Newtown (UK Parliament constituency)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Newtown Borough constituency |
|
|---|---|
| Created: | 1584 |
| Abolished: | 1832 |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| Members: | two |
Newtown is a former parliamentary borough located in Newtown, abolished in the great reform act of 1832.
Contents |
[edit] History
Newtown, located on the large natural harbour on the north-western coast of the Isle of Wight, was the first borough established in the county. A French raid in 1377, that destroyed much of the town as well as other Island settlements, sealed its permanent decline. By the middle of the sixteenth century it was a small settlement long eclipsed by the more easily defended town of Newport. In an attempt to stimulate economic development, Elizabeth I awarded the town two parliamentary seats.
Newtown was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote was vested solely in the owners of a specified number of properties or "burgage tenements". At the time of the Great Reform Act of 1832 there were 39 burgage tenements, held by 23 burgesses; however, most of these held only life grants. (It was common practice for life grants to be made to friends of the proprietors so as to ensure that the full voting power could be exercised; if these nominees failed to vote as expected they could be ejected and replaced by somebody more reliable before the next election. These voters were often non-resident - and indeed, it could hardly be otherwise, for although the borough contained 39 properties to which the right to vote was attached there were only 14 houses.) Unlike many rotten boroughs, no single landowner controlled a majority of the burgages, the reversionary right in them belonging to three families (Barrington, Holmes and Anderson-Pelham), so divided that any two had a majority over the third. Elections in the borough consequently required careful management and sometimes considerable expenditure to achieve the desired result. In the 1750s and 1760s, the arrangement was that one of the two seats was considered to be in the gift of the Barrington family, while Thomas Holmes negotiated the election of the government's nominee for the other, unless he wanted it for a member of the Holmes family.
By 1831, the borough had a population of just 68, and it was disfranchised the following year by the Reform Act.
[edit] Members of Parliament
[edit] 1584-1660
- 1601: Robert Cotton
- 1621-1629: Thomas Barrington
- 1628: Robert Barrington
- 1640-1642: Nicholas Weston (Royalist) - disabled to sit, August 1642
- 1640-1644: John Meux (Royalist) - (Sir John Meux from 1641) - disabled to sit, February 1644
- 1645-1648: Sir John Barrington - excluded in Pride's Purge, December 1648
- 1645(?)-1648: John Bulkeley - excluded in Pride's Purge, December 1648
Newtown was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
- 1659: John Maynard
- 1659: ?
Long Parliament (restored)
- 1659-1660: ?
[edit] 1660-1832
| Year | 1st Member | 1st Party | 2nd Member | 2nd Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1660 | Sir John Barrington | Sir Henry Worsley | ||||
| 1666 | Sir Robert Worsley | |||||
| 1677 | Sir John Holmes | |||||
| February 1679 | John Churchill | |||||
| August 1679 | Lemuel Kingdon | |||||
| 1681 | Daniel Finch | |||||
| 1685 | Thomas Done | William Blathwayt | Whig | |||
| 1689 | The Earl of Ranelagh | |||||
| 1695 | James Worsley | |||||
| 1698 | Thomas Hopson | |||||
| 1701 | Joseph Dudley | |||||
| 1702 | John Leigh | |||||
| 1705 | James Worsley | Henry Worsley | ||||
| 1715 | Sir Robert Worsley | |||||
| 1722 | William Stephens | Charles Worsley | ||||
| 1727[1] | James Worsley | Thomas Holmes | Whig | |||
| 1729 | Charles Armand Powlett | Sir John Barrington | ||||
| 1734 | James Worsley | Thomas Holmes | Whig | |||
| 1741 | Sir John Barrington | Henry Holmes | ||||
| 1747 | Maurice Bocland | |||||
| 1754 | Harcourt Powell | |||||
| April 1775 | Charles Ambler | |||||
| December 1775 | Edward Meux Worsley | |||||
| 1780 | John Barrington[2] | |||||
| 1782 | Henry Dundas | Tory | ||||
| 1783 | Richard Pepper Arden | |||||
| April 1784 | James Worsley | |||||
| August 1784 | Mark Gregory | |||||
| 1790 | Sir Richard Worsley | Whig | ||||
| 1793 | George Canning | Tory | ||||
| 1796 | Sir Richard Worsley | Whig | Charles Shaw Lefevre | Whig | ||
| 1801 | Sir Edward Law | Whig | ||||
| May 1802 | Ewan Law | |||||
| July 1802 | Sir Robert Barclay | Whig | Charles Chapman | Whig | ||
| 1803 | James Paull | Whig | ||||
| 1806 | George Canning | Tory | ||||
| 1807 | Barrington Pope Blachford | Tory | Dudley North | Whig | ||
| 1808 | Hon. George Anderson-Pelham | Whig | ||||
| 1816 | Hudson Gurney | Whig | ||||
| 1820 | Dudley Long North | Whig | ||||
| 1821 | Charles Compton Cavendish | Whig | ||||
| 1830 | Hon. Charles Anderson-Pelham | Whig | ||||
| 1831 | Sir William Horne | Whig | ||||
| 1832 | Constituency abolished | |||||
Notes
- ^ At the election of 1727 Worsley and Holmes beat Barrington and Powlett, but on petition the result was reversed as a result of a dispute over the franchise
- ^ Succeeded to a baronetcy as Sir John Barrington in 1792
[edit] References
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- D Englefield, J Seaton & I White, Facts About the British Prime Ministers (London: Mansell, 1995)
- Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition, London: Macmillan , 1961)
- 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)
- This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.
