Launceston (UK Parliament constituency)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cornwall, North-Eastern or Launceston County constituency |
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|---|---|
| Created: | 1885 |
| Abolished: | 1918 |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| Members: | one |
| Launceston Borough constituency |
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|---|---|
| Created: | 1295 |
| Abolished: | 1885 |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| Members: | two (1295-1832); one (1832-1885) |
Launceston, also known at some periods as Dunheved, was a parliamentary constituency in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the British House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, and one member from 1832 until 1918. It was a parliamentary borough until 1885, and a county constituency thereafter.
Contents |
[edit] History
Launceston was one of 21 parliamentary boroughs in Cornwall between the 16th and 19th centuries; unlike many of these, which had been little more than villages even when established and were rotten boroughs from the start, Launceston had been a town of reasonable size and importance though much in decline by the 19th century. The borough consisted of only part of the present town, as Newport was a separate borough in itself from 1554, though Newport and Launceston were joined together as Dunheved, collectively returning members, earlier in that century.
The right to vote was vested theoretically in the Mayor, aldermen and those freemen of the borough who were resident at the time they became freemen; but in practice the vote was exercised only by members of the corporation, who were chosen mainly with a view to maintaining the influence of the "patron". Up to 1775, this was generally the head of the Morice family, who also controlled Newport, but in that year Humphry Morice sold his interest in both boroughs to the Duke of Newcastle, whose family retained hold on both until the Reform Act. There were about 17 voters in Launceston in 1831, by which time the borough was as rotten as any of the others in Cornwall.
In 1831 the borough had a population of 2,669 and 429 houses. Under the Great Reform Act of 1832 the boundaries were extended to encompass the whole town (including Newport, which was abolished as a separate borough), bringing the population up to 5,394. This was sufficient for Launceston to retain one of its two seats.
The borough was eventually abolished in 1885, but the name of the town was transferred to the new county constituency in which it was placed, strictly the North-Eastern or Launceston Division of Cornwall, which also elected a single member. This covered a much larger, rural, area including Callington, Calstock and Bude-Stratton. This constituency in its turn was abolished in 1918, being absorbed mostly into the new Cornwall North constituency.
[edit] Members of Parliament
[edit] Launceston borough
[edit] 1295-1660
- 1529: John Rastell
- 1559: Henry Clinton
- 1597: Herbert Croft
- 1625-1640: Sir Bevil Grenville
- 1640-1641: William Coryton - expelled, August 1641 [1]
- 1640-1644: Ambrose Manaton (Royalist) - disabled to sit, January 1644
- 1641-1648: John Harris (Parliamentarian) - excluded in Pride's Purge, December 1648
- 1645(?)-1648: Thomas Gewen - excluded in Pride's Purge, December 1648
Launceston was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
First Protectorate Parliament (One member only)
- 1654-1655: Robert Bennet
Second Protectorate Parliament (One member only)
- 1656-1658: Thomas Gewen
- 1659: Robert Bennet
- 1659: Thomas Gewen
Long Parliament (restored)
- 1659-1660: Thomas Gewen
[edit] 1660-1832
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1660 | Edward Eliot | Thomas Gewen | ||||
| June 1660 | John Cloberry | |||||
| 1661 | Richard Edgcumbe | Sir Charles Harbord | ||||
| February 1679 | Bernard Granville | |||||
| September 1679 | Sir John Coryton | Sir Hugh Piper | ||||
| 1680 | Lord Lansdowne | |||||
| 1681 | William Harbord | |||||
| 1685 | John Granville | |||||
| 1689 | William Harbord | Edward Russell | ||||
| 1690 | Bernard Granville | |||||
| 1692 | Lord Hyde | |||||
| 1695 | William Cary | |||||
| 1710 | Francis Scobell | |||||
| 1711 | George Clarke | |||||
| 1713 | Edward Herle | John Anstis | ||||
| 1721 | Alexander Pendarves | |||||
| 1722 | John Freind [2] | |||||
| 1724 | John Willes | |||||
| 1725 | John Freind | |||||
| 1726 | Henry Vane | |||||
| 1727 | Hon. John King | Arthur Tremayne | ||||
| 1734 | Sir William Morice | |||||
| 1735 | Sir William Irby | |||||
| 1747 | Sir John St Aubyn | |||||
| 1750 | Humphry Morice | |||||
| 1754 | Sir George Lee | |||||
| 1758 | Sir John St Aubyn | |||||
| 1759 | Peter Burrell | |||||
| 1768 | William Amherst | |||||
| 1774 | John Buller | |||||
| September 1780 | Viscount Cranborne | Thomas Bowlby | ||||
| November 1780 | Charles George Perceval[3] | |||||
| 1783 | Sir John Jervis | |||||
| 1784 | George Rose | |||||
| 1788 | Sir John Swinburne | |||||
| 1790 | John Rodney | Sir Henry Clinton | ||||
| 1795 | William Garthshore | |||||
| 1796 | John Theophilus Rawdon | James Brogden | Whig | |||
| 1802 | Richard Henry Alexander Bennet | |||||
| 1806 | Earl Percy | |||||
| 1807 | Richard Henry Alexander Bennet | |||||
| May 1812 | Jonathan Raine | |||||
| October 1812 | Pownoll Bastard Pellew | |||||
| 1830 | Sir James Willoughby Gordon | |||||
| 1831 | Sir John Malcolm | |||||
| 1832 | Representation reduced to one member | |||||
[edit] 1832-1885
| Year | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | Sir Henry Hardinge | Conservative | |
| 1844 | William Bowles | Conservative | |
| 1852 | Hon. Josceline Percy | Conservative | |
| 1859 | Thomas Chandler Haliburton | Conservative | |
| 1865 | Alexander Henry Campbell | Conservative | |
| 1868 | Henry Charles Lopes | Conservative | |
| February 1874 | James Henry Deakin (senior)[4] | Conservative | |
| July 1874 | James Henry Deakin (junior) | Conservative | |
| 1877 | Sir Hardinge Giffard | Conservative | |
| July 1885 | Richard Everard Webster | Conservative | |
| 1885 | Borough abolished; name transferred to county constituency | ||
[edit] North-Eastern or Launceston Division of Cornwall
[edit] 1885-1918
| Year | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 1885 | Sir Charles Dyke-Acland | Liberal | |
| 1892 | Thomas Owen | Liberal | |
| 1898 | Sir John Fletcher Moulton | Liberal | |
| 1906 | Sir George Croydon Marks | Liberal | |
| 1918 | constituency abolished | ||
Notes
- ^ Coryton was Vice-Warden of the Stannaries and as such had the responsibility for making the return of members (officially notifying the House of Commons who had been elected) for some of the Cornish boroughs. He himself was returned as Member for both Launceston and Grampound, and initially sat for Launceston, but having been found guilty of falsifying the return for Bossiney the House resolved "That Mr. Coryton shall not be admitted to sit as a Member in this Parliament" on 18 August 1641
- ^ On petition concerning a dispute over who had the right to vote, Freind was found not to have been duly elected, and Willes was declared elected in his place
- ^ The Lord Arden (in the peerage of Ireland) from 1784
- ^ This election was held void on petition, and a by-election was held
[edit] References
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
- Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 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)
- Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol I" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979)
- House of Commons journals and other records at British History Online
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
