Queenborough (UK Parliament constituency)

Queenborough was a rotten borough situated on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. From 1572 until it was abolished by the great reform act of 1832, it returned two Members of Parliament. The franchise was vested in the freemen of the town, of whom there were more than 300. Its electorate was therefore one of largest of the 56 boroughs that were abolished. Most freemen, however, were non resident.

Queenborough
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1572–1832
Number of members	Two

A small town in Kent, England, which grew as a port near the Thames Estuary. Formerly a municipal borough in the Faversham parliamentary division of Kent, is two miles south of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey, nearby the westward entrance to the Swale, where it joins the River Medway. It is now in the Sittingbourne and Sheppey parliamentary constituency and governed by Swale Borough Council and Queenborough Town Council. Queenborough Harbour offers moorings between the Thames and Medway. It is possible to land at Queenborough on any tide and there are boat builders and chandlers in the marina. Admiral Lord Nelson, is reputed to have learnt much of his seafaring skills in these waters, and also shared a house near the small harbour with his mistress, the Lady Hamilton.

Members of Parliament

1572-1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1571	John Brooke alias Cobham	John Parker [1]
1572 (May)	John Brooke alias Cobham	William Butler, died and replaced Dec 1580 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert [1]
1584 (Nov)	John Brooke alias Cobham	William Parry, expelled from the House and replaced Feb 1585 by Sir Edward Hoby [1]
1586 (Sep)	Sir Edward Hoby	Michael Sondes [1]
1588	William Boys	Michael Sondes [1]
1593	John Brooke alias Cobham	John Baynham [1]
1597	Sir George Carew	Michael Sondes [1]
1601	Sir Michael Sondes	Nicholas Troughton [1]
1604	Sir Edward Stafford	Michael Sondes
1605		Richard Wright
1614	Roger Palmer	Robert Hatton
1621-1622	James Palmer	William Frowde
1624	Roger Palmer	Robert Pooley
1625	Roger Palmer	Sir Edward Hales
1626	Roger Palmer	Robert Pooley
1628	Roger Palmer	Sir John Hales
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

1640-1832

Year	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
April 1640		Sir Edward Hales	Parliamentarian		John Wolstenholme
November 1640					William Harrison	Royalist
June 1643				Harrison disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1645					Sir Michael Livesey
April 1648	Hales disabled from sitting
1648		Augustine Garland
1653	Queenborough was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
1654		Augustine Garland		Queenborough had only one seat in the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
1656		Gabriel Livesey
January 1659		Thomas Bayles			Hon. James Herbert
May 1659		Augustine Garland		One seat vacant
April 1660		Sir William Wheler			Hon. James Herbert
1661		Sir Edward Hales
1677					James Herbert
January 1681					William Glanville
February 1681		Gerard Gore
1685		Sir John Godwin			Caleb Banks
1689		Robert Crawford			James Herbert (the younger)
1690					Sir John Banks
1695					Caleb Banks
1696					Thomas King
1705		Rear-Admiral Sir John Jennings
1708					Henry Withers
1710		Colonel Thomas King			James Herbert (the third)
1713					Charles Fotherby
1715					Philip Jennings
1722		Vice Admiral James Littleton			Lieutenant Colonel John Cope
1723		Captain Lord Forbes
1727		Sprig Manesty			John Crowley
1728					Captain Sir George Saunders
1729		Richard Evans
1735					Lord Archibald Hamilton
1741					Thomas Newnham
1754		Sir Charles Frederick			Captain Sir Peircy Brett [2]
1774					Sir Walter Rawlinson
1784		John Clater Aldridge			Captain George Bowyer
1790		Gibbs Crawfurd			Richard Hopkins
1793		Augustus Rogers	Tory
1794		John Sargent	Tory
1796					Evan Nepean	Tory
1802		John Prinsep	Whig		George Peter Moore	Whig
March 1806					Sir Samuel Romilly	Whig
October 1806		William Frankland	Whig
1807		Joseph Hunt[3]	Tory		Hon. John Villiers	Tory
1810		Richard Wellesley	Tory
January 1812		Sir Robert Moorsom	Tory
October 1812					John Osborn	Tory
1818					Hon. Edmund Phipps	Tory
1820		Hon. John Villiers	Tory		George Peter Holford	Tory
1824		Lord Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck	Whig
1826		The Lord Downes	Tory		John Capel	Tory
August 1830[4]		William Holmes	Tory		Sir Philip Charles Henderson Durham	Tory
December 1830		John Capel	Tory		Thomas Gladstone	Tory
1831					Lt General Sir John Colquhoun Grant	Tory
1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-10-12.
2. Rear Admiral from 1762
3. Hunt was expelled from the Commons on 23 May 1810
4. At the election of 1830 Holmes and Durham were initially declared to have defeated Capel and Gladstone and took their seats, but on petition the result was reversed. Holmes had also been elected for Haslemere, and sat for that constituency for the rest of the Parliament.

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)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• 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 "Q"