Great Marlow, sometimes simply called Marlow, was a parliamentary borough in Buckinghamshire. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of England between 1301 and 1307, and again from 1624 until 1707, then in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and finally in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1868. It elected one member from 1868 until 1885, when the borough was abolished.
History In the 17th century a solicitor named William Hakewill, of Lincoln's Inn, rediscovered ancient writs confirming that Amersham, Great Marlow, and Wendover had all sent members to Parliament in the past, and succeeded in re-establishing their privileges (despite the opposition of James I), so that they resumed electing members from the Parliament of 1624. Hakewill himself was elected for Amersham in 1624.
Members of Parliament MPs 1624–1640 YearFirst memberSecond memberConstituency re-enfranchised by Parliament in 16241624 Henry Borlase Thomas Cotton1625 John Backhouse Thomas Cotton1626 John Backhouse Sir William Hicks, 1st Baronet1628 Sir John Backhouse Miles Hobart
MPs 1640–1868 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640 John Borlase Royalist Sir William Hicks November 1640 Gabriel Hippesley1640Bulstrode WhitelockeParliamentarian Peregrine Hoby ParliamentarianDecember 1648Hoby excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant1653Great Marlow was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659 William Borlase Peregrine Hoby May 1659Bulstrode WhitelockeOne seat vacantApril 1660 William Borlase Peregrine Hoby 1666 Charles Cheyne 1679 John Borlase Sir Humphrey Winch 1681 Thomas Hoby 1685 Sir John Borlase Sir Humphrey Winch January 1689 The Viscount Falkland February 1689 John Hoby December 1689 Sir William Whitelock 1690 James Chase 1695 Sir James Etheridge 1710 George Bruere 1715 The Lord Shelburne 1722 Edmund Waller Sir John Guise 1727 John Clavering 1731 George Robinson 1732 by-election Sir Thomas Hoby 1741 Samuel Tufnell 1744 by-election William Ockenden 1747 Merrick Burrell 1754 Charles Churchill Daniel Moore 1761 William Clayton (elder) William Mathew Burt 1768 William Dickinson 1774 (Sir) John Borlase Warren 1783 by-election William Clayton (later 4th Bt) 1784 Captain Sir Thomas Rich 1790 Thomas Williams Tory William Lee-Antonie Whig1796 Owen Williams Whig 1802 by-election Pascoe Grenfell Whig1820 Thomas Peers WilliamsWhig1832Tory (Sir) William Clayton Whig1834 Conservative 1842 Renn Hampden Conservative1847 Brownlow William Knox Conservative1868 Representation reduced to one member
MPs 1868–1885 ElectionMemberParty 1868 Thomas Owen Wethered Conservative 1880 Owen Williams Conservative1885 Constituency abolished
Election results Elections in the 1830s
Owen Williams' death caused a by-election.
Elections in the 1840s
On petition, Clayton was unseated on 11 April 1842 due to bribery and Hampden was declared elected in his place.
Elections in the 1850s
Elections in the 1860s
Seat reduced to one member
Elections in the 1870s
Elections in the 1880s
References
Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) 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)