| Staffordshire | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1290 |
| Abolished: | 1832 |
| Type: | County |
| Elects Howmany: | Two |
| Region: | England |
| County: | Staffordshire |
Staffordshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Members of Parliament until 1832.
The constituency, which first returned members to Parliament in 1290, consisted of the historic county of Staffordshire, excluding the city of Lichfield which had the status of a county in itself after 1556. (Although Staffordshire also contained the boroughs of Stafford and Newcastle-under-Lyme, and part of the borough of Tamworth, each of which elected two MPs in its own right for part of the period when Staffordshire was a constituency, these were not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within the borough could confer a vote at the county election. This was not the case, though, for Lichfield.)
As in other county constituencies the franchise between 1430 and 1832 was defined by the Forty Shilling Freeholder Act, which gave the right to vote to every man who possessed freehold property within the county valued at £2 or more per year for the purposes of land tax; it was not necessary for the freeholder to occupy his land, nor even in later years to be resident in the county at all.
Except briefly during the period of the Commonwealth, Staffordshire had two MPs, traditionally known as Knights of the Shire, elected by the bloc vote method, under which each voter had two votes. (In the First and Second Parliaments of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, there was a general redistribution of seats and Staffordshire elected three members; the traditional arrangements were restored from 1659.)
In the Middle Ages Staffordshire was mainly an agricultural county, but was transformed by the Industrial Revolution and had become significantly urbanised. By the time of the Great Reform Act in 1832, Staffordshire had a population of approximately 410,000, of which around 65,000 were in Wolverhampton, 60,000 in the urban area round Stoke-on-Trent, and 15,000 in Walsall. Its principal industries were hardware and pottery manufacture, and it also drew prosperity from the importance of the River Trent as a means of transport and from the extensive canal network constructed in the county in the 18th century.
Nevertheless, the urban and industrial interests had no opportunity to develop political leverage in Staffordshire. Although the qualified electorate numbered some 5,000 in the 18th century, control of the representation was entirely in the hands of a small number of aristocratic families, most notably the Leveson-Gowers (Marquesses of Stafford) and the Bagots. As in most counties of any size, contested elections were avoided whenever possible because of the expense. Elections were held at a single polling place, Stafford, and voters from the rest of the county had to travel to the county town to exercise their franchise; candidates were expected to meet the expenses of their supporters in travelling to the poll and to entertain them lavishly with food and drink when they got there. The MPs were generally chosen by and from among the principal families of the county, and it would have been futile as well as ruinously expensive for an outsider to fight an election. In fact there were only three contested elections in Staffordshire between 1700 and 1747, and none at all afterwards: in 1753, the Leveson Gowers and the Bagots, despite their political differences (the former being Whigs and the latter Tories) reached a satisfactory compromise, and thereafter the Leveson Gowers nominated one MP and the remaining county gentry the other (who was frequently a Bagot).
The constituency was abolished in 1832 by the Great Reform Act, which divided the county into two new two-member divisions, Northern Staffordshire and Southern Staffordshire, and also created new boroughs from three of the larger towns previously in the county constituency (Stoke-upon-Trent, Walsall and Wolverhampton).
| Parliament | First member | Second member |
|---|---|---|
| 1295 | Richard de Caverswall[1] | |
| 1324 | Sir John de Arderne | |
| 1332 | Philip de Lutley[2] | |
| 1336 | Sir Robert de Mauveysin[3] | |
| 1341 | Adam de Peshale or Peshall[4] | |
| 1378 | Robert Stafford | Sir Robert de Swynnerton[5] |
| 1380 | Robert Stafford | |
| 1380 | Sir Robert Peshall | |
| 1382 | Robert Stafford | |
| 1382 | John Basset | |
| 1383 | Robert Stafford | |
| 1383 | Sir Robert Peshall | |
| 1386 | Sir William Shareshull | Aymer Lichfield[6] |
| 1388 (Feb) | Sir John Ipstones | Roger Longridge |
| 1388 (Sep) | Sir Thomas Aston | John Delves |
| 1389 | William Chetwynd? | |
| 1390 (Jan) | Sir Nicholas Stafford | John Delves |
| 1390 (Nov) | Sir Nicholas Stafford | John Delves |
| 1391 | Sir John Bagot | William Walsall |
| 1393 | Sir Thomas Aston | William Walsall I |
| 1394 | Sir John Ipstones (murdered on arrival in London February 1394)[7] | William Walsall |
| 1395 | Sir William Shareshull | |
| 1397 (Jan) | Sir John Bagot | Sir Robert Francis |
| 1397 (Sep) | Sir John Bagot | Rustin Villeneuve |
| 1399 | Sir Thomas Aston | Sir Robert Francis |
| 1401 | Sir John Bagot | Sir Robert Francis |
| 1402 | John Swynnerton | William Walsall |
| 1404 (Jan) | Ralph Stafford | William Walsall |
| 1404 (Oct) | Sir John Bagot | Sir Robert Francis |
| 1406 | Sir Thomas Aston | Sir Humphrey Stafford |
| 1407 | Sir John Bagot | Sir William Newport |
| 1410 | ||
| 1411 | Sir John Bagot | Sir William Newport |
| 1413 (Feb) | ||
| 1413 (May) | Sir Thomas Gresley | Hugh Erdeswyk |
| 1414 (Apr) | John Meverel | William Walsall |
| 1414 (Nov) | John Meverel | Sir William Newport |
| 1415 | ||
| 1416 (Mar) | Humphrey Haughton | Roger Bradshaw |
| 1416 (Oct) | ||
| 1417 | ||
| 1419 | Sir Thomas Gresley | Sir Richard Vernon |
| 1420 | William Lee II | John Mynors |
| 1421 (May) | Richard Lane | |
| 1421 (Dec) | Hugh Erdeswyk | |
| 1422 | Sir Thomas Stanley | Sir John Gresley |
| 1431 | John Harpour | |
| 1437 | John Hampton | John Mynors |
| 1439 | John Hampton | |
| 1442 | John Hampton | |
| 1445 | Robert Whitgreve | |
| 1449 (Feb) | John Hampton | |
| 1449 (Nov) | Robert Whitgreve | John Hampton |
| 1455 | Sir William Vernon | |
| 1467 | Sir John Delves[8] | |
| 1491 | William Chetwynd[9] | |
| 1504 | Sir Edmond Dudley | |
| 1510–1523 | No Names Known[10] | |
| 1529 | Sir John Giffard | |
| 1536 | ||
| 1539 | Edward Littleton | Thomas Giffard |
| 1542 | Sir John Dudley | Sir Philip Draycott |
| 1545 | Sir George Griffith | Thomas Fitzherbert |
| 1547 | Sir William Paget, ennobled and replaced Jan 1552 by Sir Ralph Bagnall | Sir John Harcourt |
| 1553 (Mar) | William Devereux | Walter Aston |
| 1553 (Oct) | Edward Littleton | |
| 1554 (Apr) | Sir Philip Draycott | Thomas Grey |
| 1554 (Nov) | Sir Philip Draycott | (Sir) Edward Littleton |
| 1555 | Sir Thomas Giffard | (Sir) Edward Littleton |
| 1558 | Brian Fowler | |
| 1559 (Jan) | Sir Ralph Bagnall | Simon Harcourt[11] |
| 1562–1563 | Simon Harcourt | John Grey |
| 1571 | John Grey | Thomas Trentham |
| 1572 (Apr) | John Fleetwood | |
| 1584 (Nov) | Hon. Edward Dudley (alias Sutton) | |
| 1586 | John Grey | William Bassett |
| 1588-1589 | (Sir) Walter Harcourt | Thomas Gerard |
| 1593 | Sir Christopher Blount | |
| 1597-1598 | Hon. John Dudley | |
| 1601 | Sir Thomas Gerard | Sir John Egerton |
| 1604-1611 | Sir Edward Littleton Littleton dying 1610 - replaced by Francis Trentham | Robert Stanford Stanford died 1597 - replaced by Sir John Egerton |
| Addled Parliament (1614) | Sir Walter Chetwynd | Thomas Crompton |
| 1621-1622 | Sir William Bowyer | Thomas Crompton |
| Happy Parliament (1624-1625) | Sir William Bowyer | Sir Edward Littleton |
| Richard Erdeswicke | Sir Simon Weston | |
| 1625-1626 | Sir William Bowyer | Sir Simon Weston |
| 1628-1629 | Sir Hervey Bagot | Thomas Crompton |
| 1629-1640 | No Parliaments summoned | |
| Election | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1640 | Sir Edward Littleton | Parliamentarian | |||||
| November 1640 | Parliamentarian | ||||||
| 1641 | Sir Hervey Bagot | ||||||
| November 1642 | Bagot disabled from sitting - seat vacant | ||||||
| March 1644 | Littleton disabled from sitting - seat vacant | ||||||
| 1646 | John Bowyer | Sir Richard Skeffington | |||||
| 1647 | |||||||
| December 1648 | Bowyer excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant | ||||||
| 1653 | George Bellot | John Chetwood | |||||
| Staffordshire's representation was increased to three Members in the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | |||||||
| Sir Charles Wolseley, Thomas Crompton, Thomas Whitgrave | |||||||
| Staffordshire's representation reverted to two Members in the Third Protectorate Parliament | |||||||
| Sir Thomas Whitgrave | |||||||
| May 1659 | |||||||
| April 1660 | Edward Bagot | William Sneyd | |||||
| 1661 | Sir Thomas Leigh | Randolph Egerton | < | -- party --> | |||
| 1663 | Sir Edward Littleton | ||||||
| 1679 | Sir Walter Bagot | < | -- party --> | Sir John Bowyer | |||
| 1685 | |||||||
| 1689 | John Grey | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1690 | Walter Chetwynd | ||||||
| 1693 | Sir Walter Bagot | ||||||
| 1695 | Henry Paget | Tory | |||||
| 1698 | (Sir) Edward Bagot[12] | ||||||
| 1708 | John Wrottesley | ||||||
| 1710 | William Ward | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1712 | Charles Bagot | ||||||
| 1713 | Ralph Sneyd | Henry Vernon | |||||
| 1715 | Lord Paget< | -- eldest son of Henry Paget, 1st Earl of Uxbridge and father of 2nd Earl --> | Tory | William Ward | |||
| 1720 by-election | Hon. William Leveson-Gower | < | -- party --> | ||||
| 1727 | Sir Walter Wagstaffe Bagot | Tory | |||||
| 1754 | (Sir) William Bagot[13] | Tory | |||||
| 1757 by-election | Hon. Henry Thynne | ||||||
| 1761 | Lord Grey | Whig | |||||
| May 1768 by-election | Captain (Sir) John Wrottesley[14] | Whig | |||||
| 1780 | Viscount Lewisham | Tory | |||||
| 1784 | Sir Edward Littleton | Whig | |||||
| 1787 by-election | Earl Gower | Whig | |||||
| 1799 by-election | Lord Granville Leveson-Gower | Whig | |||||
| May 1812 by-election | Edward Littleton | Canningite Tory | |||||
| 1815 by-election | Earl Gower | Whig | |||||
| 1820 | Sir John Fenton Boughey | Whig | |||||
| 1823 by-election | Major-General Sir John Wrottesley | Whig | |||||
| c. 1830 | Whig | ||||||
| 1832 | |||||||