Whitchurch was a parliamentary borough in the English County of Hampshire, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the Unreformed House of Commons from 1586 until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.
History Whitchurch was one of a number of new boroughs created in the south of England by Queen Elizabeth I. The borough consisted of most of the town of Whitchurch in northern Hampshire, a market town which by the 19th century had shrunk to insignificance. In 1831, the population of the borough was approximately 1,673, and the town contained 261 houses of which 214 were within the borough.
Following a House of Commons decision in 1708, the right to vote was exercised by the freeholders of any tenements which had not been divided since the time of William III (or by their husbands if the freeholder was a woman). Whitchurch was therefore in effect a "burgage" borough (one where the vote was tied to ownership of specific properties). There were still competitive elections around the turn of the 18th century when no one influence was entirely predominant, and it is recorded that in 1685 it was one of the constituencies that King James II thought worth visiting on an electioneering tour soon after his accession. But by 1700 the Duke of Bolton, as the most powerful local landowner, could generally see his preferred candidates elected, and by the middle of the century, as in other burgage boroughs, a majority of the burgages were concentrated in the hands of two owners and Whitchurch had become an utterly secure pocket borough.
By the time of the Great Reform Act the number of "voters" was estimated to be about 84, but there had been no contested election since 1721; only 13 of the burgages were not owned by one of the two patrons, according to Oldfield, writing in 1816. Of course, had there been an election the two proprietors themselves could not have voted more than once; but they would have been able to simply make a temporary conveyance of each property to a reliable deputy, as frequently happened elsewhere, to ensure that their majority share of the ownership was reflected in the voting.
In the 1740s, these "patrons" were John Wallop, 1st Earl of PortsmouthPage 145, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957) and John Selwyn, who chose one MP each; Selwyn invariably made use of the seat for himself. After Selwyn's death in 1751 his share was inherited by his son-in-law, Thomas Townshend,Page 148, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957) who used the seat for his son, a rising minister. By the 1770s the former Portsmouth share of the representation was also in Townshend hands, and was used to find a seat for another relative, George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton.
Whitchurch was abolished as a separate constituency by the Reform Act, the town being included in the Northern division of Hampshire thereafter.
Members of Parliament 1584-1640 ParliamentFirst memberSecond member 1584 John Cooper Henry Audley 1586 John Cooper Henry Audley 1588 Richard Fiennes Henry Audley 1593 Robert West Richard Theakston 1597 Thomas Henshaw Richard Carey 1601 Thomas Henshaw Thomas Crompton 1604 Thomas Brookes Sir Richard Paulet 1614 Sir Edward Barrett Sir Richard Paulet 1621-1622 Sir Thomas Jervoise Sir Robert Oxenbridge 1624 Sir Henry Wallop Sir Thomas Jervoise 1625 Sir Thomas Jervoise Sir Robert Oxenbridge 1626 Sir Thomas Jervoise Sir Robert Oxenbridge 1628 Sir Thomas Jervoise Sir John Jephson 1629–1640 No Parliaments summoned
1640-1832
YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640Sir Thomas JervoiseRichard JervoiseParliamentarianNovember 16401645Thomas Hussey1653Whitchurch was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659Sir Henry VaneRobert ReynoldsMay 1659Not represented in the restored RumpApril 1660 Robert Wallop Giles Hungerford June 1660 Henry Wallop 1674 Richard Ayliffe 1679 Henry Wallop 1685 Lord James Russell 1692 Christopher Stokes 1698 Richard Wollaston 1701 Major-General John Shrimpton January 1708 Frederick Tylney (see biog. under Richard Child, 1st Earl Tylney)On petition, Tylney was declared not to have been duly elected February 1708 Charles Wither May 1708 On petition (in a dispute over the franchise), Lewis and Tylney were declared not to have been duly elected Thomas Lewis Frederick Tylney December 1708 Richard Wollaston George William Brydges 1710 Frederick Tylney Thomas VernonExpelled from the House of Commons for a corrupt attempt to influence a member of the committee on the South Sea Bubble in favour of his brother-in-law, John Aislabie 1715 General George Carpenter May 1721 Frederick TylneyOn petition, Tylney was declared not to have been duly elected, and his opponent Conduitt was seated in his place June 1721 John ConduittConduitt was re-elected in 1734, but the election was disputed. He had also been elected for Southampton, which he chose to represent; when the Commons eventually decided he had also been duly elected for Whitchurch, a by-election was held. Government Whig 1722 Thomas Vernon February 1727 Thomas Farrington August 1727 John Selwyn 1734 John Selwyn, junior 1735 Colonel John Mordaunt Government Whig 1741 John WallopWallop was also elected for Andover, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Whitchurch Government Whig 1742 William Sloper January 1743 Charles Clarke February 1743 Brigadier Thomas Wentworth 1747 Charles Wallop 1751 Lord Robert Bertie 1754 William Powlett Thomas Townshend Whig 1757 George Jennings 1768 Hon. Henry Wallop 1774 The Viscount Midleton 1783 William Selwyn 1790 Hon. John Townshend 1796 Hon. William Brodrick 1800 Hon. William Townshend 1816 Horatio George Powys Townshend Tory 1818 Sir Samuel Scott Tory 1826 Hon. John Robert Townshend Tory 1831 Horatio George Powys Townshend 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) Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988) T. H. B. Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816) 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)