Wareham (UK Parliament constituency)
| Wareham | |
|---|---|
| Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons |
|
| 1302–1885 | |
| Number of members | two (1302–1832); one (1832–1885) |
Wareham was a parliamentary borough in Dorset, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1302 until 1832, and then one member from 1832 until 1885, when the borough was abolished.
Contents
History
The borough consisted of the town of Wareham on the Isle of Purbeck, a market town close to Poole Harbour. In 1831, the population of the borough was 1,676, and it contained 364 houses.
The right to vote was exercised by the Mayor, magistrates and freemen of the town and all inhabitants paying scot and lot; the number who were qualified to vote under this provision by the time of the Reform Act was unknown, as there had not been a contested election for many years, but there were about 500 in the 1760s. In the early 18th century a number of wealthy local families were influential over the choice of members, but eventually John Calcraft of Kingstone Hall secured total control by buying up all the property in the borough occupied by potential voters.
Wareham retained one of its two MPs under the Reform Act, but its boundaries were extended to include several surrounding areas, including nearby Corfe Castle which had previously been a borough in its own right. The new borough had a population of 5,751.
The borough continued to elect one MP until the third Reform Act, which came into effect at the general election of 1885. This abolished the constituency, Wareham being placed in the new East Dorset county division.
Members of Parliament
1302–1629
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- Constituency created (1302)
1640–1832
1832–1885
| Year | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | John Hales Calcraft | Conservative | |
| 1841 | John Erle-Drax | Whig | |
| 1852 | Conservative | ||
| 1857 | John Hales Calcraft | Whig | |
| 1859 | John Erle-Drax | Conservative | |
| 1865 | John Hales Montagu Calcraft | Liberal | |
| 1868 | John Erle-Drax | Conservative | |
| 1880 | Montague Guest | Liberal | |
| 1885 | Constituency abolished | ||
Notes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Pitt was re-elected in 1710 but had also been elected for Hampshire, which he chose to represent, and did not sit in this Parliament for Wareham
- ↑ Pitt was re-elected in 1715 but had also been elected for Hampshire, which he chose to represent, and did not sit in this Parliament for Wareham
- ↑ At the election of 1747, Henry Drax and Thomas Erle Drax were initially returned as elected, but on petition (in a dispute over the franchise) the committee declared their election void and that their opponents Pitt and Hodgkinson had been duly elected
- ↑ At the election of 1754, there was a double return (two alternative results declared after a disputed election, leaving the House of Commons to resolve the issue), one return naming John Pitt and William Augustus Pitt, the other Henry Drax and Thomas Erle Drax. The House declared the entire election void, and a writ was issued for a new election
- ↑ Ellis was also been elected for Seaford, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Wareham
References
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [1]
- F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
- Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
- 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)
- Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig – Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
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- Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)[self-published source][better source needed]
- Use dmy dates from March 2012
- Incomplete lists from August 2008
- Wikipedia articles citing Notitia Parliamentaria that were auto-converted and need a page number check
- Accuracy disputes from March 2012
- Articles lacking reliable references from March 2012
- Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
- Parliamentary constituencies in Dorset (historic)
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies established in 1302
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies disestablished in 1885
