Orford (UK Parliament constituency)
| Orford | |
|---|---|
| Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
| 1529–1832 | |
| Seats | Two |
| Replaced by | East Suffolk |
Orford was a constituency of the House of Commons. Consisting of the town of Orford in Suffolk, it elected two Members of Parliament (MP) by the bloc vote version of the first past the post system of election until it was disenfranchised in 1832.
History
Orford was first represented in the Parliament of England in 1298, but did not regularly send members until 1529. The right of election was vested in the Mayor, eight portmen, twelve "capital burgesses" and the freemen of the borough. In the early days of its representation, Orford had been a prosperous port and its freemen were numerous, but by the 18th century the number of freemen was deliberately kept low to facilitate controlling the elections, and the town had become a pocket borough where most of the qualified voters consisted of the owner's family and retainers.
At one time Orford was owned by Viscount Hereford, but after his death in 1748 it was bought by the government, and by 1760, Orford was perhaps the most secure of all the "Treasury boroughs" – in other words boroughs where the influence of the Crown was so strong that the government could be sure of securing the election of whichever candidates they chose. As such, it was studied in detail by the historian Lewis Namier.
To secure government control, the Treasury started packing the Corporation with outsiders: Namier quotes a letter from John Roberts (who was managing the borough for the government) to Prime Minister Newcastle, urging an immediate decision on who should be nominated to a vacancy as capital burgess because otherwise "we shall be reduced to the necessity of chusing a townsman, the number of which it would be better not to encrease". Maintaining government control of the borough also involved considerable expenditure – £200 a year for rent of houses,and a further £100 for other expenses such as repairs and taxes, all met out of the secret service fund.
However, much of Viscount Hereford's estate had been bought by the Earl of Hertford, and he together with his brother Henry Seymour Conway, an influential minister, put pressure on successive Prime Ministers for the control of the borough to be given to him. Eventually in 1766, with the formation of Chatham's ministry, this pressure bore fruit, and Orford was transferred to the Earl of Hertford as partial compensation for his having been supplanted as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. From this point it remained under the control of Hertford and his heirs until it lost its representation 66 years later, and all its MPs were either members of the Seymour-Conway family or their friends.
By the time of the Great Reform Act in 1832, the population of the borough was only 1,302, in 246 houses, with about 22 men entitled to vote, and this was too small to justify its existence being retained.
Members of Parliament
MPs 1529–1660
MPs 1660–1832
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1660 | Walter Devereux | Sir Allen Brodrick | ||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1661 | Walter Devereux | Sir Allen Brodrick | ||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | Feb. 1679 | Lord Huntingtower | Sir John Duke | ||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | Sept. 1679 | Henry Parker | ||||||
| rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1681 | Thomas Glemham | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1685 | Lord Huntingtower | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1689 | Sir John Duke | ||||||
| rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1690 | Sir Thomas Felton[4] | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1695 | Sir Adam Felton | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1697 | Sir John Duke | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1698 | Sir Charles Hedges | ||||||
| rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1700 | Sir Edmund Bacon | William Johnson | ||||
| rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1701 | Sir Edward Turnor | ||||||
| rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1708 | Clement Corrance | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1709 | William Thompson | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1710 | Sir Edward Turnor | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1721 | Sir Edward Duke | ||||||
| rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1722 | Dudley North | William Acton | ||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1727 | Hon. Price Devereux | ||||||
| rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1729 | William Acton | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1730 | Robert Kemp | ||||||
| rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1734 | Richard Powys | Lewis Barlow | ||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1738 | John Cope | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1741 | Viscount Glenorchy | Henry Bilson-Legge | ||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1746 | Hon. John Bateman | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1747 | Hon. John Waldegrave | ||||||
| rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:British Whig Party/meta/color" | | 1754 | John Offley | Whig | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:British Whig Party/meta/color" | | 1759 | Hon. Charles FitzRoy | Whig | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:British Whig Party/meta/color" | | 1761 | Thomas Worsley | Whig | |||||
| rowspan="4" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1768 | Viscount Beauchamp[5] | Edward Colman | ||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1771 | Hon. Robert Seymour-Conway | ||||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1784 | Hon. George Seymour-Conway | ||||||
| rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1790 | Hon. William Seymour | ||||||
| rowspan="5" style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1794 | Lord Robert Seymour | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1796 | Viscount Castlereagh | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1797 | Earl of Yarmouth | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1802 | James Trail | Tory | |||||
| rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1806 | Lord Henry Moore | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1807 | William Sloane | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | rowspan="2" style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1812 | Charles Arbuthnot | Tory | Edmund Alexander Macnaghten | Tory | ||
| rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1818 | John Douglas | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | March 1820 | Horace Beauchamp Seymour[6] | Tory | |||||
| rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | May 1820 | Edmund Alexander Macnaghten | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1821 | The Marquess of Londonderry | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1822 | Charles Ross | Tory | |||||
| rowspan="3" style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | June 1826 | Sir Henry Cooke | Tory | Horace Beauchamp Seymour[7] | Tory | ||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | December 1826 | Quintin Dick | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:Tory/meta/color" | | 1830 | Spencer Kilderbee | Tory | |||||
| style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | style="background-color: Template:/meta/color" | | 1832 | Constituency abolished | |||||
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m "History of Parliament". Retrieved 1 October 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "History of Parliament". Retrieved 1 October 2011.
- ^ Kincaid, Arthur. "Cornwallis, Sir William, the younger". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6345. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Succeeded to a baronetcy as Sir Thomas Felton, 1697
- ^ Beauchamp was styled Earl of Yarmouth from June 1793
- ^ Seymour was also elected for Lisburn, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Orford
- ^ Seymour was also elected for Bodmin, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Orford
References
- 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)
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "O"