Orford (UK Parliament constituency)

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 block vote version of the first past the post system of election until it was disenfranchised in 1832.

Orford
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
1529–1832
Number of membersTwo
Replaced byEast Suffolk

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

ParliamentFirst memberSecond member
1510–1515No names known[1]
1523John Valentine?[1]
1529Erasmus PastonRichard Hunt[1]
1536?Richard Poty?John Harman[1]
1539?Richard Poty?John Harman[1]
1542John Cook?Richard Poty[1]
1545John HarmanFrancis Sone[1]
1547George HeneageJohn Harman[1]
1553 (Mar)William HoningHenry Cornwallis[1]
1553 (Oct)George JerninghamThomas Harvey[1]
1554 (Apr)?
1554 (Nov)John HarmanLeonard Sandell[1]
1555Thomas SeckfordThomas Spicer[1]
1558Francis SoneThomas Seckford[1]
1558/9Richard WingfieldFrancis Sone[2]
1562/3Lawrence MeresWilliam Yaxley[2]
1571 (Mar)Anthony WingfieldAnthony Rush[2]
1572Anthony WingfieldAnthony Rush[2]
1584 (Nov)Henry WingfieldJohn Cutting[2]
1586 (Oct)Richard WingfieldWilliam Downing[2]
1588 (Oct)Richard WingfieldGeorge Chittinge[2]
1593Edward GrimstonJohn North[2]
1597 (Sep)Thomas RivettWilliam Forthe[2]
1601 (Oct)Sir John TownshendSir Richard Knightley[2]
1604Michael StanhopeWilliam Cornwallis[3]
1614William CornwallisSir Francis Baildon
1621–1622Sir Lionel TollemacheSir Roger Townshend
1624Sir Robert HitchamWilliam Glover
1625Sir Robert HitchamSir William Whitepole
1626Sir Robert HitchamCharles Croft
1628Sir Charles LegrossSir Lionel Tollemache
1629–1640No Parliaments summoned
1640 AprSir Charles le GrosseSir Edward Duke
1640 NovSir William Playters, 2nd BaronetSir Charles Legross
1645Sir William Playters, 2nd BaronetSir Charles Legross
1648–1659Not represented in Rump, Barebones and First and Second Protectorate Parliaments
1659Thomas EdgerJeremy Copping

MPs 1660–1832

YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party
1660 Walter Devereux Sir Allen Brodrick
1661 Walter Devereux Sir Allen Brodrick
Feb. 1679 Lord Huntingtower Sir John Duke
Sept. 1679 Henry Parker
1681 Thomas Glemham
1685 Lord Huntingtower
1689 Sir John Duke
1690 Sir Thomas Felton[4]
1695 Sir Adam Felton
1697 Sir John Duke
1698 Sir Charles Hedges
1700 Sir Edmund Bacon William Johnson
1701 Sir Edward Turnor
1708 Clement Corrance
1709 William Thompson
1710 Sir Edward Turnor
1721 Sir Edward DukeTory
1722 Dudley NorthTory William ActonTory
1727 Hon. Price DevereuxTory
1729 William ActonTory
1730 Robert KempTory
1734 Richard Powys Lewis Barlow
1738 John Cope
1741 Viscount Glenorchy Henry Bilson-Legge
1746 Hon. John Bateman
1747 Hon. John Waldegrave
1754 John OffleyWhig
1759 Hon. Charles FitzRoyWhig
1761 Thomas WorsleyWhig
1768 Viscount Beauchamp[5] Edward Colman
1771 Hon. Robert Seymour-Conway
1784 Hon. George Seymour-Conway
1790 Hon. William Seymour
1794 Lord Robert SeymourTory
1796 Viscount CastlereaghTory
1797 Earl of YarmouthTory
1802 James TrailTory
1806 Lord Henry MooreTory
1807 William SloaneTory
1812 Charles ArbuthnotTory Edmund Alexander MacnaghtenTory
1818 John DouglasTory
March 1820 Horace Seymour[6]Tory
May 1820 Edmund Alexander MacnaghtenTory
1821 The Marquess of LondonderryTory
1822 Charles RossTory
June 1826 Sir Henry CookeTory Horace Seymour[7]Tory
December 1826 Quintin DickTory
1830 Spencer KilderbeeTory
1832 Constituency abolished

Notes

  1. "History of Parliament". Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  2. "History of Parliament". Retrieved 1 October 2011.
  3. 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.)
  4. Succeeded to a baronetcy as Sir Thomas Felton, 1697
  5. Beauchamp was styled Earl of Yarmouth from June 1793
  6. Seymour was also elected for Lisburn, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Orford
  7. Seymour was also elected for Bodmin, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Orford

References

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