Corfe Castle was a parliamentary borough in Dorset, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1572 until 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.
| Corfe Castle | |
|---|---|
| Former borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
| 1572–1832 | |
| Seats | Two |
History edit
Corfe Castle was made a borough by Queen Elizabeth I, through the influence of Sir Christopher Hatton, who had been granted the manor. The borough consisted of the town of Corfe Castle on the Isle of Purbeck, once a market town but by the 19th century little more than a village, where the main economic interests were clay and stone quarrying. In 1831, the population of the borough was approximately 960, in 156 houses. (The portion of the town outside the borough contained another 141 houses.[1])
The right to vote was exercised by all householders (resident or not) paying scot and lot; in 1816 this amounted to only 44 voters, and all but 14 of those were non-resident. The local landowners were able to exercise almost total influence. In the late 18th and early 19th century, the Bankes family (who had owned the castle since 1640) nominated the member for one of the seats and the Bond family for the other.[2]
Corfe Castle was abolished as a separate constituency by the Reform Act; however, the nearby borough of Wareham kept one of its MPs, and Corfe Castle was included within the expanded boundaries of the revised Wareham constituency.
Members of Parliament edit
1572–1640 edit
| Parliament | First member | Second member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parliament of 1572–1581 | Edmund Uvedale | Charles Mathew | |
| Parliament of 1584–1585 | John Clavell | Francis Hawley | |
| Parliament of 1586–1587 | Sir William Hatton | ||
| Parliament of 1588–1589 | |||
| Parliament of 1593 | William Tate | Francis Flower | |
| Parliament of 1597–1598 | Francis James[3][4] | John Foyle[3] | |
| Parliament of 1601 | John Durning | John Davies | |
| Parliament of 1604–1611 | Edward Dackombe | Sir John Hobart | |
| Addled Parliament (1614) | John Dackombe | James Whitelocke Chose to sit for Woodstock Elected in his place Sir Thomas Tracie | |
| Parliament of 1621–1622 | Sir Thomas Hatton | Sir Thomas Hammond | |
| Happy Parliament (1624–1625) | Sir Francis Nethersale | Sir Peter Osborne | |
| Useless Parliament (1625) | |||
| Parliament of 1625–1626 | Edward Dackombe | Sir Robert Napier | |
| Parliament of 1628–1629 | Sir Francis Nethersale | Giles Green | |
| No parliament summoned 1629–1640 | |||
1640–1832 edit
Notes
- ^ "Corfe Castle". Parliamentary representation: Copies of instructions given by the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to parliamentary representation ; likewise Copies of letters or reports in answer to such instructions. Vol. IV. & V. 19 January 1832. p. 290. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
- ^ Page 146, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
- ^ a b "Corfe Castle | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org.
- ^ Browne Willis gives the same names, with only the slightest variation (John Frankland or Frank and Samson or Sampson Hussey), as having been elected for both Wareham and Corfe Castle, which he unsurprisingly queries.
- ^ Expelled from the House of Commons, December 1641.
- ^ Created a baronet, May 1642.
- ^ On petition (in a dispute over the franchise), Osborne was found not to have been duly elected and his opponent, Napier, was declared elected in his place.
- ^ Following a petition against Culliford's re-election in 1698, he was found by the Commons Committee to have secured his election by illegal practices, and was declared not duly elected. A by-election was held.
References edit
- Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
- 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)
- Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
- 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 F. W. S. Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
- Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. p. 1.
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)