Castle Rising was a parliamentary borough in Norfolk, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1558 until it was abolished by the Great Reform Act 1832. Its famous members of Parliament included the future Prime Minister Robert Walpole and the diarist Samuel Pepys.
History The borough extended over four parishes - Castle Rising, Roydon, North Wootton and South Wootton, in rural Norfolk to the north-east of King's Lynn. Castle Rising had once been a market town and seaport, but long before the passing of the Reform Act 1832 had declined to little more than a village. In 1831, the population of the borough was 888, and contained 169 houses.
Castle Rising was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote was vested in the owners of particular properties ("burgage tenements"), and that consequently the absolute right to nominate both the MPs could be bought and sold. Although it was possible for the landowner to create multiple voters by giving a reliable nominee notional ownership of the tenements – as was done in many other burgage boroughs – in Castle Rising the number of voters was kept as low as possible, and contested elections were almost unknown.
The Lord of the manor invariably owned a majority of the burgage tenements, though other influential local families were generally allowed to select the second MP. In the seventeenth century the Duke of Norfolk was the dominant interest: it was the Norfolk interest which enabled Samuel Pepys to gain the seat in 1673. At the start of the 18th century, the borough belonged to the Walpole family, and Sir Robert Walpole (Britain's first Prime Minister) began his parliamentary career here. Later in the century the Walpoles still nominated one MP, and the Earl of Suffolk the other.Pages 145 and 146, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957), The Walpole family are noted as "Earl of Orford". By 1816 the patronage had passed to the Earl of Cholmondeley and Richard Howard.
Castle Rising was abolished as a constituency by the Reform Act 1832.
Members of Parliament
1558–1640 YearFirst memberSecond member 1558 Sir John RadcliffeSir Nicholas L'Estrange 1559Thomas Steyning Sir Nicholas L'Estrange 1562–1563 Sir Nicholas L'Estrange Francis Carew 1571Sir Nicholas L'Estrange George Dacres 1572Nicholas Mynn Edward Flowerdew, sick and replaced Jan 1581 by Sir William Drury 1584Michael Stanhope Richard Drake 1586Philip Wodehouse Thomas Norris 1588Bartholomew Kemp Richard Stubbe 1593John Townshend Henry Spelman 1597Thomas Guybon Henry Spelman 1601John Peyton Robert Townshend 1604–1611 Thomas Monson Sir Robert Townshend 1614 Sir Robert Wynd Thomas Binge 1621–1622 Robert Spiller John Wilson 1624 Sir Robert Spiller Sir Thomas Bancroft 1625 Sir Hamon le Strange Sir Thomas Bancroft 1626 Sir Hamon le Strange Sir Thomas Bancroft 1628 Sir Robert Cotton Sir Thomas Bancroft 1629–1640 No parliaments summoned
1640–1832 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640 Nicholas Harman Thomas Talbot November 1640 Sir Christopher HattonHatton was also elected for Higham Ferrers, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Castle Rising.Royalist Sir John Holland Parliamentarian 1641Sir Robert HattonRoyalistSeptember 1642Hatton disabled from sitting - seat vacant1645John SpelmanDecember 1648Spelman and Holland excluded in Pride's Purge - both seats vacant1653Castle Rising was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659 John Fielder Guybon Goddard May 1659Not represented in the restored RumpApril 1660 John Spelman Sir John Holland Parliamentarian 1661 Sir Robert Paston Robert Steward February 1673 Sir John Trevor ToryNovember 1673 Samuel Pepys Tory 1679 Sir Robert Howard Whig James Hoste 1685 Sir Nicholas L'Estrange Tory Thomas Howard 1689 Sir Robert Howard Whig Robert Walpole Whig 1698 Thomas Howard WhigJanuary 1701 Robert Walpole WhigApril 1701 Robert Cecil December 1701 The Earl of Ranelagh February 1702 Marquess of Hartington WhigJuly 1702 Sir Thomas Littleton Whig Horatio Walpole, senior ToryMay 1705 Sir Robert Clayton WhigNovember 1705 William Feilding October 1710 Robert WalpoleWalpole was also elected for King's Lynn, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Castle Rising. WhigDecember 1710 Horatio Walpole, senior Tory 1713 Horatio Walpole, junior Whig 1715 Lieutenant-General Charles Churchill Whig 1724 The Earl of Mountrath 1734 Thomas Hanmer 1737 Viscount Andover 1745 Richard Rigby Whig 1747 Robert Knight, 1st Baron Luxborough Whig Hon. Thomas Howard 1754 Hon. Horace Walpole Whig 1757 Charles Boone 1768 Thomas Whately Whig Jenison Shafto 1771 Crisp Molineux 1772 Lord Guernsey 1774 Alexander WedderburnWedderburn was also elected for Okehampton, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Castle Rising. Robert Mackreth 1775 Hon. Charles Finch 1777 John Chetwynd Talbot 1782 Major Sir James Erskine 1784 Charles Boone Walter Sneyd 1790 Henry Drummond 1794 Charles Bagot-Chester 1796 Horatio Churchill 1802 Peter Isaac Thellusson 1806 Richard Sharp 1807 Charles Bagot 1808 Fulk Greville Howard Tory 1812 Augustus Cavendish-Bradshaw Tory 1817 Earl of Rocksavage Tory 1822 Lord William Cholmondeley Tory1832 Constituency abolished
Notes
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) 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)