East Retford (UK Parliament constituency)

East Retford was a parliamentary constituency in Nottinghamshire, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons for the first time in 1316, and continuously from 1571 until 1885, when the constituency was abolished. Although East Retford was technically a parliamentary borough for the whole of its existence, in 1830 its franchise had been widened and its boundaries had been extended to include the whole Wapentake of Bassetlaw as a remedy for corruption among the voters, and from that point onward it resembled a county constituency in most respects.

East Retford
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
1572–1885
Number of memberstwo
Replaced byBassetlaw
Created fromNottinghamshire

History

The original borough

East Retford first sent members to Parliament in 1316, but thereafter the privilege lapsed until the borough was once more summoned to do so in 1571, probably at the instigation of the Earl of Rutland. Certainly, he considered himself entitled to influence its choice of members, and 1586 wrote to the borough asking for the nomination of one or both of the representatives; the borough authorities replied respectfully that "Having considered the matter" they felt themselves "bound to satisfy you in that and any other much weightier thing. May it please you, therefore, to make choice and nominate and we will ratify it." However, they went on to note that they would be particularly happy to oblige if the Earl were to renominate the sitting member, Denzil Holles (who may well have been his nominee at the previous election), and since Rutland proved happy to do so, the proprieties were observed without any hardship. The Earls of Rutland retained their influence in Retford for several decades, often holding the municipal post of High Steward.

The borough consisted initially of the parish of East Retford, a market town which by 1830 had a population of around 2,500. By the end of the 17th century, the right to vote was restricted to the resident freemen of the town, but there was some dispute over who had a right to claim the freedom. (The House of Commons debated the borough's franchise seven times in a few years following 1700, coming to a different resolution each time, and never definitively settling all the details.) East Retford was not subject to the abuses common in many other freeman boroughs, where non-resident freemen could often vote and outnumbered the residents, but as elsewhere the town corporation was able to exert considerable control by deciding whom to admit as freemen. In the second half of the 18th century, the qualified electorate amounted to about 150.

However, the borough was no more independent than it had been in Elizabethan times, and by 1800 had been under the influence of the main local landowner, the Duke of Newcastle, for well over a century. Although it was not quite an entirely safe pocket borough, the Duke could generally be confident of seeing his chosen candidates returned. This influence was strongest in the second half of the 18th century when the borough was managed for the Duke by one of the sitting MPs, John White: there were no contested elections between 1741 and 1796. But even then it was necessary to work to maintain the Duke's popularity among the freemen, and after 1765 the then Duke (who had been Prime Minister until 1761) found his hold on Retford challenged by his nephew, the Earl of Lincoln. As Lincoln was also Newcastle's heir, it might have seemed that the dispute could not permanently weaken the family's control: but in the event the voters had been so stirred up, by the time Lincoln inherited the Dukedom in 1768, that they were unwilling to renounce their independence. Henceforth the Dukes of Newcastle could only count on one of the two seats. When the Corporation candidate was beaten by the Duke's two choices in 1796, the bailiffs and aldermen of the Corporation created 38 honorary freemen to ensure they had a majority once more at the next election; but the Court of King's Bench ruled the manoeuvre illegal (though it was common practice in many other boroughs).

Corruption and its consequences

With the election results in Retford no longer a foregone conclusion, it became worthwhile for candidates to take some pains to secure victory, and Retford's voters began to exploit the commercial value of their votes. The Newcastle influence became very limited while that of Earl Fitzwilliam waxed (though he himself and his Whig allies were apparently unconvinced of their own power), and the borough eventually became notorious for bribery. Retford's corruption took an unusual form: unlike the voters in most corrupt boroughs, the freemen tried to prevent contested elections, demanding instead that hopeful candidates should buy enough votes to secure a safe majority and avoid the need for a poll. At the elections of 1818 and 1820, the going tariff was 20 guineas for a vote, and the freemen (having two votes each) received 40 guineas for votes they never needed to cast.

But the stability of the system depended on the electors being able to reach a consensus over two candidates who could meet their demands, and a balance had developed whereby the Fitzwilliam interest chose one candidate and the leading members of the Corporation the other. Late in 1825, the prospective Corporation candidate for the next election withdrew through ill health, and Lord Fitzwilliam provocatively brought forward a second candidate of his own. The Corporation found another candidate and secured the support of the Tory Duke of Newcastle. The election of 1826 was fought with no holds barred. Both sides bought up all the votes they could at the usual rate, and several pubs were kept open for months before the election, serving free beer from six in the morning until midnight. The Tory stood on a "no popery" platform, with his supporters openly boycotting tradesmen who opposed them, and election day ended in a riot. The two Fitzwilliam candidates won, but the loser petitioned against the result and the extent of East Retford's corruption was displayed to the world.

Parliament was united in being determined to find a remedy for East Retford's misbehaviour, but less clear as to what the most appropriate remedy would be. In the last years of the 18th century, several other boroughs found guilty of similar offences had been "thrown into the hundred" (had their boundaries extended to include the freeholders from the whole surrounding division of the county, so as to ensure that the corrupt townsmen could no longer sway the vote). But demands for a wider Parliamentary reform and a redistribution of seats to the more populous parts of the country were now widespread, and in the most recent corruption case (that of Grampound), the offending borough had been abolished altogether and its seats transferred elsewhere.

There were therefore vigorous debates as to whether Retford's franchise should not be transferred to one of the larger unrepresented towns such as Manchester or Birmingham. But both the Tory government and Whig opposition were split on the issue - the harder-line anti-Reform Tories did not want to set a precedent for establishing new boroughs, while many of the Whigs were reluctant to weaken the case for wholesale Reform by making piecemeal improvements. Further complications affected both sides: the Whigs were embarrassed because a leading Whig had been implicated in vote-buying; the Tories were aware that throwing the borough into the hundred (or in Retford's case, the Wapentake) might well re-establish the lost influence of the Tory Duke of Newcastle over the constituency.

The people of Retford themselves were by no means unanimous in wanting to retain the franchise. During the House of Lords debates on the Disfranchisement Bill, it emerged that the town had an active committee, led by a couple of attorneys and meeting at the Turk's Head Inn, trying to make the borough seem even more corrupt than it was and ensure its extinction. One of its members was later seen wearing a handsome gold watch, apparently presented in gratitude by well-wishers in Birmingham!

The first compromise reached by the House of Commons was to put East Retford into the Wapentake while transferring the seats of another guilty borough, Penryn, to Manchester, but the latter Bill was defeated in the House of Lords. The question dragged on through the whole of the 1826–30 Parliament, and the Whig amendment to transfer Retford's seats to Birmingham was eventually defeated by 126 votes to 99. The Act that was passed in 1830 therefore reverted to the earlier practice, and the borough's boundaries were extended to encompass the Wapentake of Bassetlaw (which included the whole of the northern end of Nottinghamshire, including the town of Worksop): all those within this area who were qualified to vote in the county elections were given votes for East Retford.

After 1830

This punishment saved East Retford's representation, in name at least. Within a year, Parliament was debating the Great Reform Bill, and the old borough's population was so small that it would have lost one of its seats. But the newly extended borough had a population of more than 37,000, and the Reform Act therefore left it untouched. It had 2,312 registered voters at the first reformed election, and around 7,500 after the second extension of the franchise in 1868. It retained its two members until 1885, when the constituency was replaced by an identically delineated single-member county constituency, Bassetlaw.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1571–1640

ParliamentFirst memberSecond member
1571Henry DraycotThomas Broxholme [1]
1572Job ThrockmortonGeorge Delves [1]
1584 (Nov) – 1587Denzil HollesThomas Waad [1]
1586Denzil HollesJohn Conyers [1]
1588George ChaworthAlexander Radcliffe [1]
1593Roger PortingtonAnthony Cooke [1]
1597Roger PortingtonJohn Roos [1]
1601Roger MannersRobert Kydman [1]
1604Sir John ThornhaghSir Thomas Darrel
1614Sir William CavendishSir Walter Chute
1621Sir Nathaniel RichEdward Wortley
1624John Holles [2]Sir Francis Wortley
1625John, Lord HaughtonSir Francis Wortley
1626John, Lord HaughtonSir Francis Wortley
1628Sir Edward OsborneHenry Stanhope, Lord Stanhope
1629–1639No Parliaments convened

MPs 1640–1885

YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party
April 1640 Sir Gervase Clifton[3] Francis Pierrepont[3]
November 1640 Charles Cavendish[4]Royalist Sir Gervase Clifton[4]Royalist
1644 Mansfield and Clifton disabled from sitting - both seats vacant
1646 Francis ThornhaghParliamentarian Sir William Lister
November 1648 Thornhaugh killed at Battle of Preston - seat vacant
December 1648 Edward Neville Lister excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant
1653 East Retford was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659 Clifford Clifton William Cartwright
May 1659 Edward Neville
1660 Sir William Hickman Wentworth Fitzgerald
1661 Clifford Clifton
1670 Sir Edward Dering
1679 Sir Edward Nevill
1685 John Millington
1689 Hon. Evelyn Pierrepont John Thornhagh
1690 Richard Taylor
1698 Sir Willoughby Hickman
January 1701 Thomas White
April 1701 Sir Willoughby Hickman
December 1701 Thomas White
1702 Sir Willoughby Hickman William Levinz
1706 Sir Hardolph Wastneys Robert Molesworth
1708 William Levinz Thomas White
1710 [5] Thomas Westby
1711 Willoughby Hickman Tory Bryan Cooke
April 1713 Francis Lewis
August 1713 John Digby
1715 Thomas White
1722 Patrick Chaworth
1727 Sir Robert Clifton
1733 John White
1741 William Mellish
1751 John Shelley
1768 Sir Cecil Wray Whig John Offley
1774 Lord Thomas Pelham-Clinton [6]
1775 William Hanger
1778 Lord John Pelham-Clinton
1780 Wharton Amcotts
1781 Thomas Pelham-Clinton
1790 Sir John Ingilby
1794 Lt Colonel William Henry Clinton
1796 William Petrie Sir Wharton Amcotts
1802 Lt Colonel Robert Craufurd John Jaffray
1806 Major General Charles Craufurd Thomas Hughan
1807 William Ingilby
1812 George Osbaldeston Charles Marsh
1818 William Evans Samuel Crompton
1826 [7] William Battie-Wrightson Whig[8] Sir Robert Dundas Whig[8]
1830 Charles Pierrepont Whig[8] Arthur Duncombe Tory[8]
1831 Granville Harcourt-Vernon Whig[8]
1835 Arthur Duncombe Conservative[8]
1837 Conservative[8]
1847 George Monckton-Arundell Conservative
1852 Hon. William Duncombe Conservative
1857 Francis Foljambe Whig[9]
1859 Liberal
1876 by-election William Beckett-Denison Conservative
1880 Frederick Mappin Liberal
1885 Constituency abolished

Notes

  1. "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-09-27.
  2. Bore the courtesy title Lord Haughton from 1624
  3. Willis, Browne (1750). "Short Parliament". 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. pp. 234.
  4. Willis, Browne (1750). "Long Parliament". 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. 247.
  5. At the election of 1710 Westby and White were initially declared elected, but on petition (in a dispute over the franchise) they were both declared not to have been duly elected
  6. Pelham-Clinton was also elected for Westminster, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for East Retford in this Parliament
  7. On petition, the result of the 1826 election was declared void for widespread bribery and corruption, and the writ was suspended. As an eventual result, an Act of Parliament was passed to extend the constituency boundaries to include the Wapentake of Bassetlaw.
  8. Smith, Henry Stooks (1842). The Register of Parliamentary Contested Elections (Second ed.). Simpkin, Marshall & Company. pp. 128–129. Retrieved 5 November 2018 via Google Books.
  9. Mair, Robert Henry, ed. (1872). Debrett's Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons, and the Judicial Bench. London: Bean & Son. p. 90. Retrieved 7 May 2018.

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

General election 1830: East Retford[1][2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Whig Charles Pierrepont 770 37.1
Tory Arthur Duncombe 697 33.5
Whig Granville Harcourt-Vernon 611 29.4
Turnout 1,283 c.64.2
Registered electors c.2,000
Majority 73 3.5
Whig hold Swing
Majority 86 4.1
Tory gain from Whig Swing
General election 1831: East Retford[1][2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Whig Granville Harcourt-Vernon 1,075 40.7 +11.3
Whig Charles Pierrepont 954 36.2 0.9
Tory Arthur Duncombe 610 23.1 10.4
Majority 344 13.0 +9.5
Turnout 1,493 c.74.7 c.+10.5
Registered electors c.2,000
Whig hold Swing +8.3
Whig gain from Tory Swing +2.2
General election 1832: East Retford[1][3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Whig Granville Harcourt-Vernon 1,311 38.2 2.5
Whig Charles Pierrepont 1,153 33.6 2.6
Tory John Beckett 970 28.2 +5.1
Majority 183 5.3 7.7
Turnout 1,980 85.6 c.+10.9
Registered electors 2,312
Whig hold Swing 2.5
Whig hold Swing 2.6
General election 1835: East Retford[1][3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Whig Granville Harcourt-Vernon 1,286 34.7 37.1
Conservative Arthur Duncombe 1,252 33.8 +19.7
Conservative Charles Pelham-Clinton 1,164 31.4 +17.3
Majority 34 0.9 4.4
Turnout 2,199 89.4 +3.8
Registered electors 2,459
Whig hold Swing 37.1
Conservative gain from Whig Swing +19.1
General election 1837: East Retford[1][3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Arthur Duncombe 1,372 34.7 +0.9
Conservative Granville Harcourt-Vernon 1,352 34.2 0.5
Whig William Mason 1,234 31.2 N/A
Majority 118 3.0 N/A
Turnout 2,259 84.3 5.1
Registered electors 2,680
Conservative hold
Conservative gain from Whig

Elections in the 1840s

General election 1841: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Arthur Duncombe Unopposed
Conservative Granville Harcourt-Vernon Unopposed
Registered electors 2,785
Conservative hold
Conservative hold

Duncombe was appointed a Groom in Waiting to Queen Victoria, causing a by-election.

By-election, 2 October 1841: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Arthur Duncombe Unopposed
Conservative hold
General election 1847: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Arthur Duncombe Unopposed
Conservative George Monckton-Arundell Unopposed
Registered electors 2,654
Conservative hold
Conservative hold

Elections in the 1850s

Duncombe resigned to contest the 1852 by-election in East Riding of Yorkshire, causing a by-election.

By-election, 11 February 1852: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative William Duncombe Unopposed
Conservative hold

Monckton-Arundell was appointed a Lord in Waiting to Queen Victoria, requiring a by-election.

By-election, 19 March 1852: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative George Monckton-Arundell Unopposed
Conservative hold
General election 1852: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative William Duncombe Unopposed
Conservative George Monckton-Arundell Unopposed
Registered electors 2,710
Conservative hold
Conservative hold
General election 1857: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Whig Francis Foljambe Unopposed
Conservative George Monckton-Arundell Unopposed
Registered electors 2,646
Whig gain from Conservative
Conservative hold
General election 1859: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Francis Foljambe Unopposed
Conservative George Monckton-Arundell Unopposed
Registered electors 2,621
Liberal hold
Conservative hold

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1865: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Francis Foljambe Unopposed
Conservative George Monckton-Arundell Unopposed
Registered electors 2,489
Liberal hold
Conservative hold
General election 1868: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Francis Foljambe Unopposed
Conservative George Monckton-Arundell Unopposed
Registered electors 7,510
Liberal hold
Conservative hold

Elections in the 1870s

General election 1874: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Francis Foljambe Unopposed
Conservative George Monckton-Arundell Unopposed
Registered electors 7,768
Liberal hold
Conservative hold

Monckton-Arundell's death caused a by-election.

By-election, 25 Feb 1876: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative William Beckett-Denison 3,538 51.4 N/A
Liberal Henry Fox Bristowe[4] 3,351 48.6 N/A
Majority 187 2.7 N/A
Turnout 6,889 84.7 N/A
Registered electors 8,131
Conservative hold

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: East Retford[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Francis Foljambe 4,333 30.4 N/A
Liberal Frederick Mappin 4,134 29.0 N/A
Conservative William Beckett-Denison 3,021 21.2 N/A
Conservative Henry Eyre[5] 2,776 19.5 N/A
Majority 1,113 7.8 N/A
Turnout 7,132 (est.) 86.2 (est.) N/A
Registered electors 8,278
Liberal hold Swing N/A
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing N/A

References

  1. Smith, Henry Stooks (1842). The Register of Parliamentary Contested Elections (Second ed.). Simpkin, Marshall & Company. pp. 128–129. Retrieved 5 November 2018 via Google Books.
  2. Harratt, Simon; Farrell, Stephen. "East Retford". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
  3. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) |format= requires |url= (help) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
  4. "Retford Election". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 19 February 1876. p. 3. Retrieved 29 December 2017 via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. "To the Electors of East Retford and the Hundred of Bassetlaw". Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 18 March 1880. p. 5. Retrieved 19 December 2017 via British Newspaper Archive.
  • 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)
  • John Cannon, Parliamentary Reform 1640-1832 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972)
  • "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)
  • 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)
  • 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 II (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
  • Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "E" (part 1)


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