For example, James Wilson (a prominent Freemason) was an independent candidate for the seat in County Antrim. His electoral pledge was that he would not accept "place, pension, title or other privileges'. Wilson was duly elected and during the victory celebrations 10,000 men wore blue cockades and 400 "free-masons, attired in their jewels, armed with carbines ...‘ attended. See A. McClelland, "Some aspects of freemasonry in the late 18th and early 19th century", Transactions of the Lodge of Research for the years 1958-1962, p. 17.
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