Bere Alston (UK Parliament constituency)

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Bere Alston Borough constituency
Created:	1584
Abolished:	1832
Type:	House of Commons
Members:	two

Bere Alston or Beeralston was a parliamentary borough in Devon, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1584 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act as a rotten borough.

Contents 1 History 2 Members of Parliament 2.1 1584-1660 2.2 1660-1832 3 References

[edit] History

Bere Alston was first summoned to return MPs in 1584; like many of the boroughs over the county boundary in Cornwall that were enfranchised during the reign of Elizabeth I, it had never been of much size and was a rotten borough from the start. Indeed, its first return of members specifically states that they had been elected at the request of The Marquess of Winchester and Lord Mountjoy, the chief landowners in the borough, and its enfranchisement plainly designed to allow them to nominate MPs.

The borough consisted of most of the village of Bere Alston in the parish of Bere Ferris, 10 miles north of Plymouth. By the time of the Great Reform Act there were 112 houses within the borough boundaries, and 139 in the whole village. The population was not separately recorded in the census. It was customary for elections to be conducted under a great tree in the centre of the village; there was no equivalent of a town hall, and indeed no municipal corporation.

Bere Alston was a burgage borough, the right to vote resting with the freehold tenants of a number of specified properties within the town. The Lord of the Manor had the power to create votes at will by granting burgage tenures which were usually resigned to him once the election was concluded. There were sometimes up to 100 voters at any one time, but in these circumstances the result was of course entirely in the hands of the landowner and Lord of the Manor, and elections were never contested. In the mid-18th century the power was shared between The Earl of Buckinghamshire and Sir Francis Drake; later it was acquired by the Dukes of Northumberland, but by the time of the Reform Act it had passed to a younger son, the Earl of Beverley.

In the debates before the passing of the Reform Act, Bere Alston was held up as one of the most notorious examples of a rotten borough, vilified in more than one of the pro-Reform newspapers. The Times reported the conduct of the general election there in 1830:

"Dr Butler [the Portreeve, who was Returning Officer for the borough] ... met the voters under a great tree, the place usually chosen for the purpose of election. During the time the Portreeve was reading the acts of Parliament usually read on such occasions, one of the voters handed in to him a card containing the names of two candidates, proposed by himself and seconded by his friend. He was told ... this was too early. Before the reading was completed, the voter on the other side handed in a card corresponding with the former, which he was told was too late. The meeting broke up. The Portreeve and assistants adjourned to a public house in the neighbourhood, and then and there made a return of Lord Lovaine and Mr Blackett, which was not signed by a single person having a vote."

The historian Michael Brock, however, considers that "the truth of this tale may be doubted".

The borough was disenfranchised by the Reform Act.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1584-1660

• 1584-1586: Edward Montagu
• 1640-1641: Hugh Pollard
• 1642-1648: Charles Pym
• 1646-1648: Sir Francis Drake

1584 Edward Montagu Edward Phelipps 1585 Edward Montagu Edward Phelipps 1586 Charles Blount Nicholas Martyn 1587 Charles Blount Nicholas Martyn 1588 Richard Spencer Ferdinand Clarke 1589 Richard Spencer Ferdinand Clarke 1590 Richard Spencer Ferdinand Clarke 1591 Richard Spencer Ferdinand Clarkes 1592 Richard Spencer Ferdinand Clarke 1593 Sir Charles Blount Thomas Burgoyne 1594 Sir Charles Blount Thomas Burgoyne 1595 Sir Charles Blount Thomas Burgoyne 1596 1597 Sir Jocelyn Blount George Crooke 1598 Sir Jocelyn Blount George Crooke 1599 Sir Jocelyn Blount George Crook 1600 Sir Jocelyn Blount George Crook 1601 Charles Lister John Langford 1602 Charles Lister John Langford 1603 Charles Lister John Langford 1604 Sir Arthur Atye Sir Richard Strode 1605 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1606 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1607 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1608 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1609 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1610 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1611 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1612 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1613 Humphrey May Sir Richard Strode 1614 Thomas Crewe Sir Richard White 1615 Thomas Crewe Sir Richard White 1616 Thomas Crewe Sir Richard White 1617 Thomas Crewe Sir Richard White 1618 Thomas Crewe Sir Richard White 1619 Thomas Crewe Sir Richard White 1620 Thomas Crewe Sir Richard White 1621 Thomas Keightley Sir Thomas Wise 1622 Thomas Keightley Sir Thomas Wise 1623 Thomas Keightley Sir Thomas Wise 1624 Sir Thomas Cheke William Strode 1625 Sir Thomas Cheke William Strode 1626 Thomas Wise William Strode 1627 Thomas Wise William Strode 1628 Thomas Wise William Strode 1629 Thomas Wise William Strode 1630 Thomas Wise William Strode 1631 Thomas Wise William Strode 1632 Thomas Wise William Strode 1633 Thomas Wise William Strode 1634 Thomas Wise William Strode 1635 Thomas Wise William Strode 1636 Thomas Wise William Strode 1637 Thomas Wise William Strode 1638 Thomas Wise William Strode 1639 Thomas Wise William Strode 1640 John Harris William Strode 1640 Sir Thomas Cheke William Strode 1640 Hugh Pollard William Strode 1641 Charles Pym William Strode 1642 Charles Pym William Strode 1643 Charles Pym William Strode 1644 Charles Pym William Strode 1645 Charles Pym William Strode 1646 Charles Pym Sir Francis Drake 1647 Charles Pym Sir Francis Drake 1648 Charles Pym Sir Francis Drake 1649 Charles Pym Sir Francis Drake 1650 Charles Pym Sir Francis Drake 1651 Charles Pym Sir Francis Drake 1652 Charles Pym Sir Francis Drake 1653 Charles Pym Sir Francis Drake 1654 1655 1656 1657 1658 1659 John Maynard Elisha Crymes

ref P R Churcher Victoria Bookshop Bere Alston (2007)

[edit] 1660-1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1660		Sir John Maynard			George Howard
June 1660					Richard Arundell
1661					George Howard
1662					Richard Arundell
1665					Joseph Maynard
February 1679					Sir William Bastard
March 1679		Sir John Trevor
1681		Sir Duncombe Colchester			John Elwill
1685		Sir John Maynard			Sir Benjamin Bathurst
19 January 1689					John Elwill
31 January 1689		Sir John Holt
May 1689		Sir John Trevor
1690		Sir Francis Drake			John Swinfen
1691		John Smith
1694					Sir Henry Hobart
November 1695		John Elwill
December 1695					Sir Rowland Gwynne
1698		John Hawles
1698					James Montagu
January 1701		Sir Rowland Gwynne			Sir Peter King
March 1701		William Cowper
1705		Spencer Cowper
1710		Lawrence Carter
1715					Horatio Walpole
1717					Edward Carteret
1721					Philip Cavendish [1]
1721					St John Broderick
1722		Sir John Hobart [2]
1724		Sir Robert Rich
1727		Sir John Hobart [3]			Sir Francis Henry Drake [4]
1728		Sir Archer Croft			Lord Howard de Walden
February 1734					William Morden [5]
May 1734		Sir Francis Henry Drake			John Bristow
1740		Samuel Heathcote
1741					Sir William Morden
1747		Sir Francis Henry Drake
1754					John Bristow
1761					Hon. George Hobart
1771		Francis William Drake
1774		Sir Francis Henry Drake
September 1780		Lord Algernon Percy [6]			The Lord Macartney
December 1780		Viscount Feilding
1781					Laurence Cox
1784					The Earl of Mornington
1787					Charles Rainsford
1788					John Mitford [7]
1790		Sir George Howland Beaumont
1796		William Mitford
1799					Lord Lovaine
1806		Hon. Josceline Percy
1820		Henry Percy
1825		Percy Ashburnham
1830		Christopher Blackett
January 1831					David Lyon
May 1831		Lord Lovaine
1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. ^ Cavendish was initially declared elected, but on petition the Commons found in favour of his opponent, Broderick, who was seated in his place
2. ^ Hobart was also elected for St Ives, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Bere Alston
3. ^ Hobart was also elected for Norfolk, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Bere Alston
4. ^ Drake was also elected for Tavistock, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Bere Alston
5. ^ Morden later changed his name to Harbord
6. ^ Percy was also elected for Northumberland, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Bere Alston
7. ^ Sir John Mitford from 1793

[edit] References

• Robert Beatson, "A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament" (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
• Michael Brock, The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
• Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1961)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• T H B Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
• J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.