Bridport (UK Parliament constituency)

Bridport
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1295–1885
Number of members	two (1295-1868); one (1868-1885)

Bridport was a parliamentary borough in Dorset, England, which elected two Members of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1868, and then one member from 1868 until 1885, when the borough was abolished.

History

Bridport was continuously represented in Parliament from the first. The medieval borough consisted of the parish of Bridport, a small port and market town, where the main economic interests were sailcloth and rope-making, as well as some fishing. (For some time in the 16th century, the town had a monopoly of making all cordage for the navy.) By 1831, the population of the borough was 4,242, and the town contained 678 houses.

The right to vote was at one period reserved to the town corporation (consisting of two bailiffs and 13 "capital burgesses"), but from 1628 it was exercised by all inhabitant householders paying scot and lot. This was a relatively liberal franchise for the period but nevertheless meant that only a fraction of the townsmen could vote: in 1806, the general election at which Bridport had the highest turnout in the last few years before the Reform Act, a total of 260 residents voted.

Bridport never reached the status of a pocket borough with an openly-recognised "patron": the voters retained their freedom of choice and generally expected to extort a price for their votes, so much so that Oldfield recorded of one election in the early 19th century that "several candidates left them at the last election, in consequence of their demanding payment beforehand". Nevertheless, at various periods the borough came under the influence of local grandees and would usually return at least one of their nominees as MPs: the Russells (Dukes of Bedford) in the Elizabethan period and the Sturts in the latter half of the 18th century could normally rely on choosing one member. In 1572 the then Earl of Bedford made use of this influence to have his oldest son elected in defiance of the convention that the heirs of peers could not be members of the House of Commons; the only previous instance had been that of the Earl himself, who had remained an MP when he became heir to the Earldom in 1555. By vote of the House, the young Lord Russell was allowed to keep his seat for Bridport, and the precedent allowed other peers' heirs to sit from that point onwards.

Bridport retained both its seats under the Reform Act, the boundaries being extended to give it the requisite population - parts of the neighbouring parishes of Bradpole, Allington and Waldich, as well as Bridport Harbour, were brought in, increasing the population to about 6,000; in the election of 1832, the first after Reform, the registered electorate was 425. However, the constituency was too small to survive for long. One of its members was removed after election of 1868 by the Second Reform Act; and the borough was abolished altogether in 1885, the town being incorporated into the Western Dorset county division.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1295–1640

• Constituency created (1295)

Parliament	First member	Second member
1386	John Hayward	John Tracy[1]
1388 (Feb.)	John Hayward	John Tracy [1]
1388 (Sep)	John Tracy	William Cordell [1]
1390 (Jan)	John Tracy	John Hayward [1]
1390 (Nov)
1391
1393	John Tracy	John Hayward [1]
1394	John Tracy	Gilbert Draper [1]
1395	John Roger I	John Hayward [1]
1397 (Jan)	John Palmer	John Crouk [1]
1397 (Sep)	John Hayward	John Crouk [1]
1399	John Hayward	John Tracy [1]
1401
1402	Simon atte Ford	Nicholas Tracy [1]
1404 (Jan)
1404 (Oct)
1406	Henry Rauf	Roger Stikelane [1]
1407	Henry Rauf	Walter Batcok [1]
1410	Thomas Lovell	John Roger I [1]
1411
1413 (Feb)
1413 (May)	William Mountfort II	John Roger I [1]
1414 (Apr)	Simon atte Ford	John Stampe [1]
1414 (Nov)	Simon atte Ford	Andrew Forshey [1]
1415
1416 (Mar)
1416 (Oct)
1417	Simon atte Ford	Edward Stikelane [1]
1419	Walter Tracy	William Mountfort II [1]
1420	Simon atte Ford	John Stampe [1]
1421 (May)	Simon atte Ford	John Hore [1]
1421 (Dec)	Simon atte Ford	William Pernham [1]
1422	Simon atte Ford	[2]
1423	Simon atte Ford	[2]
1425	Simon atte Ford	[2]
1426	John Hore	Simon atte Ford[3]
1437	John Hore[3]
Second Parliament of 1553	Christopher Smith	William Pole
Parliament of 1554	Robert Neyl	Edward Prout
Parliament of 1554-1555	John Alferd	John Moyne or Moon
Parliament of 1555	Robert Fowkes	Thomas Chard
Parliament of 1558	John Hippisley	Thomas Welshe
Parliament of 1559	William Page	Robert Moon
Parliament of 1563-1567	John Hastings	Richard Inkpenne
Parliament of 1571	Thomas Parry	George Trenchard
Parliament of 1572-1581	Miles Sandys	Lord Russell (Summoned to the Lords) 1581: Hugh Vaughan
Parliament of 1584-1585	Dr Peter Turner	Morgan Moon
Parliament of 1586-1587
Parliament of 1588-1589	George Pawlet	Gregory Sprint
Parliament of 1593	Christopher Lambert	John Fortescue
Parliament of 1597-1598	Leweston Fitzjames	Adrian Gilbert
Parliament of 1601	Sir Robert Napier	Richard Warburton
Parliament of 1604-1611	Sir Robert Miller	John Pitt
Addled Parliament (1614)	Sir William Bampfield	John Jeffrey
Parliament of 1621-1622	John Strode	John Browne
Happy Parliament (1624-1625)	William Muschamp	Robert Browne
Useless Parliament (1625)	Sir Lewis Dyve	Sir John Strode
Parliament of 1625-1626		Sir Richard Strode
Parliament of 1628-1629	Thomas Pawlet	Bampfield Chafin
No Parliament summoned 1629-1640

MPs 1640–1868

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Thomas Trenchard			Sir John Meller
November 1640		Roger Hill [4]	Parliamentarian		Giles Strangways	Royalist
January 1644				Strangways disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1645					Thomas Ceeley
December 1648				Ceeley excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant
1653	Bridport was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Edward Cheek			John Lee
May 1659		Roger Hill		One seat vacant
April 1660		John Drake			Henry Henley
1661		Humphrey Bishop			John Strangways
February 1677		George Bowerman
February 1677					Wadham Strangways
February 1679		John Every
August 1679		Sir Robert Henley, Bt			William Bragge
1681		John Michell
1685		Hugh Hodges			Thomas Chafe
1689		Richard Brodrepp			John Manley
1690		John Michell			Sir Stephen Evance
1695		Nicholas Carey
1697		Peter Battiscombe
1698					Alexander Pitfield
1701		William Gulston
1702		Richard Bingham
1705		Thomas Strangways
1708					William Coventry
1713		John Hoskins Gifford
February 1715		John Strangways [5]
May 1715		Peter Walter
1719					Sir Dewey Bulkeley
1727		William Bowles [6]			James Pelham [7]
1730					John Jewkes
1734					Solomon Ashley
1741					George Richards
1742		Viscount Deerhurst	Tory
1744		Viscount Deerhurst	Tory
1746					Thomas Grenville
May 1747					James Grenville
July 1747		John Frederick Pinney
1754					Thomas Coventry
1761		Sir Gerard Napier, Bt
1765		Benjamin Way
1768		Sambrooke Freeman
1774		Hon. Lucius Cary
1780		Thomas Scott			Richard Beckford
1784					Charles Sturt
1790		James Watson
1795		George Barclay
1802					Sir Evan Nepean, Bt
1807		Sir Samuel Hood, Bt
1812		William Best	Tory		Sir Horace St Paul, Bt
1817		Henry Sturt
March 1820		James Scott			Christopher Spurrier
June 1820					Sir Horace St Paul, Bt
1826		Henry Warburton	Radical
1832					John Romilly	Whig
1835					Horace Twiss	Conservative
1837					Swynfen Jervis	Whig
June 1841					Thomas Alexander Mitchell	Whig
September 1841 by-election		Alexander Baillie-Cochrane	Conservative
1846 by-election [8]		John Romilly	Whig
1847		Alexander Baillie-Cochrane	Conservative
1852		John Patrick Murrough	Whig
1857		Kirkman Daniel Hodgson	Whig
1859			Liberal			Liberal
1868	Representation reduced to one member

MPs 1868–1885

Year		Member	Party
1868		Thomas Alexander Mitchell	Liberal
1875 by-election		Pandeli Ralli	Liberal
1880		Charles Warton	Conservative
1885	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. "Bridport". History of Parliament online. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
2. "FORD, Simon atte, of Bridport, Dorset.". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 2012-10-27.
3. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/hore-john-ii-1452
4. Sir Lewis Dyve petitioned against the result. Cobbett records Dyve as MP from 1640, and the Dictionary of National Biography has Hill filling the vacancy in 1645; however Brunton & Pennington list Hill as the MP from 1640. The House of Commons Journals show Dyve was a petitioner rather than MP, and that Hill was an MP by 1643 at the latest
5. Strangeways was initially declared elected, but on petition it was found that some unqualified voters had been admitted while other qualified voters had had their votes refused, and Walter was declared duly elected in Strangways' place
6. Bowles was re-elected in 1741 but was also elected for Bewdley, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Bridport
7. Pelham was also elected for Newark, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Bridport
8. Cochrane resigned to seek re-election as a supporter of free trade, and a by-election was held on 7 March 1846. Cochrane was initially declared re-elected by a majority of 1 vote, but on petition his election was declared void and after scrutiny of the votes Romilly was declared duly elected.

Election results

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)
• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
• F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
• 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)
• Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
• 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 "B" (part 5)