'Appleby' was the name of a
constituency of the
House of Commons of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom) for two periods, as a borough represented by two
Members of Parliament from
1295 until abolished by the
Great Reform Act of
1832, and later as a
county constituency represented by a single member from
1885 to
1918.
History
The borough (1295-1832)
The
parliamentary borough of Appleby consisted of the town of
Appleby, the county town of
Westmorland, and was consistently represented in the House of Commons from the
Model Parliament of 1295 until the Reform Act.
The right to vote rested with the occupiers of around a hundred
burgage tenements. By the 18th century, the majority of the burgages were owned by the
Lowther and
Tufton families, which enabled them to put in reliable tenants at election time and ensure their complete control of who was elected. The seats were frequently kept for members of those families, but Appleby's other representatives included
William Pitt the younger, who was MP for Appleby when he became
Prime Minister in 1783 (although he stood down at the following general election when he was instead elected for
Cambridge University).
A later member for Appleby was
Viscount Howick, subsequently (as Earl Grey) the Prime Minister whose administration passed the
Great Reform Act of 1832; but Grey's history as a former MP for the town did not save it from losing both its members under the Act. Appleby was regarded as a classic example of a
pocket borough, completely in the control of its owners who were also the major local landowners, and with a population of only 1,233 at the 1831 census unlikely to be freed from their influence even by widening the franchise. Nevertheless, as the only county town to be disfranchised, Appleby was one of the more controversial cases in the debates on the reform bill, the opposition making unsuccessful attempts to amend the bill so as to save at least one of its MPs.
After abolition the borough was absorbed into the
Westmorland county constituency.
The county constituency (1885-1918)
The Appleby constituency created for the
1885 election was, in full, '"The Appleby or Northern Division of Westmorland"', and was sometimes referred to as Westmorland North. It consisted of the whole of the northern half of the county, including the towns of
Ambleside,
Grasmere and
Kirkby Stephen. It was abolished at the
1918 general election, the whole county henceforth being united in a single
Westmorland constituency.
Members of Parliament
1295-1660
★ 1529-1536:
Sir Thomas Wharton
...
'
Long Parliament'
★ 1640-1643:
Sir John Brooke (
Royalist) - ''disabled to sit, March 1643''
★ 1640-1643:
Viscount Dungarvan (
Royalist) - ''disabled to sit, November 1643. The Viscount Boyle (in the Irish peerage) from September 1642; Earl of Cork from September 1643''
★ 1645-1651:
Henry Ireton - ''died November 1651''
★ 1645(?)-1653:
Richard Salway
''Appleby was unrepresented in the
Barebones Parliament and the
First and
Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
'
Third Protectorate Parliament'
★ 1659:
Adam Baynes
★ 1659:
Nathaniel Redding
'Long Parliament (restored)'
★ 1659-1660: ?
1660-1832
'Notes'
1. Dodington was also elected for Bridgwater, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
2. At the 1754 election Lee and Honywood defeated Sir John Ramsden and Fletcher Norton, but this election was subsequently declared void and a by-election held in February 1756, at which Norton rather than Lee was elected
3. Lowther was also elected for Carlisle, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
4. Jenkinson was also elected for Rye, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
5. Tierney was also elected for Knaresborough, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
1885-1918
References
★ Michael Brock, "The Great Reform Act" (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
★ D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
★ J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
★
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