Suffolk (UK Parliament constituency)
Suffolk | |
---|---|
Former County constituency for the House of Commons | |
1290–1832 | |
Seats | two |
Replaced by | East Suffolk and West Suffolk |
Suffolk was a
History
Boundaries and franchise
The constituency consisted of the historic county of Suffolk. (Although Suffolk contained a number of boroughs, each of which elected two MPs in its own right, these were not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within the borough could confer a vote at the county election.)
As in other
Except during the period of the
Political character
Elections were held at a single polling place, Ipswich, and voters from the rest of the county had to travel to the county town to exercise their franchise, which made elections almost prohibitively expensive in a county as big as Suffolk. The inconvenience of holding the elections in Ipswich, situated in one corner of the county, is emphasised by the fact that for almost all other county purposes, including the Assizes, Suffolk was divided into two sections with proceedings held at Bury St Edmunds as well as Ipswich; the arrangement must certainly have worked to the benefit of candidates whose voting strength was in East Suffolk rather than West Suffolk. It was normal for voters to expect the candidates for whom they voted to meet their expenses in travelling to the poll, and to "entertain" them – in other words provide free food and alcoholic drink – when they arrived.
Partly as a result of the expense, contested elections were rare in Suffolk (there were contests at four of the nine general elections between 1701 and 1727, but at only three of the twenty remaining before the Reform Act in 1832), and even when they took place were often only token contests. There was no dominant aristocratic interest in Suffolk, though it would probably have been impossible to defy the county's wealthier peers (such as the
In practice, the choice of members usually lay with the country squires, with matters generally settled more or less amicably by a test of strength at the county meeting with no need for the expense of a formal poll; when there was a contest, in 1784 (when three candidates stood for two seats), the weakest of the three quickly withdrew when it was clear after the first day of voting that he could not win. Nevertheless, the freeholders were not necessarily entirely deferential and manipulable by the gentry: Cannon cites the work of Professor J H Plumb, who showed in his study of Suffolk pollbooks from the reign of Queen Anne that the voters could act independently in a seriously contested election, while their humiliating rejection of their long-standing MP Thomas Sherlock Gooch in favour of a Reform Bill supporter at the tumultuous election of 1830 demonstrates similar intractability more than a century later.
Abolition
By the time of the
Members of Parliament
1290–1640
1640–1832
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab "History of Parliament". Archived from the original on 3 May 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
- ^ "HOWARD, Sir John (c.1366-1437), of Wiggenhall and East Winch, Norf., Stoke Nayland, Suff., Stansted Mountfichet, Essex, and Fowlmere, Cambs". History of Parliament Online. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2022.
- ^ History of Parliament ... 1439-1509: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House. H.M. Stationery Office. 2 March 2024.
- ^ History of Parliament ... 1439-1509: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House. H.M. Stationery Office. 2 March 2024.
- ^ History of Parliament ... 1439-1509: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House. H.M. Stationery Office. 2 March 2024.
- ^ History of Parliament ... 1439-1509: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House. H.M. Stationery Office. 2 March 2024.
- ^ History of Parliament ... 1439-1509: Biographies of the Members of the Commons House. H.M. Stationery Office. 2 March 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "History of Parliament". Archived from the original on 3 May 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "History of Parliament". Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47136. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47135. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19812. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Succeeded to baronetcy, June 1764
References
- Knights Of The Shire In Parliament For The County Of Suffolk.
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- John Cannon, Parliamentary Representation 1832 – England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973)
- Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
- F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
- Peter Jupp, British and Irish Elections 1784–1831 (Newton Abbott: David & Charles, 1973)
- Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754–1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
- J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
- J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Reform 1640–1832 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 6)