Malton (UK Parliament constituency)

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Malton
Borough constituency
Created: 1640
Abolished: 1885
Type: House of Commons

Malton, also called New Malton, was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England in 1295 and 1298, and again from 1640, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885. It was represented by two Members of Parliament until 1868, among them the political philosopher Edmund Burke, and by one member from 1868 to 1885.

The constituency was divided between the new Thirsk and Malton division of the North Riding of Yorkshire and the Buckrose division of the East Riding of Yorkshire from 1885.

Contents

[edit] Boundaries

The constituency consisted of parts of the St Leonard's and St Michael's parishes of New Malton in the North Riding until the Great Reform Act of 1832; the borough at that point included 791 houses and had a population of 4,173 in the 1831 census. The Reform Act expanded the boundaries to include the whole of those two parishes, as well as that of Old Malton and of the adjoining town of Norton in the East Riding, increasing the population to 7,192 and encompassing 1,401 houses.

[edit] Franchise

The right of election in Malton was vested in the scot and lot householders of the borough, of whom there were about 800 in 1832. In practice the seats were generally in the gift of the landowner, Earl Fitzwilliam (and were frequently held by one of that family, often by the heir to the Earldom who had the courtesy title Viscount Milton); at an earlier period the borough was similarly dominated by the Watson-Wentworth family, and was used as a form of government patronage when the Marquess of Rockingham was Prime Minister.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1640-1868

Year First member First party Second member Second party
November 1640 Thomas Hebblethwaite Royalist Henry Cholmley Parliamentarian
November 1644 Hebblethwaite disabled to sit - seat vacant
1645 Richard Darley
December 1648 Cholmley excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant
1653 Malton was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659 [1] Philip Howard George Marwood
May 1659 Richard Darley One seat vacant
April 1660 Thomas Hebblethwaite Philip Howard
April (?) 1661 Thomas Danby
December 1661 Sir Thomas Gower
1668 William Palmes
1673 James Hebblethwaite
1679 Sir Watkinson Payler
1685 Hon. Thomas Fairfax Thomas Worsley
1689 William Palmes Junto Whig Sir William Strickland Junto Whig
1698 Thomas Worsley
1701 Sir William Strickland Junto Whig
1708 William Strickland Whig
1713 Thomas Watson-Wentworth
1715 Thomas Watson-Wentworth (the younger)
1722 Sir William Strickland Whig
1724 Henry Finch
1727 Wardell Westby
1731 Sir William Wentworth
May 1741 Lord James Cavendish
December 1741 John Mostyn
1761 Savile Finch
1768 Viscount Downe
1774 Edmund Burke[2] Whig
1775 William Weddell Whig
1775 Edmund Burke Whig
April 1784 Sir Thomas Gascoigne Whig
August 1784 William Weddell Whig
1792 Hon. George Damer[3] Whig
1794 Richard Burke (d. 1794) Whig
1795 William Baldwin Whig
1798 Bryan Cooke Whig
1798 Charles Lawrence Dundas Whig
1805 Henry Grattan Whig
1806 Viscount Milton Whig
1807 Lord Headley[4] Tory Robert Lawrence Dundas Whig
March 1808 Bryan Cooke Whig
1812 John Ramsden Whig Viscount Duncannon Whig
1826 Viscount Normanby Canningite Tory
1830 Sir James Scarlett Whig[5]
April 1831 Francis Jeffrey [6] Whig
May 1831 Henry Gally Knight
July 1831 William Cavendish
September 1831 Charles Pepys Whig
1832 William Fitzwilliam [7] Whig
1833 John Ramsden Whig
1836 John Childers Whig
1837 Viscount Milton [8] Whig
1841 John Denison Whig
1846 Viscount Milton Whig
1847 John Childers Whig
1852 Hon Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam Whig/Liberal
1857 James Brown Whig/Liberal
1868 Representation reduced to one member

[edit] 1868-1885

Year Member Party
1867 Hon Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam Liberal
1885 constituency abolished

Notes

  1. ^ The Returning Officer made a double return after a dispute over the franchise: the Committee of Elections and Privileges ruled in favour of Howard and Marwood, and against their opponents Luke Robinson and Robert Lilburne on the grounds that Old Malton as well as New Malton was entitled to vote. (House of Commons Journal, 7 March 1659 [1])
  2. ^ In 1774 Burke was also elected for Bristol, and did not sit for Malton in this Parliament
  3. ^ Styled Viscount Milton from 1792
  4. ^ Dundas and Headley won in a contested election in which Bryan Cooke came third. On petition, Headley's election was declared void and a by-election held at which Cooke was elected.
  5. ^ Scarlett took the Chiltern Hundreds, April 1831, after switching from the Whigs to the Tories
  6. ^ Jeffrey was also elected for Perth District of Burghs at the 1831 general election and chose to represent that constituency
  7. ^ Fitzwilliam became Viscount Milton 1833 when his father succeeded as Earl Fitzwilliam, and resigned to contest his father's Northamptonshire, Northern seat)
  8. ^ Not the same Viscount Milton who held the seat in 1806-7 or in 1833

[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)
  • 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 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)
  • Robert Walcott, "English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)
  • Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
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