| Midhurst | |
| Type: | Borough |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1311 |
| Abolished: | 1885 |
| Elects Howmany: | two (1311–1832); one (1832–1885) |
| Next: | Horsham |
Midhurst was a parliamentary borough in Sussex, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1311 until 1832, and then one member from 1832 until 1885, when the constituency was abolished. Before the Great Reform Act of 1832, it was one of the most notorious of England's rotten boroughs.
From its foundation in the 14th century until 1832, the borough consisted of part of the parish of Midhurst, a small market town in Sussex. Much of the town as it existed by the 19th century was outside this ancient boundary, but the boundary was in any case academic since the townsfolk had no votes. As a contemporary, writer, Sir George Trevelyan explained in writing about the general election of 1768,[1]
the right of election rested in a few small holdings, on which no human being resided, distinguished among the pastures and the stubble that surrounded them by a large stone set up on end in the middle of each portion.
No doubt these "burgage tenements" had once included houses, but long before the 19th century it was notorious that several of them consisted solely of the marker stones, set in the wall of the landowner's estate. Even compared with most of the other burgage boroughs this was an extreme situation, and during the parliamentary debates on the Reform Bills in 1831 and 1832 the reformers made much play of Midhurst's "niches in a wall" as an example of the abuses they wished to correct.
The natural result of a burgage franchise was to encourage some local landowner to attempt to buy up a majority of the tenements, thereby ensuring absolute control of the choice of both of the members of Parliament, and this happened at an early stage in many other burgage boroughs. In Midhurst, however, there was still no single proprietor by the middle of the 18th century. The most influential figure was The Viscount Montagu, who in 1754 claimed to own 104 burgages, but Sir John Peachey owned 40 and there were more than 70 independent burgage holders. Montagu could usually control matters since he could count on the support of at least half of the independent voters, but for many years there had been an agreement not to force matters, and the Peacheys were allowed one of the two seats.
However, after 1754 Montagu began to buy up the independent burgages; meanwhile Peachey sold his property in the borough to Sir William Peere Williams, who in his turn also tried to increase his holding. At the general election of 1761, the two proprietors seem to have been unsure which would prove to have a majority, and both the Prime Minister and opposition leaders were drawn into the negotiations before a compromise could be reached to avoid a contest. However, when Williams was killed during the capture of Belle Île later the same year, his burgages seem to have been bought by Montagu, who thereafter had a clear field. In 1832 there were still said to be 148 burgage tenements, but only 41 qualified electors, of whom no more than 20 voted. Midhurst was now an undisputed pocket borough: its elections consisted, as Trevelyan related of 1768, in a legal fiction:,[1]
Viscount Montagu ... when an election was in prospect, assigned a few of [the burgage tenements] to his servants, with instructions to nominate the members and then make back the property to their employer.
In fact, by 1761, Montagu's political affairs were being directed by his son, Anthony Browne, who put the borough's seats at the disposal of his parliamentary leader, Lord Holland – Holland used one of them to bring his son, Charles James Fox, into Parliament even though underage. But Holland died before the 1774 election, and Browne (by now the 7th Viscount Montagu) being short of money sold the nomination for both seats to the Treasury in return for a government pension.
After the 7th Viscount's death in 1787, the Montagu property in the borough was sold to the Earl of Egremont for £40,000. The earl used the seat to return two of his younger brothers, Percy and Charles William to the Commons, with Charles only serving one parliament for Midhurst.[2] Egremont in turn sold it to Lord Carrington, who used it more often than not to provide a parliamentary seat for one of his many brothers or nephews.
In 1831, the population of the borough was 1,478, and the first draft of the Reform Bill proposed to abolish it altogether. But after argument the government recognised that it was possible to make a more respectably-sized constituency by expanding the boundaries to bring in the whole of the town and some neighbouring parishes, and Midhurst was reprieved. The expanded borough consisted of the whole of nine parishes and part of ten others, and had a population of 5,627. Nevertheless, Midhurst was permitted to keep only one of its two seats. Under the reformed franchise, its electorate at the election of 1832 was 252; but this was not sufficient to lead to more competitive elections, since the MP was returned unopposed at every election between 1832 and 1868.
Midhurst was eventually abolished as a separate constituency in the boundary changes of 1885, the town being included from that date in the North Western (or Horsham) county division.
| Parliament | First member | Second member | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1386 | Henry Exton | Thomas Smith[3] | |
| 1388 (Feb) | Richard Hobekyn | Robert Hynkele | |
| 1388 (Sep) | William Baggele | John Sarceller | |
| 1390 (Jan) | Richard Hobekyn | John Mory | |
| 1390 (Nov) | |||
| 1391 | |||
| 1393 | Thomas Clerk | John G(renettour?) | |
| 1394 | |||
| 1395 | John Grenettour | Robert atte Rode | |
| 1397 (Jan) | William atte Barre | John Grenettour | |
| 1397 (Sep) | William Baggele | Thomas Sarceller | |
| 1399 | Michael Baggele | John Rombald | |
| 1401 | Gregory Fuller | Robert Pechard | |
| 1402 | Robert Cooper | John Ive II | |
| 1404 (Jan) | John Symkyn | Thomas Westlond | |
| 1404 (Oct) | |||
| 1406 | William Brereton | John Stapleton I | |
| 1407 | Thomas Lucas | John Puckepole | |
| 1410 | |||
| 1411 | |||
| 1413 (Feb) | |||
| 1413 (May) | John Vincent | Thomas Walsh | |
| 1414 (Apr) | |||
| 1414 (Nov) | John Walsh | John Rombald | |
| 1415 | John Ive II | John Sewall | |
| 1416 (Mar) | John Mousehole | John Sewall | |
| 1416 (Oct) | |||
| 1417 | William Chyngford | Gregory Tanner | |
| 1419 | Walter Lucas | Thomas Russell | |
| 1420 | Michael Maunser | Gregory Pedlyng | |
| 1421 (May) | William Brereton | William Chyngford | |
| 1421 (Dec) | William Brereton | Simon Lopeshurst | |
| 1425 | John Sewall | ? Westlond | |
| 1426 | |||
| 1510–1523 | No names known[4] | ||
| 1529 | George Gifford | John Bassett | |
| 1536 | ? | ||
| 1539 | ? | ||
| 1542 | Nicholas Dering | John Bourne | |
| 1545 | ? | ||
| 1547 | Edmund Ford | William Wightman | |
| 1553 (Mar) | John Fitzwilliam | William Denton | |
| 1553 (Oct) | Sir Thomas Lovell | William Denton | |
| 1554 (Apr) | Michael Wentworth | William Denton | |
| 1554 (Nov) | Thomas Harvey | William Denton | |
| 1555 | William Denton | Henry Heighes | |
| 1558 | Thomas Harvey | ||
| 1558–9 | William Denton | Henry Heighes[5] | |
| 1562–3 | Edward Banester | William Denton, died and replaced 1566 by John Fenner | |
| 1571 | Thomas Bowyer | Richard Porter | |
| 1572 | Thomas Holcroft | Thomas Bowyer | |
| 1584 | Edward More | Thomas Churcher | |
| 1586 | Thomas Lewknor | Thomas Churcher | |
| 1588–9 | Samuel Foxe | Thomas Churcher | |
| 1593 | John Boys | Thomas Churcher | |
| 1597 | Lewis Lewknor | James Smyth | |
| 1601 | Richard Browne | Michael Haydon | |
| 1604–1611 | Francis Neville | Sir Richard Weston | |
| 1614 | William Courteman | ||
| 1621–1622 | Richard Lewknor | ||
| 1624 | Sir Anthony Manie | Richard Lewknor | |
| 1625 | Richard Lewknor | Samuel Owfield | |
| 1626 | Sir Henry Spiller | ||
| 1628 | Christopher Lewknor | Edward Savage | |
| 1629–1640 | No Parliaments summoned | ||
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1640 | Robert Long | ||||||
| November 1640 | Dr Chaworth [6] | ||||||
| February 1641 | William Cawley | ||||||
| November 1642 | May disabled from sitting – seat vacant | ||||||
| 1645 | Sir Gregory Norton | ||||||
| 1653 | Midhurst was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | ||||||
| William Yalden | Benjamin Weston | ||||||
| May 1659 | William Cawley | One seat vacant | |||||
| April 1660 | William Willoughby | John Steward | |||||
| March 1661 | John Lewknor | < | -- party --> | Adam Browne | |||
| May 1661 | John Steward | < | -- party --> | ||||
| January 1670 | Baptist May | ||||||
| February 1679 | William Morley | John Alford | < | -- party --> | |||
| October 1679 | John Lewknor | ||||||
| 1681 | William Montagu | John Cooke | |||||
| 1685 | William Morley | John Lewknor | < | -- party --> | |||
| 1701 | Lawrence Alcock | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1705 | Robert Orme[7] | ||||||
| 1709 | Thomas Meredyth | ||||||
| 1710 | Robert Orme | ||||||
| 1711 | John Pratt | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1713 | William Woodward Knight | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1715 | John Fortescue Aland | ||||||
| 1717 | Alan Brodrick | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1721 | Sir Richard Mill, Bt | ||||||
| 1722 | Bulstrode Knight | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1729 | Sir Richard Mill, Bt | ||||||
| 1734 | (Sir) Thomas Bootle | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1736 | Sir Henry Peachey, Bt | ||||||
| 1738 | Sir John Peachey, Bt | ||||||
| 1744 | Sir John Peachey, Bt | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1754 | John Sargent | ||||||
| 1761 | William Hamilton | John Burgoyne | < | -- party --> | |||
| 1765 | Bamber Gascoyne | ||||||
| 1768 | Lord Stavordale | Hon. Charles James Fox | Whig | ||||
| October 1774 | Herbert Mackworth[8] | Clement Tudway[9] | |||||
| December 1774 | Hon. Henry Seymour-Conway | John Ord | |||||
| September 1780 | Hon. John St John[10] | Hon. Henry Drummond | < | -- party --> | |||
| November 1780 | Sir Sampson Gideon | ||||||
| April 1784 | Benjamin Lethieullier[11] | ||||||
| June 1784 | Edward Cotsford | ||||||
| 1790 | Hon. Percy Wyndham | < | -- party --> | Hon. Charles Wyndham | |||
| 1795 | Peter Thellusson | ||||||
| 1796 | Sylvester Douglas[12] | Charles Long | < | -- party --> | |||
| 1800 | George Smith | < | -- party --> | ||||
| July 1802 | Samuel Smith[13] | ||||||
| 1802 | Edmund Turnor | ||||||
| 1806 | John Smith[14] | Tory | William Wickham[15] | Tory | |||
| January 1807 | Henry Williams-Wynn | William Plunket | |||||
| May 1807 | Samuel Smith | James Abercromby | Whig | ||||
| July 1807 | Thomas Thompson | < | -- party --> | ||||
| October 1812 | George Smith | ||||||
| December 1812 | Viscount Mahon | ||||||
| 1817 | Sir Oswald Mosley | ||||||
| 1818 | Samuel Smith | John Smith | Whig | ||||
| 1820 | Abel Smith | Tory | |||||
| 1830 | John Abel Smith | Whig | George Smith | Whig | |||
| 1831 | George Robert Smith | Whig | Martin Tucker Smith | Whig | |||
| 1832 | Representation reduced to one member | ||||||
| Year | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | Hon. Frederick Spencer | Whig[16] [17] [18] | ||
| 1835 | William Stephen Poyntz | Whig[19] | ||
| 1837 | Hon. Frederick Spencer | Whig | ||
| 1841 | Sir Horace Seymour | Conservative | ||
| 1846 | Spencer Horatio Walpole | Conservative | ||
| 1856 | Samuel Warren | Conservative | ||
| March 1859 | John Hardy | Conservative | ||
| April 1859 | William Townley Mitford | Conservative | ||
| February 1874 | Charles Perceval | Conservative | ||
| September 1874 | Sir Henry Holland | Conservative | ||
| 1885 | Constituency abolished | |||
Poyntz resigned, causing a by-election.
Seymour resigned by accepting the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds in order to contest a by-election at Antrim, causing a by-election.
Walpole was appointed Home Secretary, requiring a by-election.
Walpole resigned, causing a by-election.
Warren resigned after being appointed a Master in Lunacy, requiring a by-election.
Perceval succeeded to the peerage, becoming Earl of Egmont, and causing a by-election.