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[1]
1512	Robert Bowring	... Legh[1]
1515	John Orenge	?[1]
1523	?
1529	Thomas Vowell	John Pollard[1]
1536	John Pollard	?[1]
1539	James Horsewell	William Hawkins[1]
1542	George Ferrers	James Horsewell[1]
1545	Thomas Sternhold	George Ferrers[1]
1547	John Prideaux	William Hawkins[1]
1553 (Mar)	George Ferrers	Roger Buttockshide[1]
1553 (Oct)	Roger Buttockshide	William Hawkins[1]
1554 (Apr)	John Malet	Richard Hooper[1]
1554 (Nov)	Sir Thomas Knyvet	Roger Buttockshide[1]
1555	Thomas Carew	John Young[1]
1558	Humphrey Specote	Nicholas Slanning[1]
1558/9	Sir Arthur Champernown	Nicholas Slanning[2]
1562/3	Henry Champernown	William Peryam[2]
1571	Sir Humphrey Gilbert	John Hawkins[2]
1572	John Hawkins	Edmund Tremayne[2]
1584	Henry Bromley	Christopher Harris[2]
1586	Henry Bromley	Hugh Vaughan[2]
1588	Miles Sandys	Reginald Nicholas[2]
1593	Sir Francis Drake	Robert Basset (1573–1641) of Heanton Punchardon[2]
1597	Warwick Hele	William Stallenge[2]
1601	William Stallenge	James Bagg[2]
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

MPs 1640–1918

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Robert Trelawney			John Waddon
November 1640		Robert Trelawney[3]	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[4]			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[5]
1713		Sir John Rogers
1721					Hon. Pattee Byng
1722		William Chetwynd
1727		Arthur Stert			George Treby[6]
1728					Robert Byng
1739					John Rogers[7]
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[8]
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[9]
1790		Sir Frederick Leman Rogers
1796					William Elford[10]
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[11]	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[12]	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[13]	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

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Macliver

Brett

General Election 1885: Plymouth^[14][15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Edward Bates	4,354	26.0
	Conservative	Edward George Clarke	4,240	25.4
	Liberal	Peter Stewart Macliver	4,132	24.8
	Liberal	Reginald Baliol Brett	3,968	23.8
Majority			108	0.6
Turnout				82.8
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

Strachey

Clarke

General Election 1886: Plymouth^[16][17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Edward George Clarke	4,137	28.2
	Conservative	Sir Edward Bates	4,133	28.1
	Liberal	Thomas English Stephens	3,255	22.1
	Liberal	Edward Strachey	3,175	21.6
Majority			878	6.0
Turnout				73.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1892: Plymouth^[18][19]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Edward George Clarke	5,081	25.5
	Conservative	Sir William George Pearce	5,081	25.5
	Liberal	Charles Harrison	4,921	24.6
	Liberal	G Lidgett	4,861	24.4
Majority			160	0.9
Turnout				81.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Harrison

General Election 1895: Plymouth^[20][21][22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Edward George Clarke	5,575	25.6
	Liberal	Charles Harrison	5,482
	Conservative	Evelyn Hubbard	5,456	25.0
	Liberal	Sigismund Ferdinand Mendl	5,298	24.3
Majority			26	0.1
Turnout				81.8	+0.7
	Conservative hold		Swing
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

Guest

Plymouth by-election, 1898^[23][24][25]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Sigismund Ferdinand Mendl	5,966	50.7
	Conservative	Ivor Churchill Guest	5,802	49.3
Majority			164
Turnout				89.0
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1900s

Plymouth by-election, 1900^[26][27][28]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Ivor Churchill Guest	unoppsed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1900: Plymouth^[29][30][31]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Henry Edward Duke	6,009	26.4	n/a
	Conservative	Ivor Churchill Guest	6,005	26.4	n/a
	Liberal	Sigismund Ferdinand Mendl	5,460		n/a
	Liberal	Henry de Rosenbach Walker	5,264		n/a
Majority			545		n/a
Turnout				84.8	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	n/a

Dobson

Mallet

General Election 1906: Plymouth^[32][33]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Thomas William Dobson	9,021	29.4
	Liberal	Charles Edward Mallet	8,914	29.0
	Conservative	Henry Edward Duke	6,547	21.3
	Conservative	HG Smith	6,234	20.3
Majority
Turnout				85.3
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

Durand

Williams

Astor

General Election January 1910: Plymouth^[34][35][36]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Charles Edward Mallet	8,091
	Liberal	Aneurin Williams	7,961
	Conservative	Waldorf Astor	7,650
	Conservative	Sir Henry Mortimer Durand	7,556
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

General Election December 1910: Plymouth^[37][38][39]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Waldorf Astor	8,113
	Conservative	Arthur Shirley Benn	7,942
	Liberal	Charles Edward Mallet	7,379
	Liberal	Aneurin Williams	7,260
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1914/15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: Waldorf Astor, Arthur Shirley Benn
• Liberal: Thomas William Dobson, JH McCawley Ryan

Notes and References

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) ^[40]
• 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) ^[41]
• 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)

1. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
2. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 11 November 2011.
3. Expelled from the House of Commons, March 1642, and committed to prison for publicly stating that the Commons had no power to appoint a guard for themselves without the King's consent
4. Maynard was also elected for Exeter, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Plymouth in this Parliament
5. Admiral from 1708
6. Treby was also elected for Dartmouth, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Plymouth
7. On petition (in a dispute over the franchise), Rogers was declared not to have been duly elected and his opponent, Vanbrugh, was seated in his place
8. Admiral Sir George Pocock from 1761
9. Rear Admiral from 1793, Vice Admiral Sir Alan Gardner from 1794
10. Created a baronet, November 1800
11. Mare's election was declared void on petition, and a by-election was held
12. Bate was initially declared re-elected in 1880, but the election was declared void on petition, and a by-election was held
13. Guest was elected as a Conservative, but crossed the floor to join the Liberal Party in April 1904
14. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
15. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
16. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
17. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
18. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
19. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
20. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
21. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
22. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
23. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
24. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
25. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
26. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
27. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
28. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
29. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
30. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
31. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
32. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
33. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
34. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
35. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
36. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
37. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
38. British Parliamentary Election Results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
39. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
40. https://books.google.com/books?vid=024wW9LmFc5kXY0FI2&id=Gh2wKY2rkDUC&printsec=toc&dq=Return+of+Members+of+Parliament&as_brr=1&sig=SK5GVtGLfWQ9ovZDbyZObAyIO5I#PPP9,M1
41. "titles A-Z". www2.odl.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 27 August 2015.