Plymouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Plymouth
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1442–1918
Number of members	two

Plymouth was a parliamentary borough in Devon, which elected two members of parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons in 1298 and again from 1442 until 1918, when the borough was merged with the neighbouring Devonport and the combined area divided into three single-member constituencies.

History

In the Unreformed Parliament (to 1832)

Plymouth first sent MPs to the Parliament of 1298, but after that the right lapsed until being restored in 1442, after which it returned two members to each parliament. The borough originally consisted of the parish of Plymouth in Devon; in 1641, the parish was divided into two, St Charles and St Andrew, and both remained in the borough. (This included most of the town as it existed in mediaeval and early modern times, but only a fraction of the city as it exists today). Plymouth was a major port, both naval and commercial, and unlike many of the boroughs of the unreformed parliament fully merited its status both for its importance and its population. (It was one of the few boroughs that retained both its members in the short-lived reform of the electoral system during the Commonwealth.) By the time of the Great Reform Act of 1832, the population of the borough was a little over 31,000, but the whole conurbation including the two nearby towns of Devonport and Stonehouse, had about 75,000 inhabitants.

Until 1660, the right to vote in Plymouth was restricted to the corporation. In that year, the House of Commons determined that the right was vested in the "Mayor and Commonalty", but the term "commonalty" was ambiguous and in 1740 it was held to mean only the freemen of the town rather than all the freeholders, a much more restrictive franchise. This amounted to only about 200 voters in the 18th and early 19th century, and the highest number actually recorded as voting was 177. Since the corporation was responsible for electing its own successors and also controlled the admission of freemen, it was easy for any interest having once gained control of the borough to retain it. Because of the importance of the naval dockyard to the town's prosperity, Plymouth fell under the influence of the government very early, and from at least the late 17th century was regarded as a safe constituency where ministers could nominate both members with little likelihood of serious opposition.

The members so nominated almost invariably included a distinguished naval officer, or instead on occasions a high official of the Admiralty (who, of course, could bring valuable patronage to Plymouth). When the Admiralty nominated only one member, the other was often the choice of the governor of the garrison, though at the turn of the 19th century the Prince Regent (who was recorder of the borough) was generally allowed to pick both members.

Nevertheless, government control of the borough did not entirely preclude an influential role for local aristocratic or landed families, not least because somebody had to manage the government's patronage and decide how it should be exercised. Around 1700, the Trelawny family considered themselves "patrons" of Plymouth (which, together with their pocket boroughs of East Looe and West Looe in Cornwall, gave them control of six seats in Parliament). Charles Trelawny, who was Governor of Plymouth from 1696 to 1712, had power of nomination to both seats throughout this period, sitting himself as MP and choosing his brother for the other seat on one occasion.

Many of Plymouth's MPs, naval or otherwise, justified the borough's confidence in them by bringing patronage to the town. Namier and Brooke quote a letter from the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, to the Plymouth MP Viscount Barrington, rebuking him for the extent of the continual requests he was making on their behalf; but many of these requests, it is clear, were nevertheless being met.

After the Reform Act (1832–1918)

The Great Reform Act left the borough of Plymouth unaltered, but its nature was affected radically. One change was the franchise reform, giving more than 1,400 of the inhabitants the vote. (Many of these, however, would have been able to vote for the county constituency of Devon before the Reform Act, since 40 shilling freeholders could vote for the county even if their property was within the borough boundaries.)

The second change was the creation of a new borough for the neighbouring town of Devonport, which included both Devonport and Stonehouse. These two towns, though outside the boundaries of Plymouth borough, had been influential on its politics, but now had two MPs of their own. As a result, the naval influence on Plymouth was somewhat reduced after 1832, though the importance of the dockyards to the economic interests of the constituency remained. In 1901, 7.9% of Plymouth's population were in defence-related occupations and a further 1.6% in boat or ship manufacture; but in Devonport the figures were 29.9% and 1.6% respectively.

Once governments could no longer easily abuse their powers of patronage to secure their seats in such constituencies, the naval connection could be a hindrance rather than a help: Sir Edward Clarke, Conservative MP for Plymouth in the latter years of the 19th century, had considerable difficulty securing re-election in 1892 because of local criticism of the Conservative government's Admiralty policy on payment for shipwrights. Nevertheless, the naval aspect was probably normally helpful to the Conservative vote at this period: by the early 20th century, Plymouth was one of England's most densely populated cities, and also had a high non-conformist population, which would normally have suggested a safe Liberal seat, but in fact the two parties polled fairly equally and Conservatives were elected more often than not.

Abolition

In 1914, the areas covered by the separate Plymouth and Devonport constituencies had been combined into a single county borough of Plymouth for local government purposes, and under the parliamentary boundary changes which came into effect at the general election of 1918 both two-member boroughs were abolished and the area of the county borough divided into single-member constituencies. The city's population was now adjudged to entitle it only to three MPs in place of the four it had had previously, and the new constituencies were called Plymouth, Devonport, Plymouth, Drake and Plymouth, Sutton. Of these, the Devonport division was very similar to the old Devonport borough, while the former Plymouth borough was split between the Drake and Sutton divisions.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1442–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1510	Henry Strete	John Bryan
1512	Robert Bowring	... Legh
1515	John Orenge	?
1523	?
1529	Thomas Vowell	John Pollard
1536	John Pollard	?
1539	James Horsewell	William Hawkins
1542	George Ferrers	James Horsewell
1545	Thomas Sternhold	George Ferrers
1547	John Prideaux	William Hawkins
1553 (Mar)	George Ferrers	Roger Buttockshide
1553 (Oct)	Roger Buttockshide	William Hawkins
1554 (Apr)	John Malet	Richard Hooper
1554 (Nov)	Sir Thomas Knyvet	Roger Buttockshide
1555	Thomas Carew	John Young
1558	Humphrey Specote	Nicholas Slanning
1558/9	Sir Arthur Champernown	Nicholas Slanning
1562/3	Henry Champernown	William Peryam
1571	Sir Humphrey Gilbert	John Hawkins
1572	John Hawkins	Edmund Tremayne
1584	Henry Bromley	Christopher Harris
1586	Henry Bromley	Hugh Vaughan
1588	Miles Sandys	Reginald Nicholas
1593	Sir Francis Drake	Robert Bassett (1573-1641) of Heanton Punchardon
1597	Warwick Hele	William Stallenge
1601	William Stallenge	James Bagg
1604–1611	Sir Richard Hawkins	James Bagg
1614	William Strode	Thomas Sherville
1621–1622	John Glanville	Thomas Sherville
1624	John Glanville	Thomas Sherville
1625	John Glanville	Thomas Sherville
1626	John Glanville	Thomas Sherville
1628–1629	John Glanville	Thomas Sherville
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

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

MPs 1640–1918

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Robert Trelawney			John Waddon
November 1640		Robert Trelawney	Royalist		John Waddon	Parliamentarian
1642		Sir John Yonge	Parliamentarian
December 1648	Yonge and Waddon excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant
1653	Plymouth was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
1654		Christopher Silly			William Yeo
1656		John Maynard			Timothy Alsop
January 1659		Christopher Silly
May 1659	Plymouth was not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		John Maynard			Edmund Fowell
June 1660		Sir William Morice			Samuel Trelawny
1666					Sir Gilbert Talbot
1677		John Sparke
1679					Sir John Maynard
1680		Sir William Jones
1685		Bernard Granville			The Earl of Ranelagh
January 1689		Sir John Maynard			Arthur Herbert
July 1689					John Granville
1690		John Trelawny
1695		George Parker
1698		Major General Charles Trelawny			Sir John Rogers
1701					Brigadier Henry Trelawny
1702					John Woolcombe
1705					Rear Admiral Sir George Byng
1713		Sir John Rogers
1721					Hon. Pattee Byng
1722		William Chetwynd
1727		Arthur Stert			George Treby
1728					Robert Byng
1739					John Rogers
January 1740					Captain Charles Vanbrugh
November 1740					Lord Henry Beauclerk
1741					Admiral Lord Vere Beauclerk
1750					Captain Charles Saunders
1754		The Viscount Barrington			Samuel Dicker
1760					Vice Admiral George Pocock
1768					Admiral Sir Francis Holburne
1771					Admiral Sir Charles Hardy
1778		Viscount Lewisham
1780		Sir Frederick Leman Rogers			Vice Admiral George Darby
1784		Captain John Macbride			Captain Robert Fanshawe
1790					Captain Alan Gardner
1790		Sir Frederick Leman Rogers
1796					William Elford
1797		Francis Glanville
1802		Philip Langmead
March 1806		Thomas Tyrwhitt
November 1806					Admiral Sir Charles Pole
1812		Colonel Benjamin Bloomfield
February 1818		Sir William Congreve
June 1818					Sir Thomas Byam Martin
1828		Sir George Cockburn
1832		John Collier	Whig		Thomas Beaumont Bewes	Whig
1841		Thomas Gill	Whig		Viscount Ebrington	Whig
1847		Roundell Palmer	Conservative
1852		Charles John Mare	Conservative		(Sir) Robert Porrett Collier	Whig
1853		Roundell Palmer	Conservative
1857		James White	Whig
1859		Viscount Valletort	Conservative			Liberal
1861		Walter Morrison	Liberal
1871					Sir Edward Bates	Conservative
1874		Sampson Samuel Lloyd	Conservative
April 1880		Peter Stewart Macliver	Liberal
July 1880					(Sir) Edward Clarke, QC	Conservative
1885		Sir Edward Bates	Conservative
1892		Sir William Pearce	Conservative
1895		Charles Harrison	Liberal
1898		Sigismund Mendl	Liberal
February 1900					Hon. Ivor Churchill Guest	Conservative
October 1900		Henry Duke	Conservative
April 1904						Liberal
1906		Thomas William Dobson	Liberal		Charles Edward Mallet	Liberal
January 1910		Aneurin Williams	Liberal
December 1910		Waldorf Astor	Conservative		Arthur Shirley Benn	Conservative
1918	Constituency abolished

Election results

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

Notes and References

• 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)
• The Constitutional Year Book for 1913 (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Michael Kinnear, The British Voter (London: BH Batsford, Ltd, 1968)
• 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)
• Henry Pelling, Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 (London: Macmillan, 1967)
• 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)
• Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol I (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 2)