X-Nico

17 unusual facts about Reform Act 1832


Andrew Leith Hay

Having retired from the army he turned his attention to politics, took part in the agitation preceding the passing of the Reform Act 1832, and became member for the Elgin burghs on 29 December 1832.

Castle Rising

Prior to the Reform Act of 1832, Castle Rising had the status of a parliamentary borough and, because of its small population, was often cited as a rotten borough.

Condition of England question

The division of society and the poverty of the majority began to dominate the minds of the most intelligent and imaginative people outside of politics following the 1832 Reform Act.

Dublin University Magazine

The year 1832 had been one of political and ecumenical upheaval: disturbances in Britain led to the Reform Act of that year, the Tithe War was raging in Ireland and the new Whig government was gaining influential supporters in Trinity College, Dublin.

Edward Vernon Utterson

Politically, he was "an uncompromising Tory of the old school, and a most implacable enemy of the system of 'retrenchment' which followed in the wake of the passing of the Reform Bill".

George Hayter

His grandiose plan to paint the first sitting after the passage of the Reform Bill resulted in his painting 'Moving the Address to the Crown on the Opening of the First Reformed Parliament in the Old House of Commons, 5 February 1833' (1833–43; London, N.P.G.), for which he executed nearly 400 portrait studies in oil.

Grey's Monument

It was erected to acclaim Earl Grey for the passing of the Great Reform Act of 1832 and stands at the head of Grey Street.

High Tory

This changed later in the century and many of their privileges were reduced by the Reform Act 1832.

Horton-cum-Studley

The Buckinghamshire part of Studley became a separate civil parish, but was then transferred to Oxfordshire under the Reform Act 1832 and the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844.

John Byng, 1st Earl of Strafford

He went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Ireland and, after leaving Ireland in 1831, he was elected as Whig Member of Parliament for Poole in Dorset and was one of the few military men who supported the Reform Bill, for which he was rewarded with a peerage.

John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer

Along with Lord John Russell, he led the fight to pass the Reform Bill of 1832, making more than twenty speeches, and is generally considered the architect of its victory.

Little Circle

The second group operated from 1830 onwards and was key in creating the popularist movement that resulted in the Reform Act 1832.

Nottingham Castle

When residents of these slums rioted in 1831, in protest against the Duke of Newcastle's opposition to the Reform Act 1832 they burned down the mansion.

Oxford Movement

The immediate impetus for the movement was a perceived attack by the reforming Whig administration on the structure and revenues of the established church in Ireland, with the Irish Church Temporalities Bill (1833).

Public transport bus service

In 1831, New Yorker Washington Irving remarked of Britain's Reform Act (finally passed in 1832): "The great reform omnibus moves but slowly." Steam buses emerged in the 1830s as competition to the horse-drawn buses.

Tait's Magazine

1832 was a time of great political ferment, with the first Reform Bill the dominant subject of discourse.

William Howley

Howley was Archbishop during the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts (1828), the Emancipation of the Catholics (1829) and the passing of the Great Reform Act (1832.) The bench of bishops was generally opposed to all three measures.


Glasgow Green

When the Reform Act of 1832 passed in Parliament, increasing the electorate from 4,329 (1820) to 65,000 (1832), a large demonstration of over 70,000 people was held on the Green with a procession lead around the park by a Bridgeton band.

Historical romance

These novels are set between 1832 and 1901 England, beginning with the Reform Act 1832 and including the reign of Queen Victoria.

History of Reading, Berkshire

Reading maintained its representation by two members of parliament with the Reform Act 1832, and the borough was one of the ones reformed as a municipal borough by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835.