckoned to have increased during the eighteenth century. A high proportion of Dr Chalus's book, accordingly, is devoted to parliamentary elections and electioneering (both of its terminal dates are general election years), and there are substantial sections on women's political roles (confidante, adviser, agent, partner), on female access to, and solicitation for, patronage, and the importance of social politics. Dr Chalus has no difficulty in providing ample evidence of the almost unavoidable engagement in politics on the part of many female members of key propertied families. Their motives for such involvement - the promotion of the electoral or professional interests of a brother, son or husband - are neatly demonstrated. Examples include the nomination of male voters in burgage and freeholder boroughs to support a family connexion, Lady Irwin's prolonged struggle with the eleventh duke of Norfolk for control of the borough of Horsham and Elizabeth Montagu's efforts on her husband's behalf in Northumberland in 1760. A particularly interesting section examines the female pressure for patronage exerted upon the long-suffering duke of Newcastle (with a success rate in excess of 50 per cent). Readers of this journal will not be surprised to find detailed treatments of Lady Susan Keck's campaigns in the celebrated Oxfordshire election of 1754, and of the duchess of Devonshire's high-profile contribution to that of Westminster 30 years later. This sort of female involvement was not new in the eighteenth century but it was facilitated by the regularity of parliamentary sessions after 1689 and of general elections after 1694. Even though elections became less frequent after 1716 and the number of contested constituencies declined sharply from the 1740s, opportunities remained at local level for the exercise of influence through entertaining, canvassing and charitable bequests. There are cogent observations on the semi-legitimacy which convention conferred upon such female political involvement, although any explicit departure from the women's subordinate role in a male polity was likely to be met with slander and innuendo, often of a sexual nature. Partly for this reason propertied spinsters and widows were at an advantage in taking initiatives; her widowhood from 1746 undoubtedly facilitated the evangelical endeavours of Selina, countess of Huntingdon (who, oddly, receives only one reference in this volume).

Dr Chalus argues convincingly that the motives for such extensive female politicking were mainly traditional and may be found in 'a combination of personal, familial, or factional reasons' (p. 15). The expectation that the daughter and/or the wife of a major landowner would play a part in the advancement of the family's economic, social and possibly ecclesiastical interests clearly weighed heavily on many élite women. Those women 'were also motivated by personal interest, sheer ambition, the excitement of being part of...