Wareham (UK Parliament constituency)

Wareham
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1302–1885
Number of members	two (1302–1832); one (1832–1885)

Wareham was a parliamentary borough in Dorset, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1302 until 1832, and then one member from 1832 until 1885, when the borough was abolished.

History

The borough consisted of the town of Wareham on the Isle of Purbeck, a market town close to Poole Harbour. In 1831, the population of the borough was 1,676, and it contained 364 houses.

The right to vote was exercised by the Mayor, magistrates and freemen of the town and all inhabitants paying scot and lot; the number who were qualified to vote under this provision by the time of the Reform Act was unknown, as there had not been a contested election for many years, but there were about 500 in the 1760s. In the early 18th century a number of wealthy local families were influential over the choice of members, but eventually John Calcraft of Kingstone Hall secured total control by buying up all the property in the borough occupied by potential voters.

Wareham retained one of its two MPs under the Reform Act, but its boundaries were extended to include several surrounding areas, including nearby Corfe Castle which had previously been a borough in its own right. The new borough had a population of 5,751.

The borough continued to elect one MP until the third Reform Act, which came into effect at the general election of 1885. This abolished the constituency, Wareham being placed in the new East Dorset county division.

Members of Parliament

1302–1629

• Constituency created (1302)

Parliament	First member	Second member
1386	Thomas Walbrond	Walter Byle[1]
1388 (Feb)	Thomas Walbrond	Walter Byle[1]
1388 (Sep)	Thomas Walbrond	Robert Calche[1]
1390 (Jan)	Adam Denys	Robert Calche[1]
1390 (Nov)
1391	Nicholas atte Gate	Henry Rauf[1]
1393	Walter Byle	Robert Calche[1]
1394	Adam Denys	Thomas Smithfield[1]
1395	Richard Byle	Thomas Barbour[1]
1397 (Jan)	Walter Byle	Adam Denys[1]
1397 (Sep)	Nicholas atte Gate	Robert Cokeman[1]
1399	Adam Denys	Thomas Barbour[1]
1401
1402	Robert Calche	Richard Byle[1]
1404 (Jan)
1404 (Oct)
1406	Robert Craford	John Cheverell[1]
1407	John Gramford	William Colyns[1]
1410	Robert Craford	Thomas Walsingham[1]
1411
1413 (Feb)
1413 (May)	Robert Craford	Thomas Faringdon[1]
1414 (Apr)	Richard Byle	John Mayhew[1]
1414 (Nov)	William Gerard	John Shoyll[1]
1415
1416 (Mar)
1416 (Oct)
1417	William Gerard	Robert Craford[1]
1419	William Gerard	Robert Craford[1]
1420	William Gerard	Walter Reson[1]
1421 (May)	William Gerard	Walter Reson[1]
1421 (Dec)	William Gerard	Walter Provost[1]
1510–1523	No names known[2]
1529	John Orenge	William Grimston[2]
1536
1539	?
1542	?
1545	Thomas Phelips	Robert Keyle[2]
1547	David Seymour	Richard Morison[2]
1553 (Mar)	?Richard Phelips	?
1553 (Nov)	Thomas Phelips	Leonard Willoughby[2]
1554	Alexander Hughes	Thomas Girdler[2]
Parliament of 1554–1555	Hugh Smith	Roger Gerard[2]
Parliament of 1555	Thomas Phelips	Clement Hyatt[2]
Parliament of 1558	Matthew Smythe	Walter Raleigh[2]
Parliament of 1559	Sir John Perrot	John Scriven
Parliament of 1563–1567	John Morrice	Richard Shaw
Parliament of 1571	John Baker	Clement Hyatt died during the 1572–81 Parliament In his place Henry Ashley
Parliament of 1572–1581	John Gwynne
Parliament of 1584–1585	John Rogers	Andrew Rogers
Parliament of 1586–1587		Thomas Lambert
Parliament of 1588–1589		Christopher Gerrard
Parliament of 1593	Thomas Rogers	George Strode
Parliament of 1597–1598	John Frankland	Sampson Hussey
Parliament of 1601	Sir John Stafford	Edmund Scott
Parliament of 1604–1611	Robert Napier	Dr Francis James
Addled Parliament (1614)	John Freke	(Sir) William Pitt
Parliament of 1621–1622	John Trenchard
Happy Parliament (1624–1625)
Useless Parliament (1625)
Parliament of 1625–1626	Sir Nathaniel Napier	Edward Lawrence
Parliament of 1628–1629	Gerrard Napier	Sir John Meller
No Parliament summoned 1629–1640

1640–1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		John Trenchard	Parliamentarian		Dr Gilbert Jones
November 1640					Thomas Erle	Parliamentarian
December 1648				Erle excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant
1653	Wareham was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Elias Bond			James Dewey
May 1659		John Trenchard		One seat vacant
April 1660		George Pitt			Robert Culliford
1679		Thomas Erle	Whig		George Savage
1685					George Ryves
May 1689					Thomas Skinner
1690					William Okeden
1695					Thomas Trenchard
1698		George Pitt
January 1701					Thomas Erle	Whig
March 1701					Sir Edward Ernle
November 1701					Thomas Erle	Whig
1702		Sir Josiah Child
1704		Sir Edward Ernle
1705		George Pitt[3]
1710		Sir Edward Ernle
1713		George Pitt[4]
1715		George Pitt, junior
1718					Henry Drax
1722		Sir Edward Ernle			Joseph Gascoigne
12 February 1729					Nathaniel Gould
26 February 1729		Thomas Tower
1734		Henry Drax			John Pitt
1747[5]					Thomas Erle Drax
1748		Robert Banks Hodgkinson			John Pitt
1751					Henry Drax
April 1754	Seats vacant after disputed election[6]
December 1754		William Augustus Pitt			Henry Drax
1755					Edward Drax
1761		Thomas Erle Drax			John Pitt
March 1768		Ralph Burton			Robert Palk
November 1768		Whitshed Keene
January 1774		Thomas de Grey
October 1774		William Gerard Hamilton			Christopher D'Oyly
1780		John Boyd			Thomas Farrer
1784		Charles Lefebure
1786		John Calcraft
1790		General Richard Smith			Lord Robert Spencer
May 1796		Charles Rose Ellis[7]
November 1796		Sir Godfrey Vassall
1799					Joseph Chaplin Hankey
1800		John Calcraft	Whig
1802					Andrew Strahan
1806		Jonathan Raine
1807		Sir Granby Calcraft			Hon. John William Ward	Tory
1808		Sir Samuel Romilly	Whig
1812		Robert Gordon			Theodore Henry Broadhead
1818		John Calcraft	Whig		Thomas Denman	Whig
1820					John Hales Calcraft	Tory
1826					Charles Baring Wall
1828			Tory
1830					James Ewing	Whig
1831		Granby Hales Calcraft	Whig		Charles Wood	Whig
1832	Representation reduced to one Member

1832–1885

Year		Member	Party
1832		John Hales Calcraft	Conservative
1841		John Erle-Drax	Whig
1852			Conservative
1857		John Hales Calcraft	Whig
1859		John Erle-Drax	Conservative
1865		John Hales Montagu Calcraft	Liberal
1868		John Erle-Drax	Conservative
1880		Montague Guest	Liberal
1885	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
2. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
3. Pitt was re-elected in 1710 but had also been elected for Hampshire, which he chose to represent, and did not sit in this Parliament for Wareham
4. Pitt was re-elected in 1715 but had also been elected for Hampshire, which he chose to represent, and did not sit in this Parliament for Wareham
5. At the election of 1747, Henry Drax and Thomas Erle Drax were initially returned as elected, but on petition (in a dispute over the franchise) the committee declared their election void and that their opponents Pitt and Hodgkinson had been duly elected
6. At the election of 1754, there was a double return (two alternative results declared after a disputed election, leaving the House of Commons to resolve the issue), one return naming John Pitt and William Augustus Pitt, the other Henry Drax and Thomas Erle Drax. The House declared the entire election void, and a writ was issued for a new election
7. Ellis was also been elected for Seaford, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Wareham

References

• 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)
• 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, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition – London: St Martin's Press, 1961)
• 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 FWS 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.
• Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 1)