Pontefract (UK Parliament constituency)

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Pontefract was an English parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Pontefract in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons briefly in the 13th century and again from 1621 until 1885, and one member from 1885 to 1974.

Contents 1 History 2 Members of Parliament 2.1 1621-1660 2.2 1660-1885 2.3 1885-1974 2.3.1 Notes 3 References

[edit] History

Pontefract was represented in the Model Parliament of 1295, and in that which followed it in 1298, but gained a continuous franchise only from 1621. The constituency was a parliamentary borough, returning two members, consisting only of the town of Pontefract itself. The right to vote was vested in all the (male) resident householders: by the time of the Great Reform Act in 1831, roughly 800 householders were qualified to vote, and 699 did so in the contested election of 1830; the total population of the borough at this period was just under 5,000. Nevertheless, Pontefract was considered to be a pocket borough, where the Earl of Harewood had the effective power to choose one of its two MPs.

The Reform Act extended the boundaries of the constituency, bringing in the neighbouring townships of Tanshelf, Monkhill, Knottingley, Ferrybridge and Carleton, as well as Pontefract Castle and Pontefract Park which had previously been excluded. This doubled the population to just over 10,000, in 4,832 houses.

In the third Reform Act, which came into effect at the general election of 1885, Pontefract's representation was reduced from two members to one, though the boundaries remained essentially unchanged. In 1918, Pontefract became a county constituency, and its boundaries were extended to cover a much wider area - Pontefract itself, the towns of Knottingley and Goole, and the Pontefract and Goole rural districts.

At the 1950 general election, Pontefract regained its borough status, being redrawn as a wholly urban constituency, consisting of Pontefract, Castleford and Featherstone. From 1974, the constituency was renamed Pontefract and Castleford, although its composition remained unchanged.

[edit] Members of Parliament

[edit] 1621-1660

• 1625: Richard Beaumont
• 1626: Sir Francis Foljambe

Long Parliament

• 1640-1642: Sir George Wentworth of Walley (Royalist) - disabled to sit, September, 1642
• 1640-1644: Sir George Wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse (Royalist) - disabled to sit, January 1644
• 1645(?)-1653: William White
• 1645(?)-1653: Henry Arthington

Pontefract was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate

Third Protectorate Parliament

• 1659: John Hewley
• 1659: John Lambert

Long Parliament (restored)

• 1659-1660: ?

[edit] 1660-1885

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1660	William Lowther		Sir George Savile, Bt.
		1661			Sir John Dawnay
		1679	Sir Patience Ward
		1685	Sir Thomas Yarburgh
		1690	Henry Dawnay		Sir John Bland, Bt.
		1695	Sir William Lowther		Robert Monckton
		1698	Sir John Bland, Bt.		John Bright
		1701			William Lowther
		1710			Robert Frank
		1713	John Dawnay [1]
		1716 [2]	Sir William Lowther, 1st Baronet		Hugh Bethell
		1722			John Lowther
		1729	Sir William Lowther, 2nd Baronet
		1730			John Mordaunt
		1734			1st Viscount Galway
		1741	George Morton Pitt
		1747			William Monckton
		1749			1st Viscount Galway
		1751			Robert Monckton
		1754	2nd Viscount Galway		Sambrooke Freeman
		1761			William Gerard Hamilton
		March 1768			Sir Rowland Winn
		December 1768			Henry Strachey
		1772	3rd Viscount Galway
		March 1774	Robert Monckton
		October 1774	Sir John Goodricke, Bt.		Charles Mellish
		1780	William Nedham		4th Viscount Galway
		February 1783			Nathaniel Smith
		April 1783			John Smyth
		1784	William Sotheron
		1796	4th Viscount Galway
		1802	Richard Benyon
		1806	Robert Pemberton Milnes
		1807			Viscount Pollington
		October 1812			Henry Lascelles[3]
		December 1812			Viscount Pollington
		1818	Thomas Houldsworth
		1826			Le Gendre Nicholas Starkie
		1830	Hon. Henry Stafford-Jerningham	Whig	Sir Culling Eardley Smith, Bt.
		1831			Viscount Pollington
		1832			John Gully	Whig
		1835	Viscount Pollington	Conservative
		1837	Richard Monckton Milnes	Conservative	William Thomas Stanley-Massey-Stanley	Whig
		1841			Viscount Pollington	Conservative
		1847			Samuel Martin	Whig
		1851			Hon. Beilby Lawley	Whig
		1852			Benjamin Oliveira	Whig
		1857		Liberal	William Wood	Liberal
		1859			William Overend	Conservative
		1860			Hugh Childers	Liberal
		1863	Samuel Waterhouse	Conservative
		1880	Sidney Woolf	Liberal
1885			Representation reduced to one member

[edit] 1885-1974

Election		Member	Party
1885		reduced to one member
	1885	Rowland Winn	Conservative
	1893	Harold James Reckitt	Liberal
	1893	Sir Thomas Willans Nussey	Liberal
	1910	Frederick Handel Booth	Liberal
	1918	Sir Joseph Compton Compton-Rickett	Coalition Liberal
	1919	Walter Forrest	Coalition Liberal
	1922	Tom Smith	Labour
	1924	Christopher Robert Ingham Brooke	Unionist
	1929	Tom Smith	Labour
	1931	Thomas Edmund Sotheron-Estcourt	Conservative
	1935	Adam Hills	Labour
	1941	Percy Gott Barstow	Labour
	1950	George Oscar Sylvester	Labour
	1962	Joseph Harper	Labour
1974		constituency renamed: see Pontefract & Castleford

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Dawnay had also been elected for Aldborough, but a petition against the result there had not been resolved by the time the Parliament was dissolved. Not being required to choose which constituency he would represent while there was an outstanding petition against one of the elections, he sat for both boroughs throughout the Parliament
2. ^ At the general election of 1715, Dawnay and Frank were declared re-elected, but on petition the result was overturned and their opponents, Bethell and Lowther, seated in their place
3. ^ Lascelles was also elected for Yorkshire, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Pontefract

[edit] References

• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.
• Pontefract elections
• Robert Beatson, "A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament" (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
• Craig, F. W. S. [1977] (1989). British parliamentary election results 1832-1885, 2nd edition, Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-26-4. 
• Craig, F. W. S. [1969] (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, 3rd edition, Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 
• J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)