Hedon (UK Parliament constituency)

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Hedon Borough constituency
Created:	1547
Abolished:	1832
Type:	House of Commons
Members:	two

Hedon, sometimes spelt Heydon, was a parliamentary borough in the East Riding of Yorkshire, represented by two Members of Parliament in the House of Commons briefly in the 13th century and again from 1547 to 1832.

Contents 1 History 2 Members of Parliament 2.1 1547-1660 2.2 1660-1832 2.2.1 Notes 3 References

[edit] History

The constituency consisted of the market town of Hedon, in Holderness to the east of Hull, which had been of some importance in medieval times but which by 1831 had dwindled to 217 houses and a population of 1,080, and the borough was disfranchised in the Great Reform Act of 1832.

The right of election in Hedon was vested in the burgesses generally, meaning that a high proportion of the male population had the vote. In 1826, when the election was contested, 331 burgesses recorded their votes. Nevertheless, the result was rarely in doubt, Hedon being a classic example of a pocket borough where the influence of the landowner or "patron" was substantial if not absolute. At first the influence seems to have been shared between two families of important local landowners, the Constables of Burton Constable and the Hildyards of Winestead. The patron at the start of the 18th century was Henry Guy; he bequeathed it to his protege William Pulteney, who not only sat for the borough himself for much of his career but made the other seat available to his cousin and his brother. After Pulteney's death the borough passed to the distinguished admiral Lord Anson, who used his patronage to provide seats for some of his naval colleagues; one of these, Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, inherited the patronage in turn when Anson died.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1547-1660

• 1553: Sir John Constable
• April 1554: Unknown: no returns survive
• November 1554: Hon. Sir Thomas Wharton
• 1559: Unknown: no returns survive
• 1563-1566: Sir John Constable
• 1563-1583: Christopher Hildyard
• 1584-1585: Fulke Greville
• 1584-1587: Sir Henry Constable
• 1588-1611: Christopher Hildyard
• 1601: Matthew Pattison
• 1604-1611: Sir Henry Constable
• 1610: John Digby
• 1620: Sir Matthew Boynton, Bt.
• 1624-1629: Christopher Hildyard

Short Parliament

• 1640: John Alured

Long Parliament

• 1640-1653: Sir William Strickland (Parliamentarian)
• 1640-1651: John Alured (Parliamentarian) - died 1651

Hedon was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate

Third Protectorate Parliament

• 1659: Thomas Strickland - also elected for Beverley, which he chose to represent. The vacancy was unfilled when the Parliament ended.
• 1659: Colonel Matthew Alured

Long Parliament (restored)

• 1659-1660: Sir William Strickland

The second seat was vacant, no replacement for John Alured having ever been elected

[edit] 1660-1832

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1660	Sir John Cloberry[1]		Sir Hugh Bethell
		1660	Henry Hildyard
		1661	Sir Matthew Appleyard
		1670	Henry Guy
		1680			William Boynton
		1685			Charles Duncombe	Tory
		1689			Matthew Appleyard
		1695	Lord Spencer[2]		Sir William Trumbull[3]
		1695	Thomas Frankland		Hugh Bethell
		1698	Anthony Duncombe
		1701			Sir Robert Bedingfield
		1701			Sir Robert Hildyard
		1702	Sir Charles Duncombe[4]	Tory	Henry Guy
		1702	Anthony Duncombe
		1705			William Pulteney	Whig
		1708	Hugh Cholmley	Whig
		March 1722	Daniel Pulteney[5]	Whig
		November 1722	Harry Pulteney	Whig
		1734	Sir Francis Boynton		George Fox-Lane
		1739	Harry Pulteney	Whig
		1741	Francis Chute[6]		Luke Robinson
		1742	The Earl of Mountrath	Whig	George Berkeley
		1744	George Anson
		1746			Samuel Gumley[7]
		1747			Luke Robinson
		1747	Sir John Savile[8]
		1754	Captain Sir Charles Saunders, RN[9]		Captain Peter Denis, RN[10]
		1768			Beilby Thompson
		1776	Hon. Lewis Watson
		1780	Christopher Atkinson[11]		William Chaytor
		1783	Stephen Lushington
		1784	Lionel Darell[12]
		1790			Beilby Thompson
		1796			Christopher Atkinson[13]
		1802	George Johnstone[14]
		1806			Anthony Browne
		1813	John Broadhurst
		1818	Edmund Turton		Robert Farrand	Whig
		1820	John Baillie	Tory
		1826			Thomas Hyde Villiers	Whig
		1830	Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable	Tory	Robert Farrand	Tory

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Cloberry was also elected for Launceston, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Hedon
2. ^ Spencer was also elected for Tiverton, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Hedon
3. ^ Trumbull was also elected for Oxford University, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Hedon
4. ^ Sir Charles Duncombe was also elected for Downton, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Hedon in this parliament
5. ^ Pulteney was also elected for Preston, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Hedon
6. ^ Chute and Robinson were initially declared elected at the general election, but Mountrath and Berkeley were seated in their place on petition
7. ^ Gumley was initially declared elected at the by-election, but Robinson was returned on petition
8. ^ Savile was created Lord Pollington in the peerage of Ireland in 1753
9. ^ Rear Admiral from 1756
10. ^ Created Sir Peter Denis, Bt., in 1767
11. ^ Expelled from the House for perjury, 1783
12. ^ Created Sir Lionel Darell, Bt., in 1795
13. ^ Called Christopher Atkinson Savile from October 1798
14. ^ Johnstone was re-elected at the general election of 1812, but shortly afterwards began to suffer from epileptic seizures, and never retook his seat

[edit] References

• Michael Brock, "The Great Reform Act" (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Lewis Namier, "The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III" (2nd edition - London: Macmillan, 1961)
• J E Neale, "The Elizabethan House of Commons" (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)

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