- Newport (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency)
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For other UK Parliament constituencies of the same name, see Newport (UK Parliament constituency).
Newport Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons County Isle of Wight Major settlements Newport 1584–1885 Number of members 1584–1868: Two
1868–1885: OneReplaced by Isle of Wight 1295–1295 Number of members Two Type of constituency Borough constituency Newport was a parliamentary borough located in Newport (Isle of Wight), which was abolished in for the 1885 general election. It was occasionally referred to by the alternative name of Medina.
(Prior to the Great Reform Act of 1832 there was also a separate Newport parliamentary borough in Cornwall.)
Contents
History
The borough was first represented in the parliament of 1295, and returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) from 1584 to 1868. At the 1868 election the Second Reform Act reduced its representation to a single seat, and under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 the constituency was abolished altogether with effect from the 1885 general election. Newport's re-enfranchisement in 1584, like that of the other Isle of Wight boroughs (Newtown and Yarmouth) seems to have been at the urging of the new Governor of the island, Sir George Carey, a relative of the Queen. In token of thanks, the borough granted him for life the right to nominate one of the two MPs - which seems to have been the reward he expected and the motive for his petition to the Queen in the first place.
Between 1807 and 1811 its two seats were held by two future Prime Ministers: Arthur Wellesley, later to become the Duke of Wellington (who also found himself elected to two other seats at the same time), and Henry Temple (later Lord Palmerston), who would go on to become one of the United Kingdom's most notable Prime Ministers. Palmerston's late father had been unable to convert his Irish title into a United Kingdom peerage, therefore the young politician was able to enter the Commons. The local patron arranging the deal was Sir Leonard Holmes, who made it a condition that they never visited the borough!
The borough was also represented by two other future Prime Ministers in the 1820s. George Canning was MP for Newport when appointed Prime Minister in 1827; however, under the law as it then stood a minister accepting office automatically vacated his seat and had to stand for re-election to the Commons, and Canning chose to stand at Seaford, a government pocket borough in Sussex, rather than fight Newport again. In the by-election that followed at Newport, the vacancy was filled by the election of the Honourable William Lamb, later 2nd Viscount Melbourne, whose father had also represented the borough in the 1790s. However, Lamb remained MP for Newport for only two weeks before also being elected for Bletchingley, which he preferred to represent.
Before the Great Reform Act of 1832, the right to vote was vested in the Mayor and Corporation (consisting of 11 aldermen and 12 burgesses). For much of the previous century the borough was "managed" for the government by the Holmes family, meaning that ministers could generally secure the election of their favoured candidates, but often only at the expense of considerable "gratuities" to the voters - in 1754, this apparently amounted to a payment of £600 for each candidate. The borough consisted of the parish of Newport and of Castle Hold in the parish of St Nicholas, thereby excluding that part of the town which extended over the boundary into Carisbrooke parish; this gave the borough a population of 4,398 in 1831. The 1832 reforms extended the borough to take in the rest of the town, raising the population to 6,700, though the electorate was still only 421.
Newport's representation was reduced from two members to one by the second Reform Act for the 1868 general election, and abolished altogether in 1885, leaving the town represented as part of the Isle of Wight county constituency.
Members of Parliament
MPs 1584–1660
Parliament First member Second member 1584 Sir Ralph Bourchier Edmund Carey [1] 1586 Richard Sutton Richard Hardy [1] 1588 Sir Edmund Carey Richard Hardy [1] 1593 William Cotton Richard Huyshe [1] 1597 William Cotton Richard James [1] 1601 Thomas Crompton Richard James [1] 1604 Richard James John Ashdell 1614 Richard Worsley John Searle 1621-1622 Richard Worsley Sir William Uvedale 1624 John Danvers Christopher Brooke, sat for York
and replaced by Philip Fleming1625 Robert Dillington William Oglander 1626 Christopher Yelverton Philip Fleming 1628-1629 Christopher Yelverton Philip Fleming 1629–1640 No Parliaments summoned 1640 (Apr) The Viscount Falkland Henry Worsley 1640 (Nov) The Viscount Falkland
disabled to sit, Sep 1642Henry Worsley 1645 Henry Worsley
excluded in Pride's Purge, Dec 1648William Stephens 1653–1659 Newport was unrepresented in the Barebones and First and Second Protectorate Parliaments 1659 Thomas Boreman (of Broke) Sir Robert Dillington, 2nd Baronet 1659-1660 Sir Henry Worsley, 2nd Baronet William Stephens MPs 1660–1868
Election 1st Member 1st Party 2nd Member 2nd Party 1660 Robert Dillington William Oglander [2] 1661 William Glascock 1670 Sir Robert Dillington February 1679 Admiral Sir Robert Holmes August 1679 John Leigh 1685 Admiral Sir Robert Holmes Sir William Stephens January 1689 Sir Robert Dillington June 1689 Edward Dillington 1690 Admiral Sir Robert Holmes 1692 Richard Leveson November 1695 Brigadier The Lord Cutts of Gowran Sir Robert Cotton December 1695 Sir Henry Colt 1698 Major-General The Lord Cutts of Gowran 1699 Henry Greenhill January 1701 Major-General The Lord Cutts of Gowran Samuel Shepheard March 1701 Henry Greenhill December 1701 Major-General The Lord Cutts of Gowran Edward Richards March 1702 Colonel James Stanhope Whig July 1702 Major-General The Lord Cutts of Gowran [3] William Stephens 1707 Sir Tristram Dillington October 1710 Lieutenant-General John Richmond Webb [4] Tory December 1710 Lieutenant-General William Seymour 1713 General John Richmond Webb Tory 1715 Anthony Morgan [5] April 1717 Lieutenant-General James Stanhope Whig July 1717 Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Tristram Dillington 1721 Thomas Stanwix March 1722 Earl of March [6] The Lord Whitworth October 1722 Colonel Charles Cadogan 1726 George Huxley January 1727 Sir William Willys August 1727 William Fortescue 1736 The Viscount Boyne May 1741 Anthony Chute Monoux Cope July 1747 Captain Bluett Wallop Thomas Lee Dummer 1749 Ralph Jenison 1758 Rear-Admiral Charles Holmes 1762 William Rawlinson Earle 1765 Thomas Dummer 1768 John Eames Hans Sloane 1773 Hon. John St. John 1774 Sir Richard Worsley 1780 Hon. John St. John 1784 Edward Rushworth Captain the Hon. Hugh Seymour-Conway 1786 Hon. John Thomas Townshend January 1790 George Byng June 1790 The Viscount Palmerston The Viscount Melbourne 1793 Peniston Lamb May 1796 Jervoise Clarke Jervoise [7] Edward Rushworth[8] November 1796 William Hamilton Nisbet Andrew Strahan 1800 Sir George Dallas 1802 John Blackburn Richard Gervas Ker 1806 Isaac Corry Colonel Sir John Doyle 1807 The Viscount Palmerston Tory Sir Arthur Wellesley Tory 1809 Sir Leonard Thomas Worsley-Holmes 1811 Cecil Bisshopp 1812 Richard Fleming Worsley Holmes 1814 John Delgarno 1816 George Watson-Taylor 1818 Charles Duncombe 1825 Hon. John Stuart 1826 George Canning Tory Hon. William Scott Tory April 1827 Hon. William Lamb [9] Whig May 1827 Spencer Perceval Tory 1830 Horace Twiss Tory 1831 William Mount Tory James Joseph Hope-Vere Tory 1832 John Heywood Hawkins Whig William Henry Ord Whig 1837 William John Blake Whig 1841 Charles Wykeham Martin Conservative William John Hamilton Conservative 1847 William Plowden Conservative 1852 William Biggs Whig William Nathaniel Massey Whig February 1857 by-election Robert Kennard Conservative March 1857 Charles Edward Mangles Liberal Charles Buxton Liberal 1859 Robert Kennard Conservative Philip Lybbe Powys Conservative 1865 Charles Wykeham Martin Liberal 1868 Representation reduced to one member MPs 1868–1885
Election Member Party 1868 Charles Wykeham Martin Liberal 1870 Charles Cavendish Clifford Liberal 1885 constituency abolished Notes
- ^ a b c d e f "History of Parliament". History of Parliament trust. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/constituencies/newport-iow. Retrieved 2011-10-19.
- ^ Created a baronet as Sir William Oglander, December 1665
- ^ Lieutenant-General from 1703
- ^ Webb was also elected for Ludgershall, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Newport in this Parliament
- ^ Morgan was also a candidate for Yarmouth, but the election result there was disputed. He sat for Newport until the Yarmouth election was decided in his favour, then chose to represent Yarmouth for the remainder of the Parliament
- ^ March was also elected for Chichester, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Newport
- ^ Jervoise was also elected for Yarmouth, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Newport
- ^ Rushworth was also elected for Yarmouth, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Newport
- ^ Lamb was elected at a by-election for Bletchingley two weeks after his election for Newport. He chose to represent Bletchingley.
See also
- Isle of Wight (UK Parliament constituency)
- Newtown (UK Parliament constituency)
- Politics of the Isle of Wight
- Parliamentary representation from Isle of Wight
References
- Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- Michael Brock, The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
- F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd Ed) (Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
- D Englefield, J Seaton & I White, Facts About the British Prime Ministers (London: Mansell, 1995)
- Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition, London: Macmillan , 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)
- Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
- Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)
- Frederic A Youngs, Jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume I (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1979)
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 1)
Parliament of the United Kingdom Preceded by
vacant. Last was Northampton in 1812Constituency represented by the Prime Minister
1827Succeeded by
vacant. Next was Tamworth in 1834Categories:- Parliamentary constituencies in South East England (historic)
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies represented by a sitting Prime Minister
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies established in 1295
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies established in 1584
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies disestablished in 1885
- Politics of the Isle of Wight
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