Newtown (UK Parliament constituency): Difference between revisions

Newtown
Newtown
Former borough constituency; for the House of Commons
County	Isle of Wight
Major settlements	Newtown
1584–1832
Seats	Two
Created from	Hampshire
Replaced by	Isle of Wight

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Newtown was a parliamentary borough located in Newtown on the Isle of Wight, which was represented in the House of Commons of England until 1707, then in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and finally in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two members of parliament (MPs), elected by the bloc vote system.

The borough was abolished in the Reform Act 1832, and from the 1832 general election its territory was included in the new county constituency of Isle of Wight.

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, which destroyed much of the town as well as other settlements on the island, sealed its permanent decline. By the mid-16th century it was a small settlement long eclipsed by the more easily defended town of Newport. To try 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 Reform Act 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 there were 39 burgage tenements, there were only 14 houses. Unlike many rotten boroughs, no single landowner controlled a majority of the burgages: the reversionary rights in them belonged to three families (Barrington, Holmes and Anderson-Pelham), with none having an overall majority. 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 (who also nursed the other two Isle of Wight boroughs, Newport and Yarmouth, for the government^[1]) 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 disestablished the following year by the Reform Act.

Members of Parliament

1584–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1584	William Meux	Robert Redge^[2]
1586	Richard Huyshe	Richard Dillington^[2]
1588	Richard Huyshe	Richard Sutton^[2]
1593	Thomas Dudley	Richard Browne^[2]
1597	Silvanus Scory	Thomas Crompton^[2]
1601	Robert Wroth	Robert Cotton^[2]
1604	Sir John Stanhope ennobled and replaced 1605 by Thomas Wilson	William Meux
1614 (Mar)	George Stoughton (sat for Guildford) and replaced 1614 by William Higford	Sir Henry Berkeley
1621 (Jan)	John Ferrar (sat for Tamworth) and replaced 1621 by Sir William Harington	Sir Thomas Barrington
1624 (Jan)	George Garrard	Sir Gilbert Gerard, Bt (sat for Middlesex)
1624 (Mar)	George Garrard	Sir Thomas Barrington
1625	Sir Thomas Barrington	Thomas Malet
1626	Sir Thomas Barrington	Thomas Malet
1628–1629	Sir Thomas Barrington, 2nd Baronet	Robert Barrington
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

1640–1832

Year	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
April 1640		John Meux^[3]	Royalist		Hon. Nicholas Weston
November 1640					Hon. Nicholas Weston	Royalist
August 1642				Weston disabled from sitting – seat vacant
February 1644	Meux disabled from sitting – seat vacant			Weston disabled from sitting – seat vacant
1645		Sir John Barrington			John Bulkeley
December 1648	Barrington and Bulkeley excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant
1653	Newtown was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Serjeant John Maynard			William Laurence
May 1659		Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Sir John Barrington			Sir Henry Worsley
1666					Sir Robert Worsley
1677					Admiral 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 Hopsonn			James Worsley
1701					Joseph Dudley
1702					John Leigh
1705		James Worsley			Henry Worsley
1715		James Worsley			Sir Robert Worsley
1722		William Stephens			Charles Worsley
1727^[4]		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			Charles Ambler
1780		Edward Meux Worsley			John Barrington^[5]
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
1805					James Paull	Whig
1806					George Canning	Tory
1807		Barrington Pope Blachford	Tory		Dudley Long North	Whig
1808		Barrington Pope Blachford	Tory		Hon. George Anderson-Pelham	Whig
1816		Hudson Gurney	Whig		Hon. George Anderson-Pelham	Whig
1820					Dudley Long North	Whig
1821					Charles Cavendish	Whig
1830					Hon. Charles Anderson-Pelham	Whig
1831					Sir William Horne	Whig
1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

^ Page 205, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition, London: Macmillan, 1957)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "History of Parliament". History of Parliament. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
^ Created a baronet, December 1641
^ 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

References

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) [1]
D Englefield, J Seaton & I White, Facts About the British Prime Ministers (London: Mansell, 1995)
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)
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 2)

[1] Page 205, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition, London: Macmillan, 1957)

[HoP-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "History of Parliament". History of Parliament. Retrieved 18 October 2011.

[3] Created a baronet, December 1641

[4] 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

[5] Succeeded to a baronetcy as Sir John Barrington in 1792

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