| Bletchingley | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1295 |
| Abolished: | 1832 |
| Type: | Borough |
| Elects Howmany: | Two |
| Region: | England |
| Towns: | Bletchingley |
Bletchingley was a parliamentary borough in Surrey. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of England from 1295 to 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act.
Elections were held using the bloc vote system.
The constituency was just 3 miles south-east of the similar rotten borough of Gatton.
Bletchingley was one of the original boroughs enfranchised in the Model Parliament, and kept its status until the Reform Act. The borough consisted of the former market town of Bletchingley in Surrey, which by the 19th century had shrunk to a village. In 1831, the population of the borough was 513, and it contained only 85 houses. It was a burgage borough: the right to vote was exercised by the owners or resident tenants of the 130 "burgage tenements". No doubt at some point in history these were simply the inhabited houses of the town, but it was already an artificial franchise by the time it was disputed before the House of Commons in 1624, when it was settled that Bletchingley's burgage holders should keep the vote as they had "time out of mind". By the 19th century of course, with more burgages in the borough than houses, the notion of its being a residential franchise was no more than a legal fiction.
Like other burgage boroughs, Bletchingley quickly fell into the hands of a single landowner who thereby had the safest of pocket boroughs. It was once the property of Henry VIII's rejected Queen, Anne of Cleves. From her it passed to Sir Thomas Cawarden, the Master of the Revels, and from his heir to Lord Howard of Effingham, father of the future conqueror of the Spanish Armada, in about 1560. It then remained in Howard hands for more than half a century, one of several boroughs controlled by that powerful family.
However, the 1624 dispute occurred when the voters daringly defied Lady Howard, and it may not have been entirely secure for any single "patron" for the rest of the century. By 1700, there were two rival influences: the Evelyns of Godstone, who had succeeded in holding one of the seats for much of the preceding sixty years, and Sir Robert Clayton, a London banker who was said to be the wealthiest commoner in England, and who was now Lord of the Manor. Neither held a majority of the burgages, and there were still a fair number of independent voters. For some years, Evelyn and Clayton had to be content with choosing one MP each, and even then had to face some tightly contested votes, but after the accession of George I (1714), Clayton's nephew and heir, William Clayton, managed to accumulate enough of the burgages in his own hands to squeeze out the Evelyn influence and eventually make his hold absolutely watertight. Since the importance of a man with the absolute power to nominate two Members of Parliament was not underestimated by 18th century governments, he quickly found himself dignified with a baronetcy.
Parliamentary elections were held from 1733 in what is now the White Hart inn: a book in 1844 notes this and that eight to ten people voted, as well as a sale of the manor for £60,000 in 1816.[1]
The Claytons retained Bletchingley until 1779. In that year, short of money and with talk of parliamentary reform in the air, Sir Robert Clayton decided to realise the asset while it still had a value, and sold the reversion of his property at Bletchingley (which by now included all the burgages) to his cousin, John Kenrick, for £10,000. Once the prospect of parliamentary reform had receded for the time being, Clayton repented of his bargain and filed an action in Chancery against Kenrick, claiming that he had been "imposed upon" and had been paid quite an inadequate amount; but the court sympathised with Kenrick, and dismissed the action with costs.
In 1816 (see above), Kenrick's son later sold the rights to William Russell for £60,000; and his grandson William Russell made seats available to some of the rising stars of the Whig party. They included two future Prime Ministers: Hon. William Lamb (Prime Minister as Lord Melbourne) and Lord Palmerston.
Bletchingley was abolished as a constituency by the Reform Act. From then on, the village was included in the Eastern division of Surrey.
| Parliament | First member | Second member |
|---|---|---|
| 1386 | William Bart | John atte Wyke[2] |
| 1388 (Feb) | Robert Nafferton | William Nightingale |
| 1388 (Sep) | William Hart | Henry atte Stone I |
| 1390 (Jan) | John Deubeneye | William Nightingale |
| 1390 (Nov) | ||
| 1391 | ||
| 1393 | William Hart | Richard Turner |
| 1394 | ||
| 1395 | William Hart | William Tanner |
| 1397 (Jan) | William Hart | Richard Turner |
| 1397 (Sep) | John Deubeneye | Thomas atte Helde |
| 1399 | John Deubeneye | Thomas atte Helde |
| 1401 | ||
| 1402 | William Hart | John Modys |
| 1404 (Jan) | ||
| 1404 (Oct) | ||
| 1407 | ||
| 1410 | ||
| 1411 | ||
| 1413 (Feb) | ||
| 1413 (May) | ||
| 1414 (Apr) | ||
| 1414 (Nov) | William Hart | Roger Eylove |
| 1415 | William Hart | John Modys |
| 1416 (Mar) | Roger Eylove | John Modys |
| 1416 (Oct) | ||
| 1417 | William Hart | Robert Axi |
| 1419 | Roger -? | John -? |
| 1420 | ||
| 1421 (May) | Walter atte Berne | John Knoller |
| 1421 (Dec) | Henry Brampton | Henry atte Stone II |
| 1422 | Thomas Eylove[3] | |
| 1472 | Henry Winter | |
| 1491 | William Fisher | Thomas Garth[4] |
| 1510-1523 | No names known[5] | |
| 1529 | Nicholas Leigh | John St John |
| 1536 | ? | |
| 1539 | ? | |
| 1542 | Thomas Cawarden | William Sackville |
| 1545 | ? | |
| 1547 | Sir Thomas Cawarden, sat for Surrey replaced by Jan 1552 by Henry Polsted | John Cheke |
| 1553 (Mar) | Sir John Cheke | Sir Maurice Berkeley |
| 1553 (Oct) | Henry Polsted | Matthew Colthurst |
| 1554 (Apr) | John Harman | Nicholas Saunders |
| 1554 (Nov) | Humphrey Cholmley | Robert Freeman |
| 1555 | John Vaughan | William Smethwick |
| 1558 | Bertram Calthorpe | Roger Alford |
| 1558–9 | John Brace | William Porter[6] |
| 1562–3 | John Coker | John Elsedon |
| 1571 | Roeland Maynard | Richard Bostock |
| 1572 | Thomas Browne | Henry Kenrick, died and replaced Nov 1579 by Richard Bostock |
| 1584 | Richard Bostock | John Cox |
| 1586 | Sir Thomas Browne | John Cox |
| 1588 | Richard Bostock | John Cox |
| 1593 | Julius Caesar | Stephen Riddlesden |
| 1597 | Lord Howard of Effingham, sat for Surrey replaced by Sir Richard Trevor | John Trevor |
| 1601 | John Turner | Bostock Fuller |
| 1604 | Sir John Trevor | Richard Bellingham died and replaced by Sir Charles Howard |
| 1614 | Sir John Trevor | Sir Charles Howard |
| 1621-1622 | John Hayward | Henry Lovell |
| 1624 | Sir Miles Fleetwood sat for Launceston, replaced by Edward Bysshe the elder | John Hayward |
| 1625 | Edward Bysshe the elder | Thomas Gresham |
| 1626 | Edward Bysshe the elder | Henry Lovell |
| 1628 | Sir Edward Bishopp, 2nd Baronet | John Evelyn, senior |
| 1629–1640 | No Parliaments summoned |
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1640 | Edmiund Hoskins | Edward Bysshe the elder | |||||
| November 1640 | John Evelyn, senior | Edward Bysshe the younger | |||||
| December 1648 | Evelyn and Bysshe excluded in Pride's Purge: both seats vacant | ||||||
| 1653 | Bletchingley was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate. | ||||||
| John Goodwin | Edmund Hoskins | ||||||
| May 1659 | Not represented in the restored Rump | ||||||
| April 1660 | John Evelyn, senior | John Goodwin | |||||
| 1661 | Sir William Hawarde | Edward Bysshe | |||||
| February 1679 | George Evelyn | < | -- party --> | Edward Harvey | |||
| October 1679 | John Morris | ||||||
| 1681 | Sir William Goulston | ||||||
| 1685 | Ambrose Browne | Sir Marmaduke Gresham | |||||
| January 1689 | Thomas Howard | < | -- party --> | John Glyd | |||
| December 1689 | Jeffrey Amherst | ||||||
| 1690 | Sir Robert Clayton | Whig | |||||
| 1695 | Maurice Thompson | ||||||
| 1698 | Hugh Hare | Sir Robert Clayton | Whig | ||||
| 1701 | Sir Edward Gresham | John Ward | < | -- party --> | |||
| July 1702 | John Evelyn | ||||||
| December 1702 | Sir Robert Clayton | Whig | |||||
| 1705 | George Evelyn | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1708 | Thomas Onslow | ||||||
| 1715 | (Sir) William Clayton[7] | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1724 | Henry Herbert | ||||||
| 1727 | Sir Orlando Bridgeman | Whig | |||||
| 1734 | (Sir) Kenrick Clayton[8] | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1745 | William Clayton | ||||||
| 1761 | (Sir) Charles Whitworth[9] | ||||||
| 1768 | (Sir) Robert Clayton | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1769 | Frederick Standert | ||||||
| 1780 | John Kenrick | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1783 | John Nicholls | ||||||
| 1787 | (Sir) Robert Clayton | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1790 | Philip Francis | ||||||
| 1796 | Sir Lionel Copley[10] | John Stein | < | -- party --> | |||
| 1797 | Benjamin Hobhouse | ||||||
| 1802 | James Milnes | John Benn Walsh | < | -- party --> | |||
| 1805 | Nicholas Ridley-Colborne | ||||||
| 1806 | Josias du Pre Porcher | William Kenrick | < | -- party --> | |||
| January 1807 | John Alexander Bannerman | ||||||
| May 1807 | Thomas Freeman-Heathcote | ||||||
| 1809 | Charles Cockerell | ||||||
| October 1812 | Sir Charles Talbot | ||||||
| December 1812 | Robert Newman | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1814 | John Bolland | ||||||
| 1818 | Matthew Russell | Whig | George Tennyson | Whig | |||
| February 1819 | Sir William Curtis | Tory | |||||
| February 1819 | Marquess of Titchfield | Whig | |||||
| 1820 | Edward Henry Edwardes | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1822 | Lord Francis Leveson-Gower | Tory | |||||
| 1826 | William Russell | Whig | Charles Tennyson | Whig | |||
| 1827 | Hon. William Lamb | Whig | |||||
| 1828 | William Ewart | Whig[11] | |||||
| 1830 | Robert William Mills | Whig[12] | |||||
| February 1831 | Sir William Horne | Whig[13] | |||||
| April 1831 | Hon. John Ponsonby | Whig[14] | |||||
| July 1831 | Thomas Hyde Villiers | Whig[15] | Viscount Palmerston | Whig | |||
| 1832 | Constituency abolished | ||||||