Hedon (UK Parliament constituency)

Hedon, sometimes spelt Heydon, was a parliamentary borough in the East Riding of Yorkshire, represented by two Members of Parliament in the House of Commons briefly in the 13th century and again from 1547 to 1832.

Hedon
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1547–1832
Number of members	Two

History

The constituency consisted of the market town of Hedon, in Holderness to the east of Hull, which had been of some importance in medieval times but which by 1831 had dwindled to 217 houses and a population of 1,080, and the borough was disfranchised in the Great Reform Act of 1832.

The right of election in Hedon was vested in the burgesses generally, meaning that a high proportion of the male population had the vote. In 1826, when the election was contested, 331 burgesses recorded their votes. Nevertheless, the result was rarely in doubt, Hedon being a classic example of a pocket borough where the influence of the landowner or "patron" was substantial if not absolute. At first the influence seems to have been shared between two families of important local landowners, the Constables of Burton Constable and the Hildyards of Winestead. The patron at the start of the 18th century was Henry Guy; he bequeathed it to his protégé William Pulteney, who not only sat for the borough himself for much of his career but made the other seat available to his cousin and his brother. After Pulteney's death the borough passed to the distinguished admiral Lord Anson, who used his patronage to provide seats for some of his naval colleagues; one of these, Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, inherited the patronage in turn when Anson died.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1547–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1547	Edward Elrington	Robert Googe[1]
1553 (Mar)	Sir John Constable	Robert Shakerley[1]
1553 (Oct)	Sir John Constable	Robert Shakerley[1]
1554 (Apr)	Hon. Sir Thomas Wharton	Richard Cuthbert[1]
1554 (Nov)	John Long	Richard Cuthbert[1]
1555	George Brooke alias Cobham	Richard Cuthbert[1]
1558	Sir John Constable	John Goldwell[1]
1558/9	John Vaughan	John Salveyn[2]
1562/3	Sir John Constable	Christopher Hilliard[2]
1571	Christopher Hilliard	William Paler[2]
1572	Christopher Hilliard	John Moore[2]
1584 (Oct)	Sir Henry Constable	Fulke Greville[2]
1586 (Oct)	Sir Henry Constable	John Hotham[2]
1588 (Oct)	John Alford	Christopher Hilliard [2]
1593	Henry Brooke alias Cobham II	Christopher Hilliard[2]
1597 (Sep)	Thomas Salveyn	Christopher Hilliard[2]
1601 (Oct)	Matthew Patteson	Christopher Hilliard[2]
1604	Christopher Hilliard	Sir Henry Constable, replaced 1610 by John Digby
1614	Christopher Hilliard	Clement Coke, sat for Clitheroe replaced by William Sheffield
1621	Sir Matthew Boynton, Bt	Sir Thomas Fairfax of Walton
1624	Sir Thomas Fairfax of Walton	Christopher Hilliard
1625
1626
1628	Sir Christopher Hilliard	Thomas Alured
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

MPs 1640–1832

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		April 1640	John Alured	Parliamentarian	Sir Philip Stapleton
		November 1640			Sir William Strickland	Parliamentarian
		1651	Alured died 1651, seat vacant thereafter
		1653	Hedon was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
		January 1659	Thomas Strickland[3]		Colonel Matthew Alured
		May 1659	Sir William Strickland		One seat vacant
		April 1660	Sir John Cloberry[4]		Sir Hugh Bethell
		July 1660	Henry Hildyard
		1661	Sir Matthew Appleyard
		1670	Henry Guy
		1680			William Boynton
		1685			Charles Duncombe	Tory
		1689			Matthew Appleyard (younger)
		October 1695	Lord Spencer[5]		Sir William Trumbull[6]
		December 1695	Thomas Frankland		Hugh Bethell
		1698	Anthony Duncombe
		January 1701			Sir Robert Bedingfield
		December 1701			Sir Robert Hildyard
		July 1702	Sir Charles Duncombe[7]	Tory	Henry Guy
		November 1702	Anthony Duncombe
		1705			William Pulteney	Whig
		1708	Hugh Cholmley	Whig
		March 1722	Daniel Pulteney[8]	Whig
		November 1722	Harry Pulteney	Whig
		1734	Sir Francis Boynton		George Berkeley
		1739	Harry Pulteney	Whig
		1741	Francis Chute[9]		Luke Robinson
		1742	The Earl of Mountrath	Whig	George Berkeley
		1744	George Anson
		1746			Samuel Gumley[10]
		February 1747			Luke Robinson
		July 1747	Sir John Savile[11]
		1754	Captain Sir Charles Saunders, RN[12]		Captain Peter Denis, RN[13]
		1768			Beilby Thompson
		1776	Hon. Lewis Watson
		1780	Christopher Atkinson[14]		William Chaytor
		1783	Stephen Lushington	Foxite Whig
		1784	Lionel Darell[15]
		1790			Beilby Thompson
		1796			Christopher Atkinson[16]
		1802	George Johnstone[17]
		1806			Anthony Browne
		1813	John Broadhurst
		1818	Edmund Turton		Robert Farrand	Whig
		1820	John Baillie	Tory
		1826			Thomas Hyde Villiers	Whig
		1830	Sir Thomas Clifford-Constable, Bt	Tory	Robert Farrand	Tory

Notes

1. "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-09-27.
2. "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-09-27.
3. Strickland was also elected for Beverley, which he chose to represent. The vacancy was unfilled when the Parliament ended
4. Cloberry was also elected for Launceston, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Hedon
5. Spencer was also elected for Tiverton, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Hedon
6. Trumbull was also elected for Oxford University, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Hedon
7. Sir Charles Duncombe was also elected for Downton, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Hedon in this parliament
8. Pulteney was also elected for Preston, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Hedon
9. Chute and Robinson were initially declared elected at the general election, but Mountrath and Berkeley were seated in their place on petition
10. Gumley was initially declared elected at the by-election, but Robinson was returned on petition
11. Savile was created Lord Pollington in the peerage of Ireland in 1753
12. Rear Admiral from 1756
13. Created Sir Peter Denis, Bt., in 1767
14. Expelled from the House for perjury, 1783
15. Created Sir Lionel Darell, Bt., in 1795
16. Called Christopher Atkinson Savile from October 1798
17. Johnstone was re-elected at the general election of 1812, but shortly afterwards began to suffer from epileptic seizures, and never retook his seat

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)
• Lewis Namier, "The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III" (2nd edition - London: Macmillan, 1961)
• J E Neale, "The Elizabethan House of Commons" (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 2)