Boroughbridge | |
---|---|
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
1553–1832 | |
Seats | Two |
Boroughbridge was a parliamentary borough in Yorkshire from 1553 until 1832, when it was abolished under the Great Reform Act. Throughout its existence it was represented by two Members of Parliament in the House of Commons.
The constituency consisted of the market town of Boroughbridge in the parish of Aldborough (which was also a borough with two MPs of its own). By 1831 it contained only 154 houses, and had a population of 947.
Boroughbridge was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote was vested in the tenants of certain specified properties, of which there seem to have been about 65 by the time the borough was abolished. Since these properties could be freely bought and sold, the effective power of election rested with whoever owned the majority of the burgages (who, if necessary, could simply assign the tenancies to reliable placemen shortly before an election). For more than a century before the Reform Act, Boroughbridge was owned by the Dukes of Newcastle, who controlled around fifteen seats across the country; however, in the 1790s, they sold one of the seats for £4,000 to the banker Thomas Coutts, who used it to put his son-in-law, Francis Burdett, into Parliament.
Parliament | First member | Second member |
---|---|---|
1553 (Oct) | William Tancred | Christopher Wray[1] |
1554 (Apr) | Ralph Cholmley | Christopher Wray [1] |
1554 (Nov) | Christopher Wray | John Holmes[1] |
1555 | Christopher Wray | Robert Kempe[1] |
1558 | William Fairfax | Christopher Wray [1] |
1558–9 | Sir John York | Richard Bunny[1] |
1562–3 | John Astley | Thomas Disney[1] |
1571 | Cotton Gargrave | Thomas Boynton[1] |
1572 (Apr) | Thomas Eynns (died 1578) | Cotton Gargrave[1] |
1584 (Oct) | Henry Cheke | Nicholas Faunt[1] |
1586 (Sep) | George Savile | Robert Briggs[1] |
1588–9 | Sir Edward Fitton | Francis Moore[1] |
1593 | John Brograve | Vincent Skinner |
1597 (Sep) | Henry Fanshawe | Thomas Crompton[1] |
1601 | Richard Whalley | Thomas Fairfax [1] |
1604 | John Ferne | Sir Henry Jenkins |
1609 | Sir Thomas Vavasour | Sir Henry Jenkins |
1614 | Sir Ferdinando Fairfax | George Marshall |
1621 | Sir Ferdinando Fairfax | George Wethered |
1624 | Sir Ferdinando Fairfax | Christopher Mainwaring |
1625 | Sir Ferdinando Fairfax | William Mainwaring |
1626 | Sir Ferdinando Fairfax | Philip Mainwaring |
1628 | Sir Ferdinando Fairfax | Francis Neville |
1629–1640 | No Parliaments summoned |
Source: The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tory | Marmaduke Lawson | 37 | 39.8 | N/A | |
Tory | George Mundy | 33 | 35.5 | N/A | |
Tory | Thomas Murdoch | 25 | 24.7 | N/A | |
Majority | 8 | 8.8 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 93 | N/A |
In the Boroughbridge by-election, 1819, Marmaduke Lawson was elected unopposed.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tory | Richard Spooner | 38 | 28.6 | N/A | |
Tory | Marmaduke Lawson | 38 | 28.6 | N/A | |
Tory | George Mundy | 28 | 21.0 | N/A | |
Tory | Henry Dawkins (1788–1864) | 28 | 21.0 | N/A | |
Majority | 10 | 7.6 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 133 | N/A | |||
Tory hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tory | Charles Wetherell | 38 | 32.8 | ||
Tory | Matthias Attwood | 38 | 32.8 | ||
Tory | Andrew Lawson | 20 | 17.2 | ||
Tory | William Alexander Mackinnon | 20 | 17.2 | ||
Majority | 18 | 15.6 | |||
Turnout | c. 58 | c. 89.2 | |||
Registered electors | c. 65 | ||||
Tory hold | |||||
Tory hold |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tory | Charles Wetherell | Unopposed | |||
Tory | Matthias Attwood | Unopposed | |||
Registered electors | c. 65 | ||||
Tory hold | |||||
Tory hold |