Lyme Regis was a parliamentary borough in Dorset, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, and then one member from 1832 until 1868, when the borough was abolished.
^In 1607, Sir George Somers reported to the Commons that his colleague, Hassard, was too ill from gout to continue serving, and attempted to have him dismissed from his seat. However, the House resolved "That he shall still serve, and that he shall not be removed". But in 1610 Sir John Jeffreys offered a petition on behalf of the borough to allow Hassard to be replaced, and a committee on investigation found that the 69-year-old MP was bed-ridden and incurable, and a new writ was ordered to replace him. (Oldfield, Vol I, p 372).
^Browne Willis gives three names for Lyme Regis in the Short Parliament, those of Erle, Rose and Prideaux. Other sources do not suggest that Prideaux sat in that Parliament (whereas Erle certainly did), and it is probably his name that is in error.
^Prideaux took his seat in the restored Rump, but died 1659
^Burridge was re-elected at the general election of 1727 but was subsequently judged to be ineligible since he was Mayor of the borough at the time of the election, and his defeated opponent Henley was declared elected in his place
^In 1780 there was a double return: on petition, the election was declared void and a new election held with the same candidates: Fane and Michel were elected in preference to Henry Harford and Lionel Darell, junior.
^Pinney was initially declared re-elected at the general election of 1841, but on petition his election was declared void and Hussey declared elected in his place after scrutiny of the votes
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)
Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [2]
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 & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754–1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)* J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
T. H. B. Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
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, Volume 1 (London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co, 1844) [3]
