New Romney (UK Parliament constituency)

New Romney was a parliamentary constituency in Kent, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1371 until 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

New Romney
Former Cinque Port constituency for the House of Commons
1371–1832
Number of members	Two

New Romney was a Cinque Port, which made it technically of different status from a parliamentary borough, but the difference was purely a nominal one. The constituency consisted of the town of New Romney; it had once been a flourishing port but by the 19th century the harbour had been destroyed and there was no maritime trade, the main economic activity being grazing cattle on Romney Marsh. In 1831, the population of the constituency was 978, and the town contained 165 houses.

The right to vote was reserved to the Mayor and Common Council of the town; however, many of these were customs or excise officers, who were disqualified from voting by a change in the law in 1782, so that in the early 19th century there were only 8 voters. The high proportion of voters holding paid government posts before this change in the law meant that New Romney was sometimes considered to be a "treasury borough" (that is, a constituency whose seats were in the gift of the government); but in practice the Dering family, local landowners, were even more influential and could sometimes defy government pressure.

The Dering influence in New Romney seems mainly to have been achieved by letting out property to voters and their relatives at easy rents and without leases. In 1761, for example, the despairing Whig MP, Rose Fuller, explained to Prime Minister Newcastle that he had no chance of re-election since Dering had turned against him, because "several of the governing men are graziers and the Deering and Furnese family have together a very great estate in the neighbouring marsh which is very profitable to and easy for tenants". The reduction in the number of voters naturally made this influence easier, or at least cheaper, to exert.

New Romney was abolished as a constituency by the Reform Act, the town being incorporated into the new Eastern Kent county division.

Members of Parliament

1371-1640

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Parliament	First Member	Second Member
1386	Simon Lunceford	John Salerne[1]
1388 (Feb)	William Holyngbroke	John Salerne [1]
1388 (Sep)	William Holyngbroke	John Ellis[1]
1390 (Jan)	John Ive	James Tiece [1]
1390 (Nov)	Edmund Huchoun	James Tiece [1]
1391	John Ellis	John Salerne II [1]
1393	Andrew Colyn	Robert Geffe [1]
1394
1395	John Gardener	William Child [1]
1397 (Jan)	John Yon	Robert Geffe [1]
1397 (Sep)
1399	John Gardener	John Talbot [1]
1401	William Clitheroe	John Gardener [1]
1402	John Lunceford	John Ive [1]
1404 (Jan)
1404 (Oct)
1406	Robert Geffe	Thomas Rokeslee [1]
1407	John Roger	Brice Scherte [1]
1410	John Adam	John Lunceford [1]
1411	William Clitheroe	James Lowys [1]
1413 (Feb)	William Clitheroe	John Adam [1]
1413 (May)	William Clitheroe	James Lowys [1]
1414 (Apr)	Richard Clitheroe	John Lunceford [1]
1414 (Nov)	William Clitheroe	John Maffey [1]
1415	Richard Clitheroe	James Lowys [1]
1416 (Mar)	Richard Clitheroe	John Adam [1]
1416 (Oct)	Stephen Harry	Thomas Sparwe [1]
1417	William Clitheroe	James Tiece [1]
1419	Thomas Rokeslee	Thomas Smith [1]
1420	Richard Clitheroe	Stephen Harry [1]
1421 (May)	Richard Clitheroe	James Lowys [1]
1421 (Dec)	Thomas Sparwe	Peter Newene [1]
1510	John Holl	Thomas Lambard [2]
1512	Sir John Scott	Clement Baker [2]
1515	Richard Stuppeny	Clement Baker [2]
1523	Robert Paris	not known
1529	Richard Gibson, died and replaced 1535 by John Marshall	John Bunting [2]
1536	John Bunting	?John Marshall [2]
1539	William Tadlowe	William Garrard [2]
1542	William Tadlowe	William Asnothe [2]
1545	not known
1547	John Dering, died and replaced 1552 by William Tadlowe	Peter Hayman[2]
1553 (Mar)	Simon Padyham	not known
1553 (Oct)	William Tadlowe	?Sir John Guildford [2]
by 1553	John Cheseman [2]
1554 (Apr)	John Cheseman	Richard Bunting [2]
1554 (Nov)	Gregory Holton	William Oxendon [2]
1555	Richard Baker	John Herbert [2]
1558	Simon Padyham	?Thomas Randolph [2]
1559	John Cheseman	William Eppes[3]
1562/3	Sir Christopher Alleyne	William Eppes [3]
1571	William Eppes	Edmund Morrante [3]
1572	William Wilcocks, died and replaced July 1574 by William Eppes	Edward Wilcocks [3]
1584	Richard Williams	William Southland [3]
1586	William Southland	Robert Thurbarne [3]
1588	Reginald Scot	William Southland [3]
1593	John Mynge	Robert Bawle [3]
1597	George Coppyn	James Thurbarne [3]
1601	Thomas Lake	John Mynge[3]
1604-1611	Sir Robert Remington	John Plommer
1614	Sir Arthur Ingram	Robert Wilcock
1621-1622	Sir Peter Manwood	Francis Fetherston
1624	Francis Fetherston	Richard Godfrey
1625	Sir Edmund Verney	Richard Godfrey
1626	Richard Godfrey	Thomas Brett
1628	Thomas Godfrey	Thomas Brett
1629-1640	No Parliaments summoned

1640-1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640	?
November 1640		Thomas Webb [4]	Royalist		(Sir) Norton Knatchbull [5]	Parliamentarian
1641		Richard Browne
December 1648	Browne not recorded as sitting after Pride's Purge			Knatchbull excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant
1653	New Romney was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Lambert Godfrey			Sir Robert Honeywood
May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Sir Norton Knatchbull			John Knatchbull
1661					Sir Charles Berkeley [6]
1665					Hon. Henry Brouncker [7]
1668					Sir Charles Sedley
1679		Paul Barret
1685		Sir William Goulston			Thomas Chudleigh
1689		John Brewer			James Chadwick
1690					Sir Charles Sedley
1695					Sir William Twysden [8]
1696					Sir Charles Sedley
1701					Edward Goulston
1702					Sir Benjamin Bathurst
1704					Walter Whitfield
1710		Robert Furnese [9]	Whig
1713					Viscount Sondes
1722					David Papillon
1727 [10]		John Essington
April 1728		Sir Robert Austen			Sir Robert Furnese [11]	Whig
May 1728					David Papillon [12]
1734		Stephen Bisse
1736					Sir Robert Austen
1741		Henry Furnese			Sir Francis Dashwood	Tory
1756		Rose Fuller	Whig
1761		Sir Edward Dering	Tory		Thomas Knight
1768					Richard Jackson
1770		John Morton	Tory
1774		Sir Edward Dering	Tory
April 1784					John Smith
June 1784					Richard Atkinson
1785					John Henniker
1787		Richard Joseph Sullivan
1790					Sir Elijah Impey
1796		John Fordyce			John Willett Willett
1802		Manasseh Lopes [13]
1806		William Windham	Whig		Sir John Perring, 1st Baronet	Whig
1807		The Earl of Clonmell	Tory		Hon. George Ashburnham	Tory
1812		Admiral Sir John Duckworth	Tory		William Mitford	Tory
1817		Cholmeley Dering	Tory
1818		Andrew Strahan	Tory		Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor
1819					Richard Erle-Drax-Grosvenor	Whig
1820		George Hay Dawkins-Pennant	Tory
1826					George Tapps	Tory
1830		Arthur Hill-Trevor	Ultra-Tory[14]		William Miles	Ultra-Tory[14]/Tory [15]
March 1831		Sir Roger Gresley	Tory
April 1831		Sir Edward Cholmeley Dering	Tory
1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
2. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
3. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
4. Expelled for being a monopolist, January 1641
5. Created a baronet, August 1641
6. Created Viscount Fitzhardinge (in the Peerage of Ireland), July 1663
7. Expelled from the House of Commons on 21 April 1668 for his actions at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665, when he falsified a signal which prevented the English navy pursuing the defeated Dutch fleet and capitalising on their victory
8. Twysden was also elected for Appleby, which he chose to represent, and never sat for New Romney
9. Succeeded to a baronetcy as Sir Robert Furnese, November 1712
10. At the election of 1727, Essington and Papillon were returned as elected, but on petition they were held not to have been duly elected
11. Furnese was also elected for Kent, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for New Romney
12. Papillon was re-elected in 1734 but had also been elected for Dover, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for New Romney
13. Created a baronet, November 1805
14. History of Parliament: DERING, Sir Edward Cholmeley, 8th bt. (1807-1896), of Surrenden Dering, nr. Ashford , Kent
15. Created a baronet, 1859

References

• Robert Beatson, "A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament" (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
• 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)
• 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 I" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 2)