Wiltshire (UK Parliament constituency)
 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2014) |
| Wiltshire | |
|---|---|
| Former county constituency for the House of Commons | |
| County | Wiltshire |
| 1290–1832 | |
| Seats | Two |
| Replaced by | Northern Wiltshire and Southern Wiltshire |
Wiltshire was a
History
Boundaries
The constituency consisted of the whole historic county of Wiltshire. (Although Wiltshire contained a number of boroughs each of which elected two Members in their own right, the boroughs were not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within a borough could confer a vote at the county election.)
Medieval and Tudor period
In medieval times, the custom in Wiltshire as elsewhere was for Members called
The
Once the vote was no longer confined to the richest men in the county, voters quickly came to expect the candidates for whom they voted to meet their expenses in travelling to the poll and to entertain them when they got there. At the Wiltshire election of 1559, one of the candidates, George Penruddock, was Steward to
County elections were held at a single polling place. In the early period this would have been wherever in the county the Sheriff chose to hold the relevant county court, but eventually there was a fixed venue, at
18th and 19th century elections
As time went on, the treating at elections became more elaborate and more openly corrupt, and at the same time the size of the electorate expanded considerably. In the 15th century, the forty-shilling freeholders must still have constituted a very small number of voters, but social changes and rising land values both acted eventually to broaden the franchise. Those qualified to vote were still a fraction of total population: at the time of the
Wiltshire was a predominantly rural county, though the freeholders from the biggest towns (Salisbury, Trowbridge, Bradford-on-Avon, Westbury and Warminster) made up almost a fifth of the vote in 1818. It succeeded in remaining independent of any domination by the local nobility and generally chose members of the county's landed gentry as its members. Wiltshire was unusual in that by the 18th century it has formalised the process of picking its candidates to some degree, the decision being made by a body called the Deptford Club (named after the inn where it met). The club consisted of leading local members of both gentry and nobility and was said to have been in existence since 1729. Once the club had met in private and made its decision, the choice was ratified at a public meeting, and only on a small number of occasions did a disappointed candidate take the matter to a formal vote at the ensuing election. However, in the last half century before Reform, two rival clubs (the Devizes Club and the Beckhampton Club) took over the nominating function, and in 1812 an independent candidate, Paul Methuen, stood against one of the nominees of the clubs and defeated him.
Abolition
Under the
Members of Parliament
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1295–1640
1640–1832
Notes
- ^ S. E. Rigold, Nunney Castle, Somerset (HMSO, 1967), p. 4 (online)
- ^ "CHEYNE, Sir Ralph (c.1337-1400), of Brooke in Westbury, Wilts". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- ^ a b c d e "DAUNTSEY, Sir John (d.1391), of Dauntsey, Wilts". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- ^ a b c d e "ROCHES, Sir John (c.1333-1400), of Bromham, Wilts". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
- ^ 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 ac "History of Parliament". Retrieved 9 September 2011.
- ^ a b c J. S. Roskell, The Commons in the Parliament of 1422 (Manchester University Press), [http||//books.google.co.uk/books?id=TxYNAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA126#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 126] (see footnotes)
- ^ ISBN 9780191610264. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "History of Parliament". Retrieved 9 September 2011.
- ^ doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/71877. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Court of Star Chamberfound that Thynne had been fraudulently returned by the Sheriff and that his opponent, George Penruddock, had in fact been the victor.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "History of Parliament". Retrieved 9 September 2011.
- ^ "Myldmay, Anthony (MLDY562A)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "THYNNE, Thomas (c.1577/8-1639), of Longleat, Wilts. and Cannon Row, Westminster". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ "VAUGHAN, Sir Walter (c.1572-1639), of Falstone House, Bishopstone, Wilts". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ Died. Cobbett records him as dead by 1644, Brunton & Pennington give his date of death as December 1645. As this was the date that the writ was issued for a by-election to fill the vacancy, it may be an error.
- ^ Succeeded his father as Sir Richard Howe, 3rd Baronet, in 1703.
Elections
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See also
References
- 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) [1]
- Esther S Cope and Willson H Coates (eds), Camden Fourth Series, Volume 19: Proceedings of the Short Parliament of 1640 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1977)
- 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)
- T. H. B. Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
- Charles Henry Parry (ed.), The Parliaments and Councils of England (London: John Murray, 1839)
- J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 – England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 4)
- List of members nominated for Parliament of 1653 (British History Online)