The 1841 Langham tithe map in its printed form consists of three separate sheets.
1.
The core village dwellings, garden plots, paddocks and orchards.
2.
The main fields with each holding numbered.
3.
A smaller sheet which shows the eastern end of the parish in detail with numerous individually
numbered tiny fields, for which there is no evidence on the ground that these really existed.
This third map has always been something of a mystery, it marks this land as “Leasehold Property held
under Sir Gilbert Heathcote Bart.” The majority of the parish was held by the Gainsborough Estate
[The Noel Family]. Why had the large fields of earlier mapping remained much the same for the majority of
the parish when this land at the eastern edge was shown subdivided on paper into numerous small parcels
of land.
There has been ongoing discussion, about this and similar small plots discovered in the neighbouring parish
of Whissendine, was this a way for major landowners to pay their long serving staff a pension or to retain
essential staff, or, was it something more devious.
At this date, to have the vote you needed to be a land/property owner which of course led to the majority
of the population being without the opportunity to elect their MP. This period was when parliament was
leading up to the repeal of the “Corn Laws”, the two main parties, the Tories (The Conservatives) and the
Whigs (The Liberals) were locked in argument. Not a coalition as today [2014].
Read the July/October 1841 Lincolnshire Chronicle articles by selecting the button above which will go
some way to provide an explanation for these small plots of land. To make best use of the complete tithe
map and its apportionments you need to make use of layers enabled within the Adobe Acrobat Reader
software, if you need instructions click here to visit the Tithe Page and select the instruction button.
The Leicester Journal report of the 16th July 1841, which may be selected above, is a comprehensive if rather
flowery report detailing the politics of the time. It shows that WH Dawnay, who five years later in accepting
the Chiltern Hundreds became the 7th Viscount Downe, forced an election contest in Rutland, for the first
time in eighty years. Dawnay was elected as a Conservative MP standing for the abolition of the Slave Trade.
It appears that for the previous eighty years, estate owning Whig MPs had been selected unopposed!
For those of you wondering, “Who was George Finch?”: George Finch (1794 - 1870) lived at Burley on the
Hill, a politician and Member of Parliament for Lymington between 1820 and 1821, for Stamford between
1832 and 1837 and for Rutland between 1846 and 1847. He was the illegitimate son of George Finch,
4th Earl of Nottingham and 9th Earl of Winchilsea (who had never married).
Langham Village History Group ~ © 1996 - 2022
The 1841 General Election & Faggot Votes