Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)

Old Sarum was from 1295 to 1832 a parliamentary constituency of England (until 1707), of Great Britain (until 1800), and finally of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was a so-called rotten borough, with an extremely small electorate that was consequently vastly over-represented and could be used by a patron to gain undue influence. The constituency was on the site of what had been the original settlement of Salisbury, known as Old Sarum. The population had moved to New Sarum at the foot of the hill and at a confluence known as the cathedral city of Salisbury in the 14th century. The constituency was abolished under the Reform Act 1832.

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

Old Sarum in Wiltshire, an uninhabited hill which elected two Members of Parliament. Painting by John Constable, 1829.

History

In 1295, during the reign of King Edward I, Old Sarum was given the right to send two members to the House of Commons of England even though the site had ceased to be a city with the dissolution of Old Sarum Cathedral in 1226. The seat of the Bishop had moved to New Salisbury – and the location of the new cathedral – in 1217/18. All that remained at Old Sarum was a small hamlet. But that was largely abandoned when Edward II ordered the castle's demolition in 1322. The remains of the old settlement were razed for its materials that were used to construct the new city and Salisbury Cathedral. Evidence of quarrying showed it continued well into the 14th century. Two hundred years later Henry VIII sold the former Royal Castle.

Despite having no significant population, the borough was organised with a burgage franchise, meaning that the inhabitants of designated houses (burgage tenements) had the right to vote. From at least the 17th century, Old Sarum had no resident voters, but the landowner retained the right to nominate tenants for each of the burgage plots, and they were not required to live there. For many years, the borough was owned by the Pitt family and was their pocket borough: one of its Members in the late 18th century was William Pitt the Elder. In 1802, the head of the family, Lord Camelford, sold the borough to the Earl of Caledon, who owned it until its abolition; the price was reported as £60,000, even though the land and manorial rights were worth £700 a year at most: an indication of the value of a pair of parliamentary seats. At its final election, in 1831, there were eleven voters, all of whom were landowners who lived elsewhere. This made Old Sarum the most notorious of the rotten boroughs, being described as "a wall with two niches". The Reform Act 1832 subsumed the Old Sarum area into an enlarged borough of Wilton.

In the last years, the spectacle of an Old Sarum election drew a small crowd to observe the ritual presentation of the two candidates and the hollow call for any further nominations. Stooks Smith quotes a contemporary description dating from the 1802 general election:

This election for the borough of Old Sarum was held in a temporary booth erected in a cornfield, under a tree which marked the former boundary of the old town, not a vestige of which has been standing in the memory of man, the several burgages which give the right of voting, being now without a dwelling for a human being. Mr Dean, the bailiff of the borough having read the precept for the election, and caused proclamation thereof, read the bribery act, and gone through all the legal ceremonies, the Rev. Dr Skinner rose and nominated Nicholas Vansittart, and Henry Alexander, Esq., from a thorough conviction that their public conduct would be such as would give satisfaction and do honour to their constituents. The other electors acquiescing in this nomination and no other candidates offering, the proclamation was thrice made for any gentleman disposed to do so, to come forward, the bailiff declared the above two gentlemen to be duly elected. There were five electors present at this election, (beside the bailiff of the borough who lives at Wimborne) viz, the Rev. Dr. Skinner, of the Close; the Rev. Mr. Burrough, of Abbot's Ann; William Dyke, Esq., of Syrencot; Mr. Massey and Mr. Brunsdon, both occupiers of land within the limits of the borough. The above account is thus particularly given to rectify several prevalent mistakes relative to this celebrated borough, and to show that the election is conducted in a manner every way consonant to the law of the land and the constitution of Parliament.[1]

Place of Election

Elections in Old Sarum were conducted on a mobile hustings under a specific tree, which died in 1905, in what was known as the 'electing acre'.

Members of Parliament

1295–1640

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Parliament	First member	Second member
1386	Walter Upton	Bartholomew Avery [2]
1388 (Feb)		John Avery I [2]
1388 (Sep)
1390 (Jan)
1390 (Nov)
1391
1393
1394	John Avery I	John Chipplegh [2]
1395		Robert Page [2]
1397 (Jan)
1397 (Sep)	John Avery I	Robert Page [2]
1399
1414 (Apr)	Robert Long	William Chesterton [2]
1414 (Nov)
1415
1416 (Mar)
1416 (Oct)
1417	John Giles	John Noble [2]
1419
1420
1421 (May)	Henry Bradley	John Ludwell [2]
1421 (Dec)	John Fruysthorp
1423	John Everard[3]
1435	Henry Long
1442	Richard Long
1510–1523	No names known [4]
1529	Thomas Hilton	William Lambert [4]
1536	?
1539	?
1542	?
1545	William Hulcote	John Bassett [4]
1547	John Young	? [4]
by Jan 1552	William Thomas [4]
1553 (Mar)	James Brande	William Wekys [4]
1553 (Oct)	Sir Nicholas Throckmorton	John Throckmorton [4]
1554 (Apr)	Richard Clipper	Edmund Twyneho [4]
1554 (Nov)	John Tull	Francis Killinghall [4]
1555	John Marshe	William Chamber [4]
1558	Sir Henry Jones	John Bateman [4]
1559	John Harington	Henry Hart [5]
1562/3	Edward Herbert	Henry Compton [5]
1571	John Young	Edmund Ludlow [5]
1572	Hugh Powell	John Frenche [5]
1584	Richard Topcliffe	Roger Gifford[5]
1586	Edward Berkeley	Richard Topcliffe [5]
1588/9	Roger Gifford	Henry Baynton I [5]
1593	Anthony Ashley	Edmund Fortescue [5]
1597	William Blaker	Nicholas Hyde [5]
1601	Robert Turner	Henry Hyde [5]
1604–1611	William Ravenscroft	Edward Leache
1614		William Price
1621–1622	George Myne	Thomas Brett
1624	Sir Robert Cotton	Sir Arthur Ingram, sat for York and repl. by Michael Oldisworth
1625	Michael Oldisworth	Sir John Stradling
1626		Sir Benjamin Rudyerd
1628		Christopher Keightley
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

1640–1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Sir William Howard			Edward Herbert	Royalist
November 1640		Hon. Robert Cecil	Parliamentarian		Edward Herbert	Royalist
1641					Sir William Savile	Royalist
September 1642				Savile disabled from sitting – seat vacant
1646					Roger Kirkham
1647					Sir Richard Lucy
December 1648	Cecil not recorded as sitting after Pride's Purge
1653	Old Sarum was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Richard Hill			William Ludlow
May 1659	Old Sarum was not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Seymour Bowman			John Norden
1661		Edward Nicholas			John Denham
1669					Sir Eliab Harvey
February 1679		Eliab Harvey			John Young
August 1679		The Lord Coleraine			Sir Eliab Harvey
1681		Sir Thomas Mompesson
January 1689		John Young			Thomas Pitt
March 1689		William Harvey			John Hawles
1690					Sir Thomas Mompesson
1695					Thomas Pitt
1698					Charles Mompesson
1705		Robert Pitt
1708					William Harvey
1710		Thomas Pitt[6]
1713					Robert Pitt
1716		Sir William Strickland, Bt	Whig
March 1722		Thomas Pitt
November 1722					George Morton Pitt
1724					John Pitt
1726		George Pitt
1727		Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc [7]			The Earl of Londonderry
March 1728		Matthew St Quintin
May 1728					Thomas Harrison
1734		Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc [7]			Robert Nedham
1735		William Pitt
1741					George Lyttelton [7]
1742					James Grenville
May 1747					Edward Willes
July 1747		Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc [7]			Sir William Irby, Bt
December 1747		Earl of Middlesex [8]			The Viscount Doneraile
January 1751					Paul Jodrell
November 1751					Simon Fanshawe
1754		Viscount Pulteney			Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc
1755					Sir William Calvert
March 1761		Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc			Howell Gwynne
December 1761		Thomas Pitt (the younger)
1768		William Gerard Hamilton			John Craufurd
1774		Pinckney Wilkinson			Thomas Pitt (the younger)
January 1784					The Hon. John Villiers
March 1784		George Hardinge
1790					John Sullivan
1796					The Earl of Mornington
1797					Charles Williams-Wynn
1799					Sir George Yonge
1801					Rev. John Horne Tooke	Radical
1802		Nicholas Vansittart	Tory		Henry Alexander	Tory
1806					The Lord Blayney
1807					Josias du Pre Porcher	Tory
1812		James Alexander	Tory
1818					Arthur Johnston Crawford	Tory
1820					Josias du Pré Alexander	Tory
1828					Stratford Canning	Tory
1830					Josias du Pré Alexander	Tory

Elections

The last reported contested election in Old Sarum occurred at a byelection in November 1751, after the death of Paul Jodrell. The proprietor at the time, Thomas Pitt, had sold the privilege of choosing the Members to the Pelham Government for £2,000 and a pension of £1,000 a year, but the administration's choice of Simon Fanshawe was opposed by James Pitt (younger brother of George Pitt, Member for Dorset) and by John Thorold. The number of votes for each candidate was not recorded.

See also

• Unreformed House of Commons

Notes and references

Notes

References

1. Smith, Stooks, History of the General Election of 1802, p. 149
2. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
3. Members Constituencies Parliaments Surveys. "EVERARD, John II (?d.1445), of Salisbury, Wilts". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
4. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
5. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
6. Pitt's victory in the 1715 general election was the last contested election in Old Sarum.
7. Was also elected for Okehampton, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Old Sarum
8. Was also elected for Bodmin, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Old Sarum

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "O"
• 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)
• Smith, Henry Stooks (1844–1850) The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847, in 3 Volumes, London: Simpkin & Marshall, republished Craig, F.W.S. (ed.) (1973), Chichester : Political Reference Publications, ISBN 0-900178-13-2