Monmouth Boroughs (also known as the Monmouth District of Boroughs) was a parliamentary constituency consisting of several towns in Monmouthshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliaments of England, Great Britain, and finally the United Kingdom; until 1832 the constituency was known simply as Monmouth, though it included other "contributory boroughs".
History and boundaries The area was first enfranchised as the single-member borough of Monmouth or Monmouth Town in the reign of Henry VIII, at the same time as the counties and boroughs of Wales. On official, national-level paper cast as being in England its electoral arrangements from the outset resembled those of the Welsh boroughs rather than those in the rest of England - its single member and its other "contributory boroughs" in the same county, which were required to contribute to the members' expenses and which had the right to send voters to take part in the election at the county town. These were initially six or perhaps seven in number: Caerleon, Newport, Trellech, Usk, Chepstow, Abergavenny and possibly Grosmont; but by the late 17th century all of the electors were freemen of Monmouth, Usk and Newport.
The franchise was settled by a judgment in a disputed election in 1680, when Monmouth attempted to return a member to parliament without the involvement of the other boroughs, and the Court declared the right to vote to rest in the resident freemen of Monmouth, Newport and Usk. The number of electors fell away sharply during the 18th century - from 2,000 in 1715 to about 800 in the 1754-1790 period; by the time of the Great Reform Act in 1832 qualified voters numbered: 123 in Newport, 83 in Monmouth and 74 in Usk. In Tudor times the seat was under the influence of the Duchy of Lancaster and around the start of the 18th century it was a pocket borough of the Morgan family of Tredegar, who were influential in the Newport area; but soon afterwards the Dukes of Beaufort (a Scudamore family branch) gained control. After the Duke's candidate had won the election of 1715 decisively, this patronage was so clear contests ceased until 1820 – their candidates (many of them members of the family) were returned unopposed.
At the time of the Great Reform Act (or First Reform Act), 1832, Monmouth and Newport each had around 5,000 residents and Usk just over 1,000. This was great for most seats of its type – even dual-member boroughs were mostly kept if they had or could be simply drawn to exceed 4,000 residents. Nevertheless, all three parts of this seat were expanding by taking into the new high-rent-paying and/or landed outlook (franchise) a broad view of each town; such area took in 13,101 people and its electorate (under the "reformed" franchise) was 899. Henceforth it was generally referred to as the Monmouth Boroughs.
From 1832 until 1906 results tended on 'marginal' rather than 'safe', alternating between Conservatives and Whigs/Liberals. Crawshay Bailey (Con.) was returned unopposed four times after he was first elected. The seat moved steadily towards the Liberals, however, as the franchise became more inclusive and Newport grew in size; by the turn of the century 90% of the electorate was there, and it was a mass-labour working class and mainly industrial town unlike Monmouth and Usk. The Conservatives won in their landslide year of 1900 and held the seat in the by-election when that election was voided for various irregularities, but were probably helped by the association of the Liberal candidate with the campaign to extend the Welsh Sunday Closing Act to Monmouthshire. After, it was identifiably "safely" Liberal, and at the time of the 1911 census had a population of 77,902.
The seat was abolished by the Representation of the People Act 1918: Newport became a parliamentary borough; Monmouth and Usk, mainstays of "Monmouth" county constituency.
Boundary reforms Redefined limits of the three contributory boroughs were set in 1832 and 1885.
Members of Parliament
1545-1640 ParliamentFirst member 1542Thomas Kynnyllyn 1545Richard Morgan, also elected for Gloucester 1547Giles Morgan 1553 (Mar)(not known) 1553 (Oct)John Philip Morgan 1554 (Apr)John Philip Morgan 1554 (Nov)John Philip Morgan 1555Thomas Lewis 1558Matthew Herbert 1559 Moore Powell 1562 Moore Powell 1571 Charles Herbert 1572 Moore Powell, died and replaced 1576 by Sir William Morgan 1584 Moore Gwillim 1586 Moore Gwillim 1588 Philip Jones 1593 Edward Hubberd 1597 Robert Johnson 1601 Robert Johnson 1604-1611 (Sir) Robert Johnson 1614 Sir Robert Johnson 1621-1622 Thomas Ravenscroft 1624 Walter Stewart or Steward 1625 Walter Stewart or Steward 1626 William Fortune 1628 William Morgan 1629–1640 No Parliaments summoned
1640-1918 YearMemberParty April 1640 Charles JonesJones was also elected for Beaumaris, but had not chosen his seat before parliament was dissolved November 1640 Disputed election - seat effectively vacant The election of November 1640 was disputed between William Watkins and Thomas Trevor. Watkins took his seat at the very beginning of the Parliament, but was then instructed to cease attending until the dispute had been resolved; in fact this had not happened by the time of the outbreak of the Civil War, and proceedings were then put in abeyance and neither ever gained the seat. Watkins was disabled from sitting for his adherence to the Royalist cause while Trevor was elected for another constituency, and a writ to fill the vacant seat was eventually issued in 1646. 1646 Thomas Pury 1653Monmouth was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659Nathaniel Waterhouse May 1659 Thomas Pury April 1660 Sir Trevor Williams 1661 Sir George Probert 1677 Charles Somerset February 1679 Sir Trevor Williams September 1679 Charles SomersetOn petition, Herbert was declared not to have been duly elected, having been returned only by the freemen of Monmouth, and his opponent Arnold (who had the majority once the votes of Newport and Usk were included) was declared elected in his place 1680 John Arnold WhigApril 1685 Charles Somerset June 1685 Sir James Herbert January 1689 John Arnold WhigFebruary 1689 John Williams 1690 Sir Charles Kemeys 1695 John Arnold Whig 1698 Henry Probert 1701 John Morgan 1705 Sir Thomas Powell 1708 Clayton Milborne 1715 William Bray 1720 Andrews Windsor 1722 Edward Kemeys 1734 Lord Charles Somerset 1745 Sir Charles Tynte 1747 Fulke Greville 1754 Benjamin Bathurst 1767 (Sir) John StepneySucceeded to a baronetcy, October 1772 1788 Henry SomersetWorcester was re-elected in 1790, but had also been elected for Bristol, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Monmouth Tory 1790 Charles Bragge Tory 1796 Vice Admiral (Sir) Charles ThompsonCreated a baronet, 1797 1799 Lord Edward Somerset Tory 1802 Lord Charles Somerset Tory 1813 Henry Somerset ToryMay 1831 Benjamin HallOn petition, Hall's election was overturned and the Marquess of Worcester declared re-elected in his place WhigJuly 1831 Henry Somerset Tory 1832 Benjamin Hall Whig 1837 Reginald Blewitt Whig 1852Crawshay Bailey Conservative 1868Sir John Ramsden Liberal 1874Thomas Cordes Conservative 1880Edward Carbutt Liberal 1886Sir George Elliot Conservative 1892Albert Spicer Liberal 1900Dr Frederick Rutherfoord HarrisOn petition, the election of Harris was declared void and a by-election held Conservative 1901Joseph Lawrence Conservative 1906Lewis Haslam Liberal 1916 Coalition Liberal 1918 constituency abolished
Election results Elections in the 1830s
On petition, Hall was unseated and Somerset was declared elected.
Elections in the 1840s
Elections in the 1850s
Blewitt resigned by accepting the office of Steward of the Manor of Hempholme, causing a by-election.
Elections in the 1860s
Elections in the 1870s
Elections in the 1880s
Elections in the 1890s
Elections in the 1900s
Elections in the 1910s
General Election 1914–15:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected; Liberal: Lewis Haslam Unionist:
Notes and references Notes
References
Bibliography S T Bindoff, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509-1558 (Secker & Warburg, 1982) D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954) The Constitutional Year Book for 1913 (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913) F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989) P W Hasler, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1558-1603 (London: HMSO, 1981) Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964) 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) Henry Pelling, Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910 (London: Macmillan, 1967) J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965) Romney Sedgwick, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1715-1754, (London: HMSO, 1970) Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956) Parliamentary Boundaries Act, 1832 (2 & 3 Will. 4 c.64), Schedule O Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict c.23), Ninth Schedule W R Williams The Parliamentary History of the Principality of Wales Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)