Newton (UK Parliament constituency)

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Not to be confused with Newtown (UK Parliament constituency).


Lancashire, Newton
County constituency
Created: 1885
Abolished: 1983
Type: House of Commons
Newton
Borough constituency
Created: 1559
Abolished: 1983
Type: House of Commons

Newton was a Borough constituency in the county of Lancashire of the House of Commons for the Parliament of England from 1559 to 1706 then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Members of Parliament.

In 1885 a county constituency with the same name was created and represented by one Member of Parliament. This creation was abolished in 1983.

Contents

[edit] Borough constituency

The borough consisted of the parish of Newton-le-Willows in the Makerfield district of South Lancashire. It was first enfranchised in 1558 (though the Parliament so summoned did not meet until the following year), and was a rotten borough from its inception: Newton was barely more than a village even at this stage, and so entirely dominated by the local landowner that its first return of members described it bluntly as "the borough of Sir Thomas Langton, knight, baron of Newton within his Fee of Markerfylde". By 1831, just before its abolition, the population of the borough had reached only 2,139, and contained 285 houses.

The right to vote was exercised by all freeholders of property in the borough valued at forty shillings or more, or by one representative of joint tenants of any such freeholds; Newton was the only borough where the forty-shilling freehold franchise (which applied in the counties) was the sole qualification to vote. In 1797, the borough's last contested election, 76 electors cast their votes; by 1831 it was estimated that the electorate had fallen to about 52. (As elsewhere, each elector had as many votes as there were seats to be filled and votes had to be cast by a spoken declaration, in public, at the hustings.)

In practice, however, the townsmen of Newton had no say in choosing their representatives: as the owners of the majority of the qualifying freeholds, the lords of the manor exercised total control. During most of the Elizabethan period, Langton seems to have allowed the Duchy of Lancaster to nominate many of the members, which may have been a quid pro quo for Newton's being enfranchised in the first place, but later patrons could regard its parliamentary seats as their personal property. Langton's heir sold the manor to the Fleetwood family in 1594, the sale explicitly including the right of "the nomination, election and appointment" of the two burgesses representing the borough in Parliament, one of the earliest recorded instances of the right to elect MPs being bought and sold. By the first half of the next century it had passed to the Leghs, who owned it for the rest of its existence.

By the time of the Great Reform Act of 1832, Newton was one of the most notorious of all England's pocket boroughs, mainly because the Legh control was more complete than that of the patrons in most other constituencies. It was one of the 56 boroughs to be totally disenfranchised by the Reform Act.

[edit] County constituency

The constituency was re-established in 1885 as a division of the parliamentary county of Lancashire, covering various settlements in addition to Newton itself, including Ashton-in-Makerfield, Billinge and Winstanley. It was reconstituted in 1918 to cover the urban districts of Golborne, Haydock and Newton, along with the Warrington Rural District and part of the Leigh Rural District (otherwise in Stretford. When it was redesignated in 1950 the Leigh Rural District had been abolished, and borders were realigned, with the constituency adding Irlam. The constituency stayed the same in 1974.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1660-1832

Year First member First party Second member Second party
1660 Richard Legh William Banks
April 1661 John Vaughan
June 1661 Sir Philip Mainwaring
October 1661 The Lord Gorges of Dundalk
1679 Sir John Chicheley Andrew Fountaine
1685 Peter Legh
1689 Francis Cholmondeley
1690 George Cholmondeley
1691 John Bennet
1695 Legh Banks Thomas Brotherton
1698 Thomas Legh
1701 Thomas Legh, junior
July 1702 John Grobham Howe
December 1702 Thomas Legh
1703 John Ward
1713 Abraham Blackmore
1715 Sir Francis Leicester William Shippen
1727 Legh Master
1743 Peter Legh
1747 Sir Thomas Egerton
1754 Randle Wilbraham
1768 Anthony James Keck
1774 Robert Vernon Atherton Gwillym
1780 Thomas Peter Legh Thomas Davenport, KC [1]
1786 Thomas Brooke
September 1797 Thomas Langford Brooke [2]
December 1797 Peter Patten
1806 Colonel Peter Heron
1807 John Ireland Blackburne
1814 Thomas Legh
1818 Thomas Claughton
1825 Sir Robert Townsend-Farquhar
1826 Thomas Alcock
1830 Thomas Houldsworth
1832 Constituency abolished

[edit] 1885-1983

Election Member Party
1885 constituency re-established with one MP
1885 Richard Assheton Cross Conservative
1886 Thomas Wodehouse Legh Conservative
1899 Richard Pilkington Conservative
1906 James Andrew Seddon Labour
1910 Roundell Cecil Palmer Conservative
1918 Robert Young Labour
1931 Reginald Clare Essenhigh Conservative
1935 Robert Young Labour
1950 Frederick Lee Labour
1974 John Evans Labour
1983 constituency abolished

Notes

  1. ^ Knighted, June 1783
  2. ^ On petition, Brooke's election was declared void and Patten was declared to have been duly elected

[edit] Elections

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Craig, F. W. S. [1969] (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, 3rd edition, Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 
  • 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)
  • Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
  • Frederic A Youngs, jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
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