Ludgershall (UK Parliament constituency)

Ludgershall was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

Ludgershall
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1295–1832
Number of members	Two

Ludgershall is a town 16 miles (26 km) north east of Salisbury. The population was 535 in 1831.

Members of Parliament

1295–1640

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Parliament	First member	Second member
1421 (Dec)	John Denby	William Bishop [1]
1422	John Seymour[2]
1432	William Ludlowe[3]
1433	William Ludlowe
1436	William Ludlowe	John of Coombe
1437	William Ludlowe	John of Coombe
1450–1451	John Erley	Thomas Thorpe[4]
1453	William Ludlowe
1455	William Ludlowe
1491	Robert Lytton[5]
1510–1515	No names known[6]
1523	?Henry Brydges	?Richard Brydges [6]
1529	Henry Brydges	Richard Brydges [6]
1536	?Henry Brydges	?Richard Brydges [6]
1539	?
1542	?
1545	John Knight	Thomas Hawes [6]
1547	William Turner	Ralph Cockerell [6]
1553 (Mar)	Humphrey Cavell	? [6]
1553 (Oct)	Richard Brydges	Edmund Powell [6]
1554 (Apr)	John Winchcombe	Edmund Powell [6]
1554 (Nov)	Sir John Price	Arthur Allen [6]
1555	John Story	John Winchcombe [6]
1558	Sir Richard Brydges	Thomas Martin [6]
1559	William Wightman	Henry Sharington[7]
1562/3	Griffin Curteys	George Cope [7]
1571	Christopher Wray	James Colbrand [7]
1572	James Colbrand	Thomas Walkeden [7]
1584	John Kingsmill	Francis Button [7]
1586	Ambrose Coppinger	John Kingsmill [7]
1588	Carew Raleigh	Henry Hyde [7]
1593	Edward Thornborough	Chidiock Wardour [7]
1597	Edmund Ludlow	Richard Leake [7]
1601	Robert Penruddocke	James Kirton [7]
1604–1611	James Kirton	Henry Ludlow
1614	Charles Danvers	James Kirton
1621–1622	Alexander Chocke	William Sotwell
1624	Edward Kyrton	William Sotwell
1625	Robert Pye	Sir Thomas Hinton
1626	Sir William Walter	Sir Thomas Jaye/Sir Thomas Hinton Unresolved double return
1628	John Selden	Sir Thomas Lay
1629–1640	No Parliament convened

1640–1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
November 1640		William Ashburnham [8]	Royalist		Sir John Evelyn	Parliamentarian
1642		Walter Long [9]	Parliamentarian
December 1648	Long and Evelyn excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant
1653	Ludgershall was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		James Davy			Richard Sherwyn
May 1659	Ludgershall was not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		William Prynne			William Thomas
July 1660		Silius Titus
March 1661		William Ashburnham			Geoffrey Palmer (died October 1661)
December 1661					Sir Richard Browne
1669					Thomas Grey
1673					George Legge
February 1679		Thomas Neale			John Smith
August 1679					John Garrard
1681					Sir John Talbot
1685					Henry Clerke
1689		John Smith			John Deane
1690		Thomas Neale
1695					Colonel John Richmond Webb	Tory
1698					Walter Kent
1699		Colonel John Richmond Webb	Tory
1701					Edmund Richmond Webb
1705		Thomas Powell			Walter Kent
1706		Major-General John Richmond Webb [10]	Tory
1708					Robert Bruce
1710					Major-General Thomas Pearce
1713					Robert Ferne
1714		John Ward
1715		General John Richmond Webb	Tory		John Ivory-Talbot
1722					Borlase Richmond Webb
1724		Anthony Cornish
1727		Charles Boone
1734		Peter Delmé			Daniel Boone
1741		Charles Selwyn			Thomas Hayward
1747		Thomas Farrington			George Augustus Selwyn
1754		Sir John Bland			Thomas Hayward
1755		Henry Digby [11]
1761		Thomas Whately			John Paterson
1768		Lord Garlies			Sir Peniston Lamb [12]
January 1774		Whitshed Keene
October 1774		Lord George Gordon
1780		George Augustus Selwyn
1784					Nathaniel William Wraxall
1790					Hon. William Assheton Harbord
1791		Samuel Smith
1793		Nathaniel Newnham	Tory
1796		Earl of Dalkeith	Tory		Thomas Everett	Tory
1804		Magens Dorrien-Magens	Tory
1810					Joseph Hague Everett	Tory
1811					The Lord Headley
1812					Joseph Hague Everett	Tory
1812		Sandford Graham	Whig		Joseph Birch	Whig
1815		Charles Nicholas Pallmer	Whig
1817		The Earl of Carhampton	Tory
1818					(Sir) Sandford Graham [13]	Whig
1821		Earl of Brecknock	Tory
1826		Edward Thomas Foley	Tory		George James Welbore Agar-Ellis	Whig
1830					Sir Sandford Graham	Whig
1832	Constituency abolished

Sources

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [14]
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [15]
• 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)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 4)

Notes and references

1. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
2. J. S. Roskell, The Commons in the Parliament of 1422 (Manchester University Press), p. 126 (see footnotes)
3. Dates for Ludlowe in Ludlow family website "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 December 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. "Thorpe, Thomas, speaker of the House of Commons". Oxford DNB. Retrieved 1 December 2011.
5. Cavill. The English Parliaments of Henry VII 1485-1504.
6. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
7. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
8. Expelled, December 1641
9. Long was disabled from sitting by an Order of the House on 27 January 1648, but re-instated on 8 June 1648
10. Webb was re-elected in 1713, but had also been elected for Newport (Isle of Wight), which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Ludgershall in this Parliament
11. Succeeded as The Lord Digby (in the Peerage of Ireland), 1757
12. Created The Lord Melbourne in June 1770, and The Viscount Melbourne in December 1781 (both titles being in the Peerage of Ireland)
13. Succeeded as baronet, April 1824
14. Beatson, Robert (1807). "A Chronological Register of Both Houses of the British Parliament, from the Union in 1708, to the Third Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1807".
15. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)