Heytesbury was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire which elected two Members of Parliament. From 1449 until 1707 it was represented in the House of Commons of England, and then in the British House of Commons until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Reform Act 1832.
History The borough consisted of a small part of the small market town or large village of Heytesbury, in the south-west of Wiltshire. In 1831, when the population of the whole parish was 1,394, the borough had a population of only 81. Already a small settlement, much of Heytesbury burned to the ground in 1765, but this did not affect its right to return members to parliament. The houses lost were subsequently rebuilt.
Heytesbury was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote was reserved to the householders of specific properties or "burgage tenements" within the borough; there were twenty-six of these tenements by the time of the Reform Act, and all had been owned by the heads of the A'Court family since the 17th century, giving them control of the choice of the two Members. Shortly before the Reform Act, the head of the family, Sir William Ashe A'Court, was raised to the peerage as Lord Heytesbury. By 1832 there had been no contested elections for more than half a century.
Heytesbury was abolished as a constituency by the Reform Act, which swept away all such rotten and pocket boroughs. Its residents who were qualified to vote were transferred into the new South Wiltshire county division.
Members of Parliament 1449–1640
ParliamentFirst memberSecond member 1491 John Kingsmill 1510–1523No names known 1529 Sir John Seymour Robert Seymour 1536 ? 1539 ? 1542 ? 1545 William Sharington Edward Chamberlain 1547 Thomas Throckmorton Thomas Eynns 1553 (Mar) ? 1553 (Oct) Fulk Mounslowe alias Langley Thomas Hill 1554 (Apr) Richard Forsett Christopher Dymars 1554 (Nov) Henry Unton ?Thomas Chaffyn 1555 Thomas Hungerford Fulk Mounslowe alias Langley 1558 Christopher Sackville Henry Partridge 1559 Sir Ralph Hopton Richard Pallady 1562–3 Richard Kingsmill Richard Cabell 1571 Thomas Wroughton Richard Cabell 1572 Sir John Thynne, died and replaced 1580 by Jasper Moore Edward Stafford 1584 John Thynne Lawrence Hyde I (died 1590) 1586 John Thynne John Bennett 1588 Francis Zouche Joshua Elmer 1593 John Thynne Thomas Thynne 1597 John Thynne Lawrence Hyde II 1601 John Thynne Richard Smythe 1604–1611 Sir William Eyre Walter Gowen 1614 Sir Henry Ludlow Walter Gowen 1621–1622 Sir Thomas Thynne Sir Henry Ludlow 1624 Sir Thomas Thynne Sir Henry Ludlow 1625 Sir Charles Berkeley Edward Bisse 1626 Sir Charles Berkeley William Blake 1628–1629 Sir Charles Berkeley William Rolfe 1629–1640No Parliaments summoned
1640–1832
YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640 Sir John Berkeley Thomas Moore November 1640 Edward AsheParliamentarian Thomas MooreParliamentarian December 1648Moore excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant1653Heytesbury was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659 John Ashe Samuel Ashe May 1659Not represented in the restored RumpApril 1660 Thomas Moore John Jolliffe 1661 Sir Charles Berkeley 1668 William Ashe Whig February 1679 Edward Ashe 1689 William Sacheverell Whig 1690 William Trenchard 1695 Edward Ashe 1701 Sir Edward Ernle 1702 William Monson 1708 William Ashe 1713 Pierce A'Court 1715 William Ashe 1722 Pierce A'Court 1725 Lord Charles Cavendish Whig 1727 Horatio Townshend 1734 Pierce A'Court-Ashe 1747 William Ashe 1751 William A'CourtWilliam A'Court Ashe from 1768 1768 Charles FitzRoy-Scudamore 1774 Hon. William Gordon September 1780William EdenEden was also elected for Woodstock, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Heytesbury in this Parliament December 1780 Francis Burton 1781 William Pierce Ashe A'Court 1784 William EdenCreated The Lord Auckland (in the Peerage of Ireland), September 1789 1790 Michael Angelo Taylor 1791 The Earl of Barrymore 1793 Charles Rose Ellis 1793 The Viscount Clifden 1796 Sir John Leicester, Bt February 1802 William Wickham July 1802 Charles AbbotAbbot was also elected for Woodstock, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Heytesbury Viscount Kirkwall December 1802 Dr Charles Moore 1806 Charles AbbotAbbot was also elected for Oxford University, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Heytesbury Sir William a'Court January 1807 Dr Charles Moore Michael Symes May 1807 Viscount Fitzharris 1812 Samuel HoodSucceeded as The Lord Bridport (in the Peerage of Ireland), May 1814 Charles Duncombe 1818 George James Welbore Agar-Ellis William Henry John Scott March 1820 Edward Henry A'Court Charles Ashe A'Court August 1820 Henry Handley 1826 Henry Stafford Northcote 1830 Sir George Staunton Independent 18311832 Constituency abolished
Notes
References
Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) 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)