Newport (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency)

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For other UK Parliament constituencies of the same name see Newport (UK Parliament constituency).
Newport
Borough constituency
Created: 1295, 1584
Abolished: 1885
Type: House of Commons
Members: two (1584 to 1868), then one

Newport is a former parliamentary borough located in Newport (Isle of Wight), abolished in 1885. It was occasionally referred to by the alternative name of Medina. (Prior to the Great Reform Act of 1832 there was also a separate Newport parliamentary borough in Cornwall.)

Contents

[edit] History

The borough was first represented in the parliament of 1295, and returned two Members of Parliament from 1584 to 1868. In 1868 its representation was reduced to a single seat, and the constituency was abolished altogether in 1885. Newport's re-enfranchisement in 1584, like that of the other Isle of Wight boroughs (Newtown and Yarmouth) seems to have been at the urging of the new Governor of the island, Sir George Carey, a relative of the Queen. In token of thanks, the borough granted him for life the right to nominate one of the two MPs - which seems to have been the reward he expected and the motive for his petition to the Queen in the first place.

Between 1807 and 1811 its two seats were held by two future Prime Ministers: Arthur Wellesley, later to become the Duke of Wellington (who also found himself elected to two other seats at the same time), and Henry Temple (later Lord Palmerston), who would go on to become one of the United Kingdom's most notable Prime Ministers. Palmerston's late father had been unable to convert his Irish title into a United Kingdom peerage, therefore the young politician was able to enter the Commons. The local patron arranging the deal was Sir Leonard Holmes, who made it a condition that they never visited the borough!

The borough was also represented by two other future Prime Ministers in the 1820s. George Canning was MP for Newport when appointed Prime Minister in 1827; however, under the law as it then stood a minister accepting office automatically vacated his seat and had to stand for re-election to the Commons, and Canning chose to stand at Seaford, a government pocket borough in Sussex, rather than fight Newport again. In the by-election that followed at Newport, the vacancy was filled by the election of the Honourable William Lamb, later 2nd Viscount Melbourne, whose father had also represented the borough in the 1790s. However, Lamb remained MP for Newport for only two weeks before also being elected for Bletchingley, which he preferred to represent.

Before the Great Reform Act of 1832, the right to vote was vested in the Mayor and Corporation (consisting of 11 aldermen and 12 burgesses). For much of the previous century the borough was "managed" for the government by the Holmes family, meaning that ministers could generally secure the election of their favoured candidates, but often only at the expense of considerable "gratuities" to the voters - in 1754, this apparently amounted to a payment of £600 for each candidate. The borough consisted of the parish of Newport and of Castle Hold in the parish of St Nicholas, thereby excluding that part of the town which extended over the boundary into Carisbrooke parish; this gave the borough a population of 4,398 in 1831. The 1832 reforms extended the borough to take in the rest of the town, raising the population to 6,700, though the electorate was still only 421.

Newport's representation was reduced from two members to one by the second Reform Act for the 1868 general election, and abolished altogether in 1885, leaving the town represented as part of the Isle of Wight county constituency.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1584-1660

Long Parliament

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

Third Protectorate Parliament

  • 1659: ?

Long Parliament (restored)

  • 1659-1660: ?
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] 1660-1885

Year 1st Member 1st Party 2nd Member 2nd Party
1660 Robert Dillington William Oglander [1]
1661 William Glascock
1670 Sir Robert Dillington
February 1679 Admiral Sir Robert Holmes
August 1679 John Leigh
1685 Admiral Sir Robert Holmes Sir William Stephens
January 1689 Sir Robert Dillington
June 1689 Edward Dillington
1690 Admiral Sir Robert Holmes
1692 Richard Leveson
November 1695 Brigadier The Lord Cutts of Gowran Sir Robert Cotton
December 1695 Sir Henry Colt
1698 Major-General The Lord Cutts of Gowran
1699 Henry Greenhill
January 1701 Major-General The Lord Cutts of Gowran Samuel Shepheard
March 1701 Henry Greenhill
December 1701 Major-General The Lord Cutts of Gowran Edward Richards
March 1702 Colonel James Stanhope Whig
July 1702 Major-General The Lord Cutts of Gowran [2] William Stephens
1707 Sir Tristram Dillington
October 1710 Lieutenant-General John Richmond Webb [3] Tory
December 1710 Lieutenant-General William Seymour
1713 General John Richmond Webb Tory
1715 Anthony Morgan [4]
April 1717 Lieutenant-General James Stanhope Whig
July 1717 Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Tristram Dillington
1721 Thomas Stanwix
March 1722 Earl of March [5] The Lord Whitworth
October 1722 Colonel Charles Cadogan
1726 George Huxley
January 1727 Sir William Willys
August 1727 William Fortescue
1736 The Viscount Boyne
May 1741 Anthony Chute Monoux Cope
July 1747 Captain Bluett Wallop Thomas Lee Dummer
1749 Ralph Jenison
1758 Rear-Admiral Charles Holmes
1762 William Rawlinson Earle
1765 Thomas Dummer
1768 John Eames Hans Sloane
1773 Hon. John St. John
1774 Sir Richard Worsley
1780 Hon. John St. John
1784 Edward Rushworth Captain the Hon. Hugh Seymour-Conway
1786 Hon. John Thomas Townshend
January 1790 George Byng
June 1790 The Viscount Palmerston The Viscount Melbourne
1793 Peniston Lamb
May 1796 Jervoise Clarke Jervoise [6] Edward Rushworth[7]
November 1796 William Nisbet Andrew Strahan
1800 Sir George Dallas
1802 John Blackburn Richard Gervas Ker
1806 Isaac Corry Colonel Sir John Doyle
1807 The Viscount Palmerston Tory Sir Arthur Wellesley Tory
1809 Sir Leonard Thomas Worsley-Holmes
1811 Cecil Bisshopp
1812 Richard Fleming Worsley Holmes
1814 John Delgarno
1816 George Watson-Taylor
1818 Charles Duncombe
1825 Hon. John Stuart
1826 George Canning Tory Hon. William Scott Tory
April 1827 Hon. William Lamb [8] Whig
May 1827 Spencer Perceval Tory
1830 Horace Twiss Tory
1831 William Mount Tory James Joseph Hope-Vere Tory
1832 John Heywood Hawkins Whig William Henry Ord Whig
1837 William John Blake Whig
1841 Charles Wykeham Martin Conservative William John Hamilton Conservative
1847 William Plowden Conservative
1852 William Biggs Whig William Nathaniel Massey Whig
February 1857 Robert William Kennard Conservative
March 1857 Charles Edward Mangles Liberal Charles Buxton Liberal
1859 Robert William Kennard Conservative Philip Lybbe Powys Conservative
1865 Charles Wykeham Martin Liberal
1868 Representation reduced to one member
Year Member Party
1868 Charles Wykeham Martin Liberal
1870 Charles Cavendish Clifford Liberal
1885 constituency abolished


Notes

  1. ^ Created a baronet as Sir William Oglander, December 1665
  2. ^ Lieutenant-General from 1703
  3. ^ Webb was also elected for Ludgershall, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Newport in this Parliament
  4. ^ Morgan was also a candidate for Yarmouth, but the election result there was disputed. He sat for Newport until the Yarmouth election was decided in his favour, then chose to represent Yarmouth for the remainder of the Parliament
  5. ^ March was also elected for Chichester, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Newport
  6. ^ Jervoise was also elected for Yarmouth, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Newport
  7. ^ Rushworth was also elected for Yarmouth, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Newport
  8. ^ Lamb was elected at a by-election for Bletchingley two weeks after his election for Newport. He chose to represent Bletchingley.

[edit] See also

[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)
  • Michael Brock, The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
  • F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd Ed) (Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
  • 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 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)
  • 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, Volume I (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1979)
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
vacant. Last was Northampton in 1812		 Constituency represented by the Prime Minister
1827		 Succeeded by
vacant. Next was Tamworth in 1834
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