Bedfordshire (UK Parliament constituency)

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Bedfordshire
County constituency
Created: 1290
Abolished: 1885
Type: House of Commons
Members: two

Bedfordshire was a United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency, which elected two Members of Parliament from 1295 until 1885.

Contents

[edit] History

The constituency consisted of the historic county of Bedfordshire. (Although Bedfordshire contained the borough of Bedford, which elected two MPs in its own right, this was not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within the borough could confer a vote at the county election.)

As in other county constituencies the franchise between 1430 and 1832 was defined by the Forty Shilling Freeholder Act, which gave the right to vote to every man who possessed freehold property within the county valued at £2 or more per year for the purposes of land tax; it was not necessary for the freeholder to occupy his land, nor even in later years to be resident in the county at all.

At the time of the Great Reform Act in 1832, Bedfordshire had a population of approximately 95,000, but under 4,000 votes were cast at the election of 1826, and under 3,000 in election of 1830, even though each voter could cast two votes. Although local landowners could never control a county the size of Bedfordshire in the way they could own a pocket borough, titled magnates still exercised considerable influence over deferential county voters, and the Duke of Bedford was regarded as the hereditary "patron" of the constituency.

Elections were held at a single polling place, Bedford, and voters from the rest of the county had to travel to the county town to exercise their franchise. In many other counties this could make the cost of a contested election prohibitive, since it was normal for voters to expect the candidates for whom they voted to meet their expenses in travelling to the poll; but this was less of a factor in a small county like Bedfordshire, and contested elections were not uncommon.

Under the terms of the Great Reform Act of 1832, the county franchise was extended to occupiers of land worth £50 or more, as well as the forty-shilling freeholders, but Bedfordshire was otherwise left unchanged. Under the new rules, 3,966 were registered and entitled to vote at the general election of 1832. While Bedford remained the place of election, where nominations were taken and the result declared, polling also took place at Luton, Leighton Buzzard, Ampthill, Biggleswade and Sharnbrook.

In 1885, the constituency was abolished and the county divided into two single-member county constituencies, Biggleswade and Luton.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1290-1640

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
  • Constituency created (1290)
Parliament First member Second member
Parliament of 1547-1552 Oliver St John Lewis Dyve
First Parliament of 1553 Sir Humphrey Radclyffe
Second Parliament of 1553 Sir John Gascoyne Sir John Mordaunt
Parliament of 1554 Sir Humphrey Radclyffe
Parliament of 1554-1555
Parliament of 1555
Parliament of 1558 Sir John Gascoyne
Parliament of 1559 Hon. John St John Thomas Pigott
Parliament of 1563-1567 Lewis Mordaunt
Parliament of 1571 George Rotherham Thomas Snagge
Parliament of 1572-1583 Sir Henry Cheyne (1572 - created a peer)
John Thompson (1572-1583)
Parliament of 1584-1585 Nicholas Luke
Parliament of 1586-1587 Thomas Snagge
Parliament of 1588-1589 Hon. Oliver St John Edward Radclyffe
Parliament of 1593 George Rotherham
Parliament of 1597-1598 Hon. Oliver St John Sir Edward Radclyffe
Parliament of 1601
Parliament of 1604-1611
Addled Parliament (1614) Sir Oliver St John Sir Oliver Luke
Parliament of 1621-1622 Sir Beauchamp St John
Happy Parliament (1624-1625) Sir Oliver St John
Useless Parliament (1625)
Parliament of 1625-1626
Parliament of 1628-1629 Oliver St John
No Parliament summoned 1629-1640

[edit] 1640-1885

Year First member First party Second member Second party
April 1640 Lord Wentworth [1] Royalist Sir Oliver Luke Parliamentarian
1641 Sir Roger Burgoyne, Bt Parliamentarian
December 1648 Burgoyne and Luke excluded in Pride's Purge - both seats vacant
1653 Nathaniel Taylor Edward Cater
Representation increased to five members in First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
Year First member Second member Third member Fourth member Fifth member
1654 Sir William Boteler John Harvey Edmund Wingate John Neale Samuel Bedford
1656 Richard Wagstaffe Richard Edwards
Representation reverted to two members in Third Protectorate Parliament
Year First member First party Second member Second party
January 1659 Major Richard Wagstaffe Colonel John Okey
May 1659 Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660 Lord Bruce of Whorlton Samuel Browne
1661 Sir Humphrey Winch, 1st Bt
1664 Sir John Napier, 4th Bt
1679 William Russell, Lord Russell Whig Sir Humphrey Monoux, 2nd Bt
1685 Sir Villiers Chernock, 2nd Bt William Boteler
1689 Lord Edward Russell William Duncombe
1690 Thomas Browne
1695 William Duncombe
1698 Sir William Gostwick, 4th Bt
1705 Sir Pynsent Chernock, 3rd Bt
1708 Lord Edward Russell
1713 Sir Pynsent Chernock, 3rd Bt John Harvey
February 1715 William Hillersden
July 1715 John Cater
1722 Hon. Charles Leigh Sir Rowland Alston, 4th Bt
1727 Hon. Pattee Byng
1733 Charles Leigh
1735 Sir Roger Burgoyne, 6th Bt
1741 Sir John Chester, 6th Bt
1747 Sir Danvers Osborn, 3rd Bt Tory Thomas Alston[2] Tory
1753 The Earl of Upper Ossory Whig
1758 Henry Osborn Tory
1761 Marquess of Tavistock Whig Robert Henley-Ongley[3] Tory
1767 The Earl of Upper Ossory Whig
1780 Hon. St Andrew St John Whig
1784 The Lord Ongley[4] Tory
1785 Hon. St Andrew St John[5] Whig
1794 John Osborn Tory
1806 Francis Pym Whig
1807 Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick Whig
1812 Marquess of Tavistock Whig
1818 Sir John Osborn, 5th Bt Tory
1820 Francis Pym Whig
1826 Thomas Potter Macqueen Tory
1830 William Stuart Tory
1831 Sir Peter Payne Whig
1832 Lord Charles Russell Whig William Stuart Conservative
1835 Viscount Alford Conservative
1841 William Thornton Astell Conservative
March 1847 Lord Charles Russell Liberal
August 1847 Francis Russell Liberal
1851 Sir Richard Gilpin, 1st Bt Conservative
1872 Francis Bassett Liberal
1875 Marquess of Tavistock Liberal
1880 James Howard Liberal
  • Constituency abolished (1885)

[edit] Election results

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Wentworth was summoned to the House of Lords in his father's barony, by writ of acceleration, before the Long Parliament had met for the first time
  2. ^ Succeeded as 5th baronet in 1759
  3. ^ Created Lord Ongley in 1776
  4. ^ St John originally returned; found not to have been properly returned and Ongley declared duly elected
  5. ^ Declared elected and Ongley unseated on petition

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Beatson, Robert (1807). A chronological register of both houses of the British Parliament, Volume II. 
  • D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
  • John Cannon, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973)
  • Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [1]
  • F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
  • Robert H O'Byrne, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland, Part I - Bedfordshire (London: John Ollivier, 1848)
  • J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Reform 1640-1832 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
  • Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
  • Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page


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