Aldborough (UK Parliament constituency)

Aldborough
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	West Riding of Yorkshire
Major settlements	Aldborough
1558–1832
Number of members	Two
Replaced by	West Riding of Yorkshire

Aldborough was a parliamentary borough located in the West Riding of Yorkshire, abolished in the Great Reform Act of 1832. Aldborough returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) from 1558 until 1832.

Aldborough was a "scot and lot" borough, meaning that any man paying the poor rate was eligible to vote. Nevertheless, it was a small borough (not even including the whole parish of Aldborough, since Boroughbridge, also within the boundaries, was also a borough with its own two MPs), and by the time of the Reform Act it had a population only just over 500 and an electorate of less than 100. This made it a pocket borough and easy for the local landowner to dominate.

In the 18th century, Aldborough was controlled by the Duke of Newcastle. In April 1754 Newcastle, who had just become Prime Minister, selected his junior colleague and future Prime Minister, William Pitt (Pitt the Elder), to sit as its MP. Pitt represented Aldborough for two-and-a-half years, but having fallen out with Newcastle and been dismissed from his ministry, he was forced to find a new constituency when he next needed to be re-elected to the Commons in 1756.

Members of Parliament

• Constituency created (1558)

MPs 1558–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1558	John Gascoigne II	John Browne II[1]
1559	Richard Onslow	Richard Assheton[2]
1563	William Lambarde	Anthony Tailboyes [2]
1571	Thomas Eynns	Barnaby Googe [2]
1572	Richard Bunny II	Richard Tempest [2]
1584	William Waad	David Waterhouse [2]
1586	George Horsey	Ralph Hurleston [2]
1588	Thomas Fairfax, 1st Lord Fairfax of Cameron	David Waterhouse [2]
1593	Andrew Fisher	Edward Hancock [2]
1597	Henry Bellasis	Richard Gargrave [2]
1601	Sir Edward Cecil	Richard Theakston [2]
1604–1611	Sir Henry Savile	Sir Edmund Sheffield
1614	Sir Henry Savile	George Wetherid
1621	Christopher Wandesford	John Carvile
1624	Christopher Wandesford	John Carvile
1625	Richard Aldborough	John Carvile
1626	Richard Aldborough	John Carvile
1628	Henry Darley	Robert Stapleton
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

MPs 1640–1832

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		November 1640	Richard Aldeburgh	Royalist	Robert Strickland	Royalist
		September 1642			Strickland disabled to sit – seat vacant
		January 1643	Aldeburgh disabled to sit – seat vacant
		1645	Thomas Scott (died January 1648)		Brian Stapylton
		March (?) 1648	James Chaloner
		December 1648			Stapylton not recorded as having sat after Pride's Purge
		1653	Aldborough was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
		January 1659	Francis Goodricke		John Lambert[3]
		May 1659	No representatives in the restored Rump
		1660	Sir Solomon Swale, Bt		Francis Goodricke
		1673			Sir John Reresby, Bt[4]
		1678	Ruisshe Wentworth
		February 1679	Henry Arthington
		May 1679			Sir Godfrey Copley, Bt[5]
		August 1679	Sir Brian Stapylton, Bt
		1681	Sir John Reresby, Bt
		1685	Sir Michael Wentworth		Sir Roger Strickland
		1689			Christopher Tancred
		1696	Henry Fairfax[6]
		January 1698	William Wentworth
		July 1698	Sir George Cooke		Sir Abstrupus Danby
		1701	Robert Monckton		Cyril Arthington
		1702			William Jessop
		1713	John Dawnay [7]		Paul Foley
		February 1715	James Stanhope[8]	Whig	William Jessop
		April 1715 by-election	William Monson
		1722	Charles Stanhope
		1734	Henry Pelham[9]	Whig
		1735 by-election	John Jewkes		Andrew Wilkinson	Whig
		1743 by-election	Nathaniel Newnham
		1754	William Pitt	Whig
		1756 by-election	Nathaniel Cholmley
		1765 by-election			Viscount Villiers
		1768	Hon. Aubrey Beauclerk		Andrew Wilkinson	Whig
		1772 by-election			Earl of Lincoln	Tory
		1774	Charles Wilkinson		Abel Smith	Tory
		1777 by-election	William Baker
		1778 by-election			Hon. William Hanger
		September 1780	Sir Richard Sutton, Bt[10]		Charles Mellish
		November 1780 by-election	Edward Onslow
		1781 by-election	Sir Samuel Brudenell Fludyer, Bt
		January 1784 by-election			John Gally Knight
		March 1784	Richard Arden[11]	Whig
		1790	Richard Trench Chiswell
		1796			Charles Duncombe
		1797 by-election	John Blackburn
		1802	John Sullivan
		1806	Henry Fynes	Tory	Gilbert Jones	Tory
		1812			Henry Dawkins	Tory
		1814 by-election			Henry Gally Knight	Tory
		1815 by-election			Granville Harcourt-Vernon	Tory
		1820			Gibbs Antrobus	Tory
		1826	Clinton James Fynes Clinton	Tory	Sir Alexander Cray Grant, Bt	Tory
		1830			Viscount Stormont	Tory
		1831			Michael Thomas Sadler	Tory
		1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. "History of Parliament Online 1509 - 1558".
2. "History of Parliament Online 1558 - 1603".
3. Lambert was also elected for Pontefract, which he chose to represent. The vacancy was unfilled when the Parliament ended
4. At the by-election in November 1673, the Returning Officer made a double return of Reresby and Robert Benson; the dispute was decided in Reresby's favour, and he took his seat, in April 1675.
5. Sir John Reresby was declared re-elected at the general election in February 1679 but unseated on petition, Copley being elected in his place.
6. Fairfax's election was voided by a resolution of the House of Commons (21 December 1696) for breaking the law in his spending on the election; the writ to hold a new election was not issued until December 1697
7. A petition was raised against Dawnay's election that had not been resolved by the time the Parliament was dissolved. Dawnay had also been elected for Pontefract and, not being required to choose which constituency he would represent while there was an outstanding petition against one of the elections, sat for both boroughs throughout the Parliament
8. Stanhope was also elected for Cockermouth, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Aldborough
9. Pelham was also elected for Sussex, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Aldborough
10. Sutton was also elected for Sandwich, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Aldborough
11. Sir Richard Arden from 1788

References

• Robert Beatson, "A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament" (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• Michael Brock,The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973).
• 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)
• D Englefield, J Seaton & I White, Facts About the British Prime Ministers (London: Mansell, 1995)
• Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832, England and Wales, (New Haven, Connecticut: 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)
• Frederic A Youngs, Jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Volume I (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1979)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 1)