| Flint Boroughs | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1542 |
| Abolished: | 1918 |
| Type: | District of Boroughs |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
| Region: | Wales |
| County: | Flintshire |
Flint Boroughs (sometimes known as Flint or the Flint District of Boroughs) was a parliamentary constituency in north-east Wales which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessors, from 1542 until it was abolished for the 1918 general election.
From its first known general election in 1542 until 1918, the constituency consisted of a number of boroughs within the historic county of Flintshire in north-east Wales. The seat should not be confused with the county constituency of Flintshire, which existed from the 16th century until 1950.
After 1918 Flintshire was represented in Parliament by the single member county constituency, which included all the boroughs formerly in the Flint District of Boroughs.
On the basis of information from several volumes of the History of Parliament, it is apparent that the history of the borough representation of Wales and Monmouthshire is more complicated than that of the English boroughs.
The Laws in Wales Act 1535 (26 Hen. 8. c. 26) provided for a single borough seat for each of 11 of the 12 Welsh counties and Monmouthshire. The legislation was ambiguous as to which communities were enfranchised. The county towns were awarded a seat, but these seats in some way represented all the ancient boroughs of the county, as the boroughs other than county towns were also required to contribute to the members' wages. It is not clear whether the burgesses of the contributing boroughs could vote in the election. The only election under the original scheme was that for the 1542 parliament. It seems that only burgesses from the county towns actually took part. The Parliament Act 1543 (35 Hen. 8. c. 11) confirmed that the contributing boroughs could send representatives to take part in the election at the county town. As far as can be told from surviving indentures of returns, the degree to which the out boroughs participated varied, but by the end of the 16th century all the seats had some participation from them at some elections at least.
The original scheme was modified by later legislation and decisions of the House of Commons (which were sometimes made with no regard to precedent or evidence: for example in 1728 it was decided that only the freemen of the borough of Montgomery could participate in the election for that seat, thus disenfranchising the freemen of Llanidloes, Welshpool and Llanfyllin).
In the case of Flintshire, the county town was Flint. The out boroughs were Caergwrle, Caerwys, Overton and Rhuddlan.
In 1690–1715 the freemen of the five boroughs were entitled to vote. The exact number is unknown, but in the only poll of the period (a by-election in 1697) there were 760 voters.
Between 1715 and 1754 the House of Commons changed the franchise of the constituency. In 1727 there were about 1000 freemen entitled to vote. Thereafter the inhabitants of the five boroughs, paying scot and lot (a local tax), formed the electorate. They numbered about 600.
From 1754 to 1790, there were still about 600 voters. Namier and Brooke point out that the constituency was controlled by local squires. No election went to a poll in that period.
The Flint Boroughs was a district of boroughs constituency, which grouped a number of parliamentary boroughs in Flintshire into one single member constituency. The voters from each participating borough cast ballots, which were added together over the whole district to decide the result of the poll. The enfranchised communities in this district, from 1832, were the eight boroughs of Flint, Caergwrle, Caerwys, Holywell, Mold, Overton, Rhuddlan and St Asaph.
The boundaries of the parliamentary boroughs in the district were altered by the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1868, but the general nature of the constituency was unchanged. There were no further boundary changes in the 1885 redistribution of parliamentary seats.
As there were sometimes significant gaps between Parliaments held in this period, the dates of first assembly and dissolution are given. Where the name of the member has not yet been ascertained or is not recorded in a surviving document, the entry unknown is entered in the table.
| Elected | Assembled | Dissolved | Member | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1542 | 16 January 1542 | 28 March 1544 | unknown | ||
| 1545 | 23 November 1545 | 31 January 1547 | |||
| 1547 | 4 November 1547 | 15 April 1552 | |||
| 1553 | 1 March 1553 | 31 March 1553 | |||
| 1553 | 5 October 1553 | 5 December 1553 | Edward Stanley | ||
| 1554 | 2 April 1554 | 3 May 1554 | |||
| 1554 | 12 November 1554 | 16 January 1555 | |||
| 1555 | 21 October 1555 | 9 December 1555 | |||
| 1558 | 20 January 1558 | 17 November 1558 | |||
| 1559 | 23 January 1559 | 8 May 1559 | John Hanmer[1] | ||
| 1562–3 | 11 January 1563 | 2 January 1567 | |||
| 1571 | 2 April 1571 | 29 May 1571 | John Hanmer | ||
| 1572 | 8 May 1572 | 19 April 1583 | |||
| 1584 | 23 November 1584 | 14 September 1585 | |||
| 1586 | 13 October 1586 | 23 March 1587 | |||
| 1588 | 4 February 1589 | 29 March 1589 | John Edwards | ||
| 1593 | 18 February 1593 | 10 April 1593 | Thomas Griffith | ||
| 1597 | 24 October 1597 | 9 February 1598 | |||
| 1601 | 27 October 1601 | 19 December 1601 | John Price | ||
| 1604 | 19 March 1604 | 9 February 1611 | Roger Brereton | ||
| 1614 | 5 April 1614 | 7 June 1614 | |||
| 1620 | 16 January 1621 | 8 February 1622 | |||
| 1624 | 12 February 1624 | 27 March 1625 | William Ravenscroft | ||
| 1625 | 17 May 1625 | 12 August 1625 | |||
| 1626 | 6 February 1626 | 15 June 1626 | |||
| 1628 | 17 March 1628 | 10 March 1629 | |||
| 1640 | 13 April 1640 | 5 May 1640 |
This sub-section includes the Long Parliament and the Rump Parliament, together with the Parliaments of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate (before the Convention Parliament of 1660).
| Elected | Assembled | Dissolved | Member | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1640 | 3 November 1640 | 5 December 1648 | John Salusbury Disabled 1643 Thomas Myddelton 1646–1648 | Long Parliament |
| ... | 6 December 1648 | 20 April 1653 | unrepresented | Rump Parliament |
| ... | 4 July 1653 | 12 December 1653 | unrepresented | Barebones Parliament |
| 1654 | 3 September 1654 | 22 January 1655 | unrepresented | First Protectorate Parliament |
| 1656 | 17 September 1656 | 4 February 1658 | unrepresented | Second Protectorate Parliament |
| 1658–59 | 27 January 1659 | 22 April 1659 | Third Protectorate Parliament | |
| ... | 7 May 1659 | 20 February 1660 | unrepresented | Rump Parliament restored |
| ... | 21 February 1660 | 16 March 1660 | unknown | Long Parliament restored |
| First Election | Member | Party | Note | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1660, 12 November | Roger Whitley | ||||
| 1681, 7 March | Thomas Whitley | ||||
| 1685, 3 April | Sir John Hanmer, Bt | ||||
| 1690, 17 March | Thomas Whitley | Whig | |||
| 1695, 28 October | Sir Roger Puleston | Whig | Died 28 February 1697 | ||
| 1697, 8 April | Thomas Ravenscroft | Whig | Died 3 May 1698 | ||
| 1698, 13 August | Thomas Mostyn | Tory | |||
| 1701, 13 December | Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bt | Tory | Elected to sit for Thetford | ||
| 1702, 2 February | Sir John Conway, Bt | Tory | |||
| 1702, 1 August | Sir Roger Mostyn, Bt | Tory | Elected to sit for Cheshire | ||
| 1702, 2 December | Thomas Mostyn | Tory | |||
| 1705, 29 May | Tory | ||||
| 1708, 20 May | Sir John Conway, Bt | Tory | |||
| 1713, 21 September | Sir Roger Mostyn, Bt | Tory | |||
| 1715, 18 February | Sir John Conway, Bt | Died 27 April 1721 | |||
| 1721, 10 June | Thomas Eyton | ||||
| 1727, 31 August | Salusbury Lloyd | A double return. The House of Commons seated Lloyd. | |||
| 1734, 16 May | Sir George Wynne, Bt | Unseated on petition | |||
| 1742, 22 March | Richard Williams | Declared duly elected, on petition | |||
| 1747, 3 July | Kyffin Williams | Died 30 October 1753 | |||
| 1753, 28 November | Sir John Glynne, Bt | Died 1 June 1777 | |||
| 1777, 26 June | Watkin Williams | ||||
| 1806, 11 November | Sir Edward Lloyd, Bt | ||||
| 1807, 27 May | William Shipley | ||||
| 1812, 10 October | Sir Edward Lloyd, Bt | Whig[2] | Created the Lord Mostyn 1831 | ||
| 1831, 22 September | Henry Glynne | Whig | Resigned | ||
| 1832, 25 February | Sir Stephen Glynne, Bt | Whig | |||
| 1835 | Conservative[3] [4] | ||||
| 1837, 1 August | Charles Whitley Deans Dundas | Whig[5] | |||
| 1841, 30 June | Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, Bt | Whig[6] [7] | |||
| 1847, 31 July | Sir John Hanmer, Bt | Peelite[8] [9] [10] [11] | |||
| 1859 | Liberal | Created the Lord Hanmer 1872 | |||
| 1872, 16 October | |||||
| 1874, 6 February | P. Ellis Eyton | Died 19 June 1878 | |||
| 1878, 5 July | |||||
| 1892, July | Herbert Lewis | ||||
| 1906, 20 January | Howell Idris | ||||
| 1910, 19 January | James Woolley Summers | Died 1 January 1913 | |||
| 1913, 21 January | |||||
| 1918 | Constituency abolished | ||||
Supplemental Notes:-
Sources 1690–1715: Cruickshanks et al.; 1715–1754: Stooks Smith; 1754–1784: Namier and Brooke; 1784–1832 Stooks Smith. Positive swing is from Whig to Tory.Source 1832–1918: Craig. Positive swing is from Liberal to Conservative.
Lloyd was elevated to the peerage, becoming 1st Baron Mostyn and causing a by-election.
Glynne resigned, causing a by-election.
Hanmer was raised to the peerage, becoming Lord Hanmer.
Eyton's death caused a by-election.
General Election 1914–15:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;