Norwich (UK Parliament constituency) explained

Norwich
Parliament:	uk
Year:	1298
Abolished:	1950
Type:	Borough
Region:	England
Elects Howmany:	Two
Towns:	Norwich

Norwich was a borough constituency in Norfolk which was represented in the House of Commons of England from 1298 to 1707, in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 until it was abolished for the 1950 general election. Consisting of the city of Norwich in Norfolk, it returned two members of parliament (MPs), elected by the bloc vote system.

It was replaced in 1950 by two new single-member constituencies, Norwich North and Norwich South.

Members of Parliament

1298–1660

Year	First member	Second member
1378
1386	Walter Niche	Walter Bixton^[1]
1388 (Feb)	William Appleyard	Walter Bixton
1388 (Sep)	John Moulton	Walter Bixton
1390 (Jan)	Henry Limner	Walter Bixton
1390 (Nov)	William Appleyard	Thomas Gerard
1391	Walter Bixton	Thomas Gerard
1393	John Moulton	William Everard
1394	Henry Limner	William Everard
1395	William Appleyard	Thomas Gerard
1397 (Jan)	William Appleyard	Henry Limner
1397 (Sep)	Walter Bixton	Richard White
1399	Henry Limner	Roger Blickling
1401	Edmund Warner	Walter Eaton
1402	William Appleyard	William Crakeford
1404 (Jan)	William Everard	Walter Eaton
1404 (Oct)
1406	Walter Eaton	John Alderford
1407	Walter Eaton	Robert Dunston
1410	Robert Dunston	William Ampulford
1411	Bartholomew Appleyard	Thomas Gerard
1413 (Feb)	John Alderford	Bartholomew Appleyard
1413 (May)	William Sedman	John Bixley
1414 (Apr)	Robert Brasier	John Alderford
1414 (Nov)	William Sedman	Richard Purdance
1415	John Bixley	Robert Dunston
1416 (Mar)	Henry Rafman	William Sedman
1416 (Oct)	William Appleyard	John Bixley
1417	Robert Brasier	Robert Dunston
1419	William Appleyard	John Bixley
1420	Robert Baxter	Robert Dunston
1421 (May)	Robert Baxter	Robert Dunston
1421 (Dec)	Henry Piking	Robert Dunston
1485	John Paston^[2]
1504	Robert Burgh^[3]
1510	?
1512	Robert Harydance	John Clerke I^[4]
1515	?
1523	?
1529	Edward Rede	Reginald Lytilprowe
1536	?John Corbet II	?
1539	Augustine Steward	John Godsalve
1542	William Rogers	?John Godsalve
1545	Robert Rugge	Richard Catlin
1547	Augustine Steward	Richard Catlin
1553 (Mar)	Thomas Marsham	Alexander Mather
1553 (Oct)	Thomas Gawdy I	Richard Catlin
1554 (Apr)	Henry Ward	John Ball
1554 (Nov)	John Corbet II	Alexander Mather
1555	John Aldrich	Thomas Grey
1558	Sir Thomas Gawdy	Thomas Sotherton
1559	Sir William Woodhouse	Thomas Sotherton^[5]
1562–3	Robert Michell, died and repl. 1566 by John Blennerhassett	Thomas Parker
1571	John Blennerhassett	Robert Suckling
1572	John Aldirich	Thomas Beaumont, sick and repl. 1581 by Edward Flowerdew
1584	Christopher Layer	Simon Bowde
1586	Robert Suckling	Thomas Layer
1588	Francis Rugge	Thomas Gleane
1593	Robert Houghton	Robert Yarham
1597	Christopher Layer	Thomas Sotherton II
1601	Alexander Thurston	John Pettus
1604–1611		John Pettus
1614		Rice Gwyn
1621–1622		William Denny
1624		Sir Thomas Hyrne
1625		Sir Thomas Hyrne^[6]
1626		Sir Thomas Hyrne
1628		Robert Debney
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

1640–1950

Election	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
April 1640		Thomas Tooley
November 1640		Richard Harman	Parliamentarian		Richard Catlin	Royalist
January 1644				Catelyn disabled from sitting – seat vacant
1645					Erasmus Earle
1646		Thomas Atkins
1653	Norwich was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
1654		Bernard Church	<	-- party -->		John Hobart	<	-- party -->
1656
January 1659		William Barnham
May 1659		Thomas Atkins		One seat vacant
April 1660		William Barnham			Thomas Rant
1661		Christopher Jay			Francis Corie
Feb 1678		William Paston
May 1678					Augustine Briggs
1685		Robert Paston			Sir Nevill Catlin	Tory
1689		Thomas Blofield	Tory
1690					Hugh Bokenham
1694					John Ward
1695					Francis Gardiner
1698					Robert Davy
1701		Edward Clarke	Country Whig
1702		Thomas Blofield	Tory
1703					Thomas Palgrave
1705		Waller Bacon			John Chambers
1710		Robert Bene			Richard Berney
1715		Waller Bacon			Robert Brightiffe
1734					Horatio Walpole	Whig
1735 by-election		Thomas Vere
1747		John Hobart
June 1756 by-election					Edward Bacon
December 1756 by-election		(Sir) Harbord Harbord	Whig^[7]
1784					William Windham	Tory
1786 by-election		Hon. Henry Hobart	Tory
1799 by-election		John Frere	Tory
1802		Robert Fellowes	Whig		William Smith	Radical
1806					John Patteson	Tory
1807		William Smith	Radical
1812					Charles Harvey	Tory
1818					Richard Hanbury Gurney	Whig
1826					Jonathan Peel	Tory
1830		Robert Grant	Whig		Richard Hanbury Gurney	Whig
1832		William Murray	Tory		James Scarlett	Tory
1834			Conservative			Conservative
1835					Robert Scarlett^[8]	Conservative
1837		Arthur Wellesley	Conservative
1838					Benjamin Smith	Whig^[9]
1847					Morton Peto	Whig^[10] ^[11] ^[12]
1852		Edward Warner	Radical^[13]
1854 by-election					Samuel Bignold	Conservative
1857		Henry Schneider	Radical^[14] ^[15] ^[16]		William Keppel	Whig
1859^[17]			Liberal			Liberal
1860 by-election^[18]		Edward Warner	Liberal		Sir William Russell, Bt	Liberal
1868		Henry Stracey^[19]	Conservative
1870 by-election		Jacob Henry Tillett^[20]	Liberal
1871 by-election		Jeremiah Colman	Liberal
1874					John Walter Huddleston	Conservative
1875 by-election					Jacob Henry Tillett^[21]	Liberal
1885					Harry Bullard^[22]	Conservative
1886 by-election					Samuel Hoare^[23]	Conservative
1895		Harry Bullard	Conservative
1904 by-election		Louis Tillett	Liberal
1906					George Henry Roberts	Labour
Jan 1910		Frederick Low	Liberal
1915 by-election		Hilton Young	Liberal
1918						Coalition Labour
1922			Independent				Liberal
1923		Walter Smith	Labour		Dorothy Jewson	Labour
1924		Hilton Young	Liberal		J. Griffyth Fairfax	Conservative
1926			Conservative
1929		Walter Smith	Labour		Geoffrey Shakespeare	Liberal
1931		George Hartland	Conservative			Liberal National
1935		Henry Strauss	Conservative
1945		Lucy Noel-Buxton	Labour		John Paton	Labour
1950	constituency abolished: see Norwich North and Norwich South

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

• Caused by Bullard being unseated on petition.

Elections in the 1870s

• Caused by Huddleston's appointment as a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. This by-election was later declared void on petition, and the writ was suspended, leaving Norwich with one MP until 1880.

• Caused by the previous by-election being declared void on petition.

• Caused by Stracey's election being declared void on petition.

Elections in the 1860s

• Caused by both the 1859 general election and the June by-election being declared void on petition due to bribery.^[24]

Elections in the 1850s

• Caused by Keppel's appointment as Treasurer of the Household.

• Caused by Peto's resignation in order to go to the Crimean War and construct the Grand Crimean Central Railway.^[25]

Elections in the 1830s

• On petition, Scarlett was unseated and Smith was declared elected.

• Wetherell and Sadler were proposed without their knowledge

• Caused by Grant's appointment as Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces

Notes

1. Web site: Houses of Parliament. Houses of Parliament Trust. 19 November 2012.
2. Book: Davis, Norman. The Paston Letters: A Selection in Modern Spelling.
3. Book: The English Parliaments of Henry VII 1485–1504. Cavill.
4. Web site: Houses of Parliament. Houses of Parliament Trust. 19 November 2012.
5. Web site: Houses of Parliament. Houses of Parliament Trust. 19 November 2012.
6. Web site: Houses of Parliament. Houses of Parliament Trust. 9 August 2016.
7. Book: Stooks Smith , Henry. . . The Parliaments of England . 1844-1850 . 2nd . 1973 . Parliamentary Research Services . Chichester . 0-900178-13-2 . 224–227 .
8. Scarlett was initially declared re-elected in 1837, but on petition his election was declared void and his opponent, Smith, was seated in his place after scrutiny of the votes
9. News: Election Movements . 26 November 2018 . Norfolk Chronicle . 22 July 1837 . 2–3 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
10. News: Finsbury . 10 June 2018 . . 28 April 1859 . 5.
11. News: The General Election . 10 June 2018 . Hereford Journal . 4 August 1847 . 2 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
12. Web site: Bowers . Brian . Bowers . Faith . Bloomsbury Chapel and Mercantile Morality: The Case of Sir Morton Peto . 10 June 2018 . 211.
13. News: Norfolk Chronicle . 10 June 2018 . 17 July 1852 . 2 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
14. News: Norfolk Chronicle . 10 June 2018 . 14 March 1857 . 2 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
15. News: Norfolk Chronicle . 10 June 2018 . 21 March 1857 . 2 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
16. News: The Representation of Norwich . 10 June 2018 . Norfolk Chronicle . 21 March 1857 . 2 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
17. On petition, the result of the 1859 general election was declared void, as was that of a subsequent by-election in which Viscount Bury (who had been found guilty of bribery) had been re-elected, and a writ for a new election was issued. The result had been Lord Bury 2,154; Mr Schneider 2,138; Sir S Bignold 1,966; Mr Lushington 1,900 (Bury and Norwich Post 3 April 1860)
18. The result was Mr Warner 2,083; Sir W Russell 2,045; Mr Lewis 1,636; Mr Forlonge 1,631 (Bury and Norwich Post 3 April 1860)
19. Stracey's election was declared void, the writ for the constituency was suspended and a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate allegations of corruption. After its report, a writ for a by-election was issued in 1870.
20. On petition, Tillett's election was declared void and a new election was held.
21. Tillett's election was declared void, the writ for the constituency was suspended and a Royal Commission was appointed to investigate allegations of corruption. The seat remained vacant until the next general election, when Tillett was re-elected.
22. On petition, Bullard's election was declared void and a by-election was held
23. Created a baronet, August 1899
24. News: Norwich. 12 March 2018. Salisbury and Winchester Journal. 17 March 1860. 6. British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
25. Faith, Nicholas The world the railways made The Bodley Head, London, 1990 p. 106

Sources

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) https://books.google.com/books?id=Gh2wKY2rkDUC&q=Return+of+Members+of+Parliament
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) https://web.archive.org/web/20150904125310/http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=p-000-00---0modhis06--00-0-0-0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-about---00001-001-1-1isoZz-8859Zz-1-0&a=d&cl=CL1
• The Constitutional Year Book for 1913 (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Book: Craig, F. W. S. . F. W. S. Craig . British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 . 1969 . 3rd . 1983 . Parliamentary Research Services . Chichester . 978-0-900178-06-1.
• Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)