Gatton was a parliamentary borough in Surrey, one of the most notorious of all the rotten boroughs. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1450 until 1832, when the constituency was abolished by the Great Reform Act. Around the time of that Act it was often held up by reformers as the epitome of what was wrong with the unreformed system.
History The borough consisted of part of the parish of Gatton, near Reigate, between London and Brighton. It included the manor and estate of Gatton Park. Gatton was no more than a village, with a population in 1831 of 146, and 23 houses of which as few as six may have been within the borough.
The right to vote was extended to all freeholders and inhabitants paying scot and lot; but this apparently wide franchise was normally meaningless in tiny Gatton: there were only 7 qualified voters in 1831, and the number had sometimes fallen as low as two.Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964) This position had existed long before the 19th century: Gatton was one of the first of the English boroughs to come under the total dominance of a "patron": in the reign of Henry VIII, when Gatton's representation was only a century old, Sir Roger Copley described himself as "its burgess and only inhabitant". In these circumstances, the local landowners had no difficulty in maintaining absolute control, and for most of the 16th century it was the Copleys who held this power. However, the Copleys were Roman Catholics, and this caused difficulties in the later Elizabethan period: the head of the family, Thomas Copley, went into voluntary exile abroad, and when his wife and child returned to England after his death she was soon caught harbouring a Catholic priest. The Sheriff and Deputy Lieutenants of Surrey were directed by the Privy Council to ensure that Gatton made its choice free from any influence by Mrs Copley; the sheriff's precept for the election was directed not to the Lord of the manor but to the parish constable; and it seems that between 1584 and 1621 the humble villagers of Gatton may have genuinely elected their MPs in their own right.
In the 1750s, Sir James Colebrooke (Lord of the manor of Gatton) nominated for one seatPage 146, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957) and the Rev John Tattersall (Lord of the manor of nearby Upper Gatton) the other. In 1774, Sir William Mayne (later Lord Newhaven) bought both manors and therefore control of both seats; from 1786 onwards they changed hands several times more, ending in the hands of Sir Mark Wood by the turn of the century. The borough was sold again in 1830, at a reported price of £180,000, despite the prospect of disenfranchisement; in the same year, while the ownership of the borough was under the administration of a broker, one of its seats in the new Parliament was sold for £1,200.
The small edifice, known as the town hall, where the elections are said to have taken place can still be seen today. Most of the site of the former constituency is now occupied by The Royal Alexandra and Albert School.Gatton Foundation .
Contested election
Even though Gatton elections were entirely in the hands of the Lord of the manor, there was a contested by-election on 24 January 1803. James Dashwood, one of the sitting members, was persuaded to resign to allow Philip Dundas (nephew of Pitt's ally Henry Dundas) to take a seat in Parliament. However, Joseph Clayton Jennings, a barrister who supported Parliamentary reform, arrived to contest the election together with a group of radical supporters. Jennings obtained one vote from a man claiming to be entitled to vote, but Dashwood (the returning officer) rejected it; hence Dundas was returned by 1 vote to nil.History of Parliament 1790–1820, vol II p 380-1
A garbled version of the 1803 by-election was included by Henry Stooks Smith in The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847, as the supposed story of a by-election in 1816, at which Sir Mark Wood, 2nd Baronet was returned. Stooks Smith wrote:
The History of Parliament notes that this story "has not been confirmed". Gatton's representation was abolished by the Reform Act in 1832.
Members of Parliament
1510–1640 ParliamentFirst memberSecond member 1510–1523 No names known 1529 John Guildford ?William Saunders 1536 ? 1539 ? 1542 Thomas Saunders Thomas Bishop 1545 Edward Bellingham Roger Heigham 1547 Richard Shelley John Tingleden, died and replaced by Jan 1552 by Thomas Guildford 1553 (Mar) Richard Southwell alias Darcy Leonard Dannett 1553 (Oct) Sir Thomas Cornwallis Chidiock Paulet 1554 (Apr) Thomas Gatacre Thomas Copley 1554 (Nov) William Wootton Thomas Copley 1555 Humphrey Moseley Sir Henry Hussey 1558 Thomas Copley Thomas Norton 1558–9 Thomas Copley Thomas Farnham 1562–3 Sir Robert Lane Thomas Copley 1571 Edmund Slyfield Edward Whitton 1572 Edmund Tilney Roland Maylard 1584 Francis Bacon, sat for Melcombe Regis and replaced by Edward Browne Thomas Bishopp 1586 Serjeant John Puckering Edward Browne 1588 Richard Browne John Herbert 1593 William Lane George Buc 1597 George BucMichael Hicks 1601 Sir Matthew Browne Richard Sondes 1604–1611 Sir Thomas Gresham Sir Nicholas Saunders 1614 Sir Thomas Gresham Sir John Brooke 1621 Sir Thomas GreshamSir Thomas Bludder 1624 Sir Edmund BowyerSamuel Owfield 1625 Sir Charles Howard Thomas Crewe 1626 Sir Samuel Owfield Sir Charles Howard 1628 Sir Samuel Owfield Sir Charles Howard 1629–1640No Parliaments summoned
1640–1832
YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyNovember 1640 Sir Samuel OwfieldParliamentarian Double return for second seat, not resolved until 1641November 1641 Thomas SandysParliamentarian 1644Owfield died – seat left vacant1645William OwfieldDecember 1648Sandys and Owfield excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant1653Gatton was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659 Edward BisheThomas Turgis May 1659Not represented in the restored RumpApril 1660 Sir Edmund Bowyer Thomas Turgis 1661 William Owfield 1664 Sir Nicholas Carew 1685 Sir John Thompson, Bt 1696 George Evelyn 1698 Hon. Maurice Thompson 1702 Thomas Onslow 1705 Sir George Newland Paul Docminique 1710 William Newland 1735 Charles Docminique 1738 Professor George Newland 1745 Paul Humphrey 1749 Charles Knowles 1751 (Sir) James ColebrookeCreated a baronet, October 1759 1752 William Bateman 1754 Thomas Brand 1761 Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Harvey 1768 Hon. John Damer Joseph Martin October 1774 Sir William MayneMayne was also elected for Canterbury, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Gatton in this Parliament Robert ScottScott was also elected for Wootton Basset, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Gatton December 1774 Robert Mayne William Adam 1780 The Lord Newhaven 1782 Maurice Lloyd 1787 James Fraser 1790 John Nesbitt William Currie May 1796 John Petrie Sir Gilbert Heathcote, BtHeathcote was also elected for Lincolnshire, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Gatton November 1796 John Heathcote 1799 (Sir) Walter StirlingCreated a baronet, December 1800 1800 James Du Pre 1802 Sir Mark Wood, Bt James Dashwood 1803 Philip Dundas 1805 William Garrow 1806 James Athol Wood 1807 George Bellas Greenough 1812 William Congreve 1816 Sir Mark Wood, BtWood replaced CongreveTory 1818 Abel Rous Dottin John Fleming 1820 Jesse Watts-Russell Thomas Divett 1826 William Scott Michael Prendergast Mar 1830 Joseph Neeld July 1830 John Shelley John Thomas Hope Tory 1831 Viscount Pollington Anthony John Ashley 1832 Constituency abolished
Notes
References Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) 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) J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949) J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965) Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903) Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)