Reading (UK Parliament constituency)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Reading Parliamentary borough (to 1885) Borough constituency (from 1885) |
|
|---|---|
| Created: | 1295, 1955 |
| Abolished: | 1950, 1974 |
| Type: | House of Commons |
Reading was a parliamentary borough, and later a borough constituency, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It comprised the town of Reading in the county of Berkshire.
From 1295, as a parliamentary borough, Reading elected two Members of Parliament (MPs). When the parliamentary borough was replaced by a borough constituency in 1885, this representation was reduced to a single MP. The constituency was abolished in 1950, re-created in 1955, and finally abolished in 1974.
Contents |
[edit] History
Reading was one of the boroughs summoned to send members to the Model Parliament. The boundaries (encompassing the whole of one parish and parts of two others) were effectively unchanged from 1295 to 1918. In 1831, the population of the borough was 15,935, and contained 3,307 houses.
The right to vote was exercised by all inhabitants paying scot and lot, a relatively wide franchise for the period, and almost 2,000 votes were cast at the general election of 1826. Despite this high electorate, the corporation of the town was generally considered in practice to control elections to a large extent. In the second half of the 18th century, Reading was notoriously one of the most corrupt constituencies in England, bribery being both routine and expensive: Namier quotes the accounts kept for Prime Minister Newcastle of the 1754 election, which note that John Dodd, the government's candidate there, had already received £1000 and was promised £500 or £600 more to help him win the seat. (Dodd lost by one vote, but had the result overturned on petition by a partisan vote in the House of Commons, and Newcastle's accounts show a continuing trickle of funds to him to nurse the constituency over the next few years.) A few years later, the nomination to one of Reading's seats was advertised for sale in a London newspaper, though Reading was not mentioned by name and no price was specified; the newspaper's printers were charged by the Commons with a breach of privilege, but the sale of seats remained legal if frowned-upon until 1809.
The Great Reform Act left Reading's representation and boundaries unchanged, and the reformed franchise far from increasing its electorate seems to have reduced it: it was estimated that there were 1,250 voters in 1831, but only 1,001 were registered for the first post-Reform election, that of 1832.
The Representation of the People Act 1884, coming into effect at the the 1885 general election, caused the parliamentary borough to be replaced by a borough constituency, and reduced Reading's representation to a single MP. The single-member Reading constituency continued to exist until it was split in 1950 into the separate constituencies of Reading North and Reading South. These two constituencies were merged back into a single Reading constituency in 1955, but again split apart in 1974. Today the area formerly covered by the Reading constituency is within the constituencies of Reading East and Reading West.
[edit] Members of Parliament
[edit] 1295-1660
- Daniel Blagrave (several periods between 1640 and 1660)
[edit] 1660-1885
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1660 | Thomas Rich | John Blagrave | ||||
| 1661 | Sir Thomas Dolman | Richard Aldworth | ||||
| 1679 | Nathan Knight | John Blagrave | ||||
| March 1685 | Thomas Coates | John Breedon | ||||
| November 1685 | William Aldworth | |||||
| 1689 | Sir Henry Fane | Whig | Sir William Rich | |||
| 1698 | Sir Owen Buckingham | John Dalby | ||||
| January 1701 | Francis Knollys | |||||
| November 1701 | Anthony Blagrave | Tanfield Vachell | ||||
| 1702 | Sir Owen Buckingham | |||||
| 1705 | Sir William Rich | |||||
| 1708 | Owen Buckingham | Anthony Blagrave | ||||
| 1710 | John Dalby | |||||
| 1713 | Robert Clarges | Felix Calvert | ||||
| 1716 | Charles Cadogan | Owen Buckingham | ||||
| 1720 | Richard Thompson | |||||
| 1722 | Anthony Blagrave | Clement Kent | ||||
| 1727 | Richard Potenger | Richard Thompson | ||||
| 1734 | Henry Grey | |||||
| 1739 | John Blagrave | |||||
| 1740 | William Strode | |||||
| February 1741 | John Dodd | |||||
| May 1741 | William Strode | |||||
| 1747 | John Conyers | Richard Neville Aldworth | ||||
| 1754 | William Strode | The Viscount Fane | Opposition Whig | |||
| 1755 | John Dodd | Government Whig | ||||
| 1761 | Sir Francis Knollys | |||||
| 1768 | Henry Vansittart | |||||
| 1774 | Francis Annesley | |||||
| 1782 | Richard Aldworth-Neville | |||||
| 1797 | John Simeon | |||||
| 1802 | Charles Shaw Lefevre | |||||
| 1806 | John Simeon | |||||
| 1818 | Charles Fyshe Palmer | |||||
| 1820 | John Berkeley Monck | |||||
| 1826 | George Spence | |||||
| 1827 | Charles Fyshe Palmer | Whig | ||||
| 1830 | Charles Russell | Tory | ||||
| 1835 | Thomas Noon Talfourd | Whig | ||||
| 1837 | Charles Fyshe Palmer | Whig | ||||
| 1841 | Charles Russell | Conservative | Viscount Chelsea | Conservative | ||
| 1847 | Francis Piggott | Whig | Thomas Noon Talfourd | Whig | ||
| 1849 | John Frederick Stanford | Conservative | ||||
| 1852 | Sir Henry Singer Keating | Liberal | ||||
| January 1860 | Sir Francis Goldsmid | Liberal | ||||
| November 1860 | Gillery Piggott | Liberal | ||||
| 1863 | George Shaw-Lefevre | Liberal | ||||
| 1878 | George Palmer | Liberal | ||||
| 1885 | Representation reduced to one member | |||||
[edit] 1885-1950
| Year | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1885 | Charles Townshend Murdoch | Conservative | |
| 1892 | George William Palmer | Liberal | |
| 1895 | Charles Townshend Murdoch | Conservative | |
| 1898 | George William Palmer | Liberal | |
| 1904 | Rufus Isaacs | Liberal | |
| 1913 | Leslie Orme Wilson | Conservative | |
| 1922 | Edward Cecil George Cadogan | Conservative | |
| 1923 | Somerville Hastings | Labour | |
| 1924 | Herbert Williams | Conservative | |
| 1929 | Somerville Hastings | Labour | |
| 1931 | Alfred Bakewell Howitt | Conservative | |
| 1945 | Ian Mikardo | Labour | |
| 1950 | Constituency divided into Reading North and Reading South | ||
[edit] 1955-1974
| Year | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Constituency recreated | ||
| 1955 | Ian Mikardo | Labour | |
| 1959 | Peter Emery | Conservative | |
| 1966 | John Lee | Labour | |
| 1970 | Gerard Vaughan | Conservative | |
| 1974 | Constituency redivided into Reading North and Reading South | ||
[edit] References
 |
The references in this article would be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking. |
- Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1961)
- 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)
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page
