Aldborough (UK Parliament constituency)

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Aldborough Borough constituency
Created:	1558
Abolished:	1832
Type:	House of Commons

Aldborough is a former parliamentary borough located in the West Riding of Yorkshire, abolished in the great reform act of 1832. Aldborough returned two Members of Parliament from 1558 until 1832.

Aldborough was a "scot and lot" borough, meaning that any man paying the poor rate was eligible to vote. Nevertheless, it was a small borough (not even including the whole parish of Aldborough, since Boroughbridge, also within the boundaries, was also a borough with its own two MPs), and by the time of the Reform Act it had a population only just over 500 and an electorate of less than 100. This made it a pocket borough and easy for the local landowner to dominate.

In the 18th century, Aldborough was controlled by the Duke of Newcastle. In April 1754 Newcastle, who had just become Prime Minister, selected his junior colleague and future Prime Minister, William Pitt (Pitt the Elder), to sit as its MP. Pitt represented Aldborough for two-and-a-half years, but having fallen out with Newcastle and been dismissed from his ministry, he was forced to find a new constituency when he next needed to be re-elected to the Commons in 1756.

[edit] Members of Parliament

• Constituency created (1558)

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1660	Sir Solomon Swale, Bt		Francis Goodricke
		1673			Sir John Reresby, Bt [1]
		1678	Ruisshe Wentworth
		February 1679	Henry Arthington
		May 1679			Sir Godfrey Copley, Bt
		August 1679	Sir Brian Stapylton, Bt
		1681	Sir John Reresby, Bt
		1685	Sir Michael Wentworth		Sir Roger Strickland
		1689			Christopher Tancred
		1696	Henry Fairfax
		January 1698	William Wentworth
		July 1698	Sir George Cooke		Sir Abstrupus Danby
		1701	Robert Monckton		Cyril Arthington
		1702			William Jessop
		1713	John Dawnay		Paul Foley
		February 1715	James Stanhope	Whig	William Jessop
		April 1715	William Monson
		1722	Charles Stanhope
		1734	Henry Pelham	Whig
		1735	John Jewkes		Andrew Wilkinson
		1743	Nathaniel Newnham
		1754	William Pitt	Whig
		1756	Nathaniel Cholmley
		1765			Viscount Villiers
		1768	Aubrey Beauclerk		Andrew Wilkinson
		1772			Earl of Lincoln	Tory
		1774	Charles Wilkinson		Abel Smith
		1777	William Baker
		1778			William Hanger
		September 1780	Sir Richard Sutton, Bt		Charles Mellish
		November 1780	Edward Onslow
		1781	Sir Samuel Brudenell Fludyer, Bt
		January 1784			John Gally Knight
		March 1784	Richard Arden
		1790	Richard Muilman-Trench-Chiswell
		1796			Charles Duncombe
		1797	John Blackburn
		1802	John Sullivan
		1806	Henry Fynes		Gilbert Jones
		1812			Henry Dawkins
		1814			Henry Gally Knight
		1815			Granville Venables Vernon
		1820			Gibbs Antrobus
		1826	Clinton James Fynes Clinton		Sir Alexander Cray Grant, Bt
		1830			Viscount Stormont
		1831			Michael Thomas Sadler

• Constituency abolished (1832)

1. ^ Re-elected at the general election in February 1679 but unseated on petition

[edit] References

• D Englefield, J Seaton & I White, Facts About the British Prime Ministers (London: Mansell, 1995)
• Michael Brock, The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973).
• J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832, England and Wales", (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Frederic A Youngs, Jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume I (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1979)

This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

[edit] See also

Aldborough (Yorkshire)