Malton, also called New Malton, was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England in 1295 and 1298, and again from 1640, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885. It was represented by two Members of Parliament until 1868, among them the political philosopher Edmund Burke, and by one member from 1868 to 1885.

The constituency was divided between the new Thirsk and Malton division of the North Riding of Yorkshire and the Buckrose division of the East Riding of Yorkshire from 1885.

Boundaries The constituency consisted of parts of the St Leonard's and St Michael's parishes of New Malton in the North Riding until the Great Reform Act 1832; the borough at that point included 791 houses and had a population of 4,173 in the 1831 census. The Reform Act 1832 expanded the boundaries to include the whole of those two parishes, as well as that of Old Malton and of the adjoining town of Norton in the East Riding, increasing the population to 7,192 and encompassing 1,401 houses.

Franchise The right of election in Malton was vested in the scot and lot householders of the borough, of whom there were about 800 in 1832. In practice the seats were generally in the gift of the landowner, Earl Fitzwilliam (and were frequently held by one of that family, often by the heir to the Earldom who had the courtesy title Viscount Milton); at an earlier period the borough was similarly dominated by the Watson-Wentworth family, and was used as a form of government patronage when the Marquess of Rockingham was Prime Minister.

Members of Parliament New Malton re-enfranchised by Parliament in November 1640

MPs 1640–1868 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyNovember 1640 Thomas Hebblethwaite Royalist Henry Cholmley ParliamentarianNovember 1644Hebblethwaite disabled to sit – seat vacant1645 Richard Darley December 1648Cholmley excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant1653Malton was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament 1654,1656Malton was unrepresented in the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659 Philip Howard George Marwood May 1659 Richard Darley One seat vacantApril 1660 Thomas Hebblethwaite Philip Howard April (?) 1661 Thomas Danby December 1661 Sir Thomas Gower 1668 William Palmes 1673 James Hebblethwaite 1679 Sir Watkinson Payler 1685 Hon. Thomas Fairfax Thomas Worsley 1689 William Palmes Junto Whig Sir William Strickland Junto Whig1698 Thomas Worsley1701 Sir William Strickland Junto Whig1708 William Strickland Whig1713 Thomas Watson-Wentworth 1715 Thomas Watson-Wentworth (the younger)1722 Sir William Strickland Whig1724 by-election Henry Finch 1727 Wardell Westby 1731 by-electionSir William Wentworth May 1741 Lord James Cavendish Dec 1741 by-election John Mostyn 1761 by-election Savile Finch Whig1768 The Viscount Downe 1774 Edmund Burke Rockinghamite Whig1775 by-election William Weddell Whig1780 by-election Edmund Burke WhigApril 1784 Sir Thomas Gascoigne WhigAug 1784 by-election William Weddell Whig1792 by-election Hon. George DamerWhig1794 by-election Richard Burke (died 1794) Whig1795 by-election William Baldwin Whig1798 by-election Bryan Cooke Whig1798 by-election Charles Lawrence Dundas Whig1805 by-election Henry Grattan Whig1806 Viscount Milton Whig1807 Hon. Charles Winn-Allanson ToryRobert Lawrence Dundas WhigMar 1808 by-election Bryan Cooke Whig1812John Ramsden Whig Viscount Duncannon Whig1826 Viscount Normanby Canningite Tory1830 Sir James Scarlett WhigApril 1831 by-election Francis Jeffrey WhigMay 1831 Henry Gally Knight WhigJul 1831 by-election William Cavendish WhigSep. 1831 by-election Charles Pepys Whig1832 William Fitzwilliam Whig1833 by-election John Ramsden Whig1836 by-election John Walbanke-Childers Whig1837 by-election Viscount Milton Whig1841 Evelyn Denison Whig1846 by-election Viscount Milton Whig1847 John Walbanke-Childers Whig1852 Hon. Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam Whig1857 James Brown Whig1859 Liberal Liberal1868 Representation reduced to one member

MPs 1868–1885 YearMemberParty 1868 Hon. Charles Wentworth-FitzWilliam Liberal1885 constituency abolished

Election results Elections in the 1830s

Scarlett resigned, causing a by-election.

Jeffrey was also elected for Perth Burghs and opted to sit there, causing a by-election.

Cavendish resigned, causing a by-election.

Wentworth-FitzWilliam resigned in order to contest a by-election at North Northamptonshire, causing a by-election.

Pepys was appointed as Solicitor General for England and Wales, requiring a by-election.

Pepys was appointed as First Lord Commissioner for the Custody of the Great Seal, requiring a by-election.

Pepys resigned after being appointed as Lord Chancellor and being elevated to the peerage, becoming 1st Earl of Cottenham, requiring a by-election.

Ramsden's death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1840s

Childers resigned by accepting the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1850s

Elections in the 1860s

Seat reduced to one member

Elections in the 1870s

Elections in the 1880s

Notes Footnotes

Citations

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) Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989) 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) Robert Walcott, "English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century" (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956) Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)