Cricklade (UK Parliament constituency)

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Wiltshire, North or Cricklade Division
County constituency
Created: 1885
Abolished: 1918
Type: House of Commons
Members: one
Cricklade
Borough constituency
Created: 1295
Abolished: 1885
Type: House of Commons
Members: two

Cricklade was a parliamentary constituency named after the town of Cricklade in Wiltshire.

From 1295 until 1885, Cricklade was a parliamentary borough, returning two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Initially this consisted of only the town of Cricklade, but from 1782 the vote was extended to the surrounding countryside as a punishment for the borough's corruption. The extended area included the village of Swindon, which grew into a large town with the coming of the railways in the 19th century.

From the 1885 general election the borough was abolished, but the name was transferred to a county division of Wiltshire covering much the same area, and electing a single MP. This constituency was abolished for the 1918 general election, being mostly replaced by the new Swindon constituency.

Contents

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1295-1640

  • 1442: John Long
  • 1571: Giles Brydges
  • 1571: Sir Nicholas Arnold
  • 1572: William Brydges
  • 1614: Sir Thomas Monson
  • 1604-1611: Sir J Hungerford
  • 1604-1611: Sir Henry Pool
  • 1621-1622: Sir Thomas Howard
  • 1621-1622: Sir Carew Reynell
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] 1640-1885

Year 1st Member 1st Party 2nd Member 2nd Party
November 1640 Robert Jenner Parliamentarian Thomas Hodges Parliamentarian
December 1648 Jenner excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant Hodges not recorded as having sat after Pride's Purge
1653 Cricklade was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659 Edward Pool John Hawkins
May 1659 Cricklade was unrepresented in the restored Rump
April 1660 Hungerford Dunch Nevil Maskelyne
1661 Sir George Hungerford John Ernle
1679 Hungerford Dunch Edmund Webb
1680 John Pleydell
1681 William Lenthall
1685 Charles Fox
1689 Thomas Freke
1690 Edmund Richmond Webb
1698 Edward Pleydell
1699 Sir Stephen Fox
1701 Edmund Dunch
1702 Thomas Richmond Webb Samuel Barker
1705 Edmund Dunch
1708 James Vernon
1710 Samuel Robinson
1713 Sir Thomas Reade William Gore [1]
1714 Samuel Robinson
1715 Jacob Sawbridge[2]
1721 Hon. Matthew Ducie Moreton
1722 Thomas Gore
1727 Christopher Tilson
1734 William Gore
1739 Charles Gore
1741 Welbore Ellis
1747 William Rawlinson Earle Lieutenant-Colonel John Gore
1754 Thomas Gore
1761 Arnold Nesbitt
1768 Hon. George Damer Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Robert Fletcher
1774 William Earle Arnold Nesbitt
1775 Samuel Peach[3]
1776 John Dewar
1779 John Macpherson [4]
1780 Paul Benfield
1782 Hon. George St John
1784 [5] Charles Westley Coxe Robert Adamson
1785 John Walker-Heneage Robert Nicholas
1790 Thomas Estcourt
1794 Lord Porchester
1806 Thomas Goddard
1811 William Herbert
1812 Joseph Pitt Thomas Calley Whig
1818 Robert Gordon Whig
1831 Thomas Calley Whig
1835 John Neeld Conservative
1837 Ambrose Goddard Conservative
1841 Hon. Henry Howard Whig
1847 Ambrose Lethbridge Goddard Conservative
1859 Lord Ashley Liberal
1865 Sir Daniel Gooch Conservative
1868 Hon. Frederick Cadogan Liberal
1874 Ambrose Lethbridge Goddard Conservative
1880 Mervin Herbert Nevil Story-Maskelyne Liberal
1885 Borough abolished - replaced by county constituency returning one member

[edit] 1885-1918

Election Member Party
1885 Mervin Herbert Nevil Story-Maskelyne Liberal
1886 Liberal Unionist
1892 John Husband Liberal
1895 Alfred Hopkinson Liberal Unionist
1900 Edmond FitzMaurice (later 1st Baron FitzMaurice) Liberal
1906 John Massie Liberal
January 1910 Thomas Charles Pleydell Calley Liberal Unionist
December 1910 Richard Cornthwaite Lambert Liberal
1918 constituency abolished: see Swindon

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Gore was also elected for Colchester, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Cricklade
  2. ^ Sawbridge was expelled from the House for his role in the South Sea Bubble
  3. ^ A by-election was held in December 1774 after the death of William Earle, but the result was disputed and the Returning Officer made a double return, naming both Samuel Peach and John Dewar. The Commons declared the election void, and a second election was held; Peach was initially declared elected but on petition the result was reversed and Dewar took his seat.
  4. ^ On petition, Macpherson's election in 1779 was declared void and a new writ issued, but he was re-elected in the by-election. At the general election of 1780 he was again elected and his opponent again entered a petition. On investigation the Committee reported that "instances of the most notorious bribery had occurred"; the House voted that neither Macpherson nor his opponent Samuel Petrie were duly elected, and shortly afterwards passed an Act to extend the right of voting in Cricklade to the surrounding hundreds.
  5. ^ On petition the result of the election of 1784 was reversed, Coxe and Adamson being declared not duly elected and Heneage and Nicholas being seated in their place

[edit] References

  • Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
  • D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
  • Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [2]
  • F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
  • J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
  • Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
  • Frederic A Youngs, jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol I (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979)
  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page