Newtown was a parliamentary borough located in Newtown on the Isle of Wight, which was represented in the House of Commons of England 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 1832. It was represented by two members of parliament (MPs), elected by the bloc vote system.
The borough was abolished in the Reform Act 1832, and from the 1832 general election its territory was included in the new county constituency of Isle of Wight.
History Newtown, located on the large natural harbour on the north-western coast of the Isle of Wight, was the first borough established in the county. A French raid in 1377, which destroyed much of the town as well as other settlements on the island, sealed its permanent decline. By the mid-16th century it was a small settlement long eclipsed by the more easily defended town of Newport. To try to stimulate economic development, Elizabeth I awarded the town two parliamentary seats.
Newtown was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote was vested solely in the owners of a specified number of properties or "burgage tenements". At the time of the Reform Act 1832 there were 39 burgage tenements, held by 23 burgesses; however, most of these held only life grants. It was common practice for life grants to be made to friends of the proprietors so as to ensure that the full voting power could be exercised; if these nominees failed to vote as expected, they could be ejected and replaced by somebody more reliable before the next election. These voters were often non-resident – and indeed, it could hardly be otherwise, for although there were 39 burgage tenements, there were only 14 houses. Unlike many rotten boroughs, no single landowner controlled a majority of the burgages: the reversionary rights in them belonged to three families (Barrington, Holmes and Anderson-Pelham), with none having an overall majority. Elections in the borough consequently required careful management and sometimes considerable expenditure to achieve the desired result. In the 1750s and 1760s, the arrangement was that one of the two seats was considered to be in the gift of the Barrington family, while Thomas Holmes (who also nursed the other two Isle of Wight boroughs, Newport and Yarmouth, for the governmentPage 205, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition, London: Macmillan, 1957)) negotiated the election of the government's nominee for the other, unless he wanted it for a member of the Holmes family.
By 1831, the borough had a population of just 68, and it was disestablished the following year by the Reform Act.
Members of Parliament 1584–1640 ParliamentFirst memberSecond member 1584 William Meux Robert Redge 1586 Richard Huyshe Richard Dillington 1588 Richard Huyshe Richard Sutton 1593 Thomas Dudley Richard Browne 1597 Silvanus Scory Thomas Crompton 1601 Robert Wroth Robert Cotton 1604 Sir John Stanhope ennobled and replaced 1605 by Thomas Wilson William Meux 1614 (Mar) George Stoughton (sat for Guildford) and replaced 1614 by William HigfordSir Henry Berkeley 1621 (Jan) John Ferrar (sat for Tamworth) and replaced 1621 by Sir William HaringtonSir Thomas Barrington 1624 (Jan)George Garrard Sir Gilbert Gerard, Bt (sat for Middlesex) 1624 (Mar) Sir Thomas Barrington 1625 Sir Thomas Barrington Thomas Malet 1626 Sir Thomas Barrington Thomas Malet 1628–1629 Sir Thomas Barrington, 2nd Baronet Robert Barrington 1629–1640No Parliaments summoned
1640–1832 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640John MeuxCreated a baronet, December 1641Royalist Hon. Nicholas Weston November 1640Hon. Nicholas WestonRoyalistAugust 1642Weston disabled from sitting – seat vacantFebruary 1644Meux disabled from sitting – seat vacant1645Sir John BarringtonJohn BulkeleyDecember 1648Barrington and Bulkeley excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant1653Newtown was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659Serjeant John MaynardWilliam LaurenceMay 1659Not represented in the restored RumpApril 1660 Sir John Barrington Sir Henry Worsley 1666 Sir Robert Worsley 1677 Admiral Sir John Holmes February 1679 John Churchill August 1679 Lemuel Kingdon 1681 Daniel Finch 1685 Thomas Done William Blathwayt Whig1689 The Earl of Ranelagh 1695 James Worsley 1698 Thomas Hopsonn 1701 Joseph Dudley 1702 John Leigh 1705 James Worsley Henry Worsley 1715 Sir Robert Worsley 1722 William Stephens Charles Worsley 1727At the election of 1727 Worsley and Holmes beat Barrington and Powlett, but on petition the result was reversed as a result of a dispute over the franchise James Worsley Thomas Holmes Whig1729 Charles Armand Powlett Sir John Barrington 1734 James Worsley Thomas Holmes Whig1741 Sir John Barrington Henry Holmes 1747 Maurice Bocland 1754 Harcourt Powell April 1775 Charles Ambler December 1775 Edward Meux Worsley 1780 John BarringtonSucceeded to a baronetcy as Sir John Barrington in 1792 1782 Henry Dundas Tory1783 Richard Pepper Arden April 1784 James Worsley August 1784 Mark Gregory 1790 Sir Richard Worsley Whig1793 George Canning Tory1796 Sir Richard Worsley Whig Charles Shaw-Lefevre Whig1801 Sir Edward Law WhigMay 1802 Ewan Law July 1802 Sir Robert Barclay Whig Charles Chapman Whig1805 James Paull Whig1806 George Canning Tory1807 Barrington Pope Blachford Tory Dudley Long North Whig1808 Hon. George Anderson-Pelham Whig1816 Hudson Gurney Whig1820 Dudley Long North Whig1821 Charles Cavendish Whig1830 Hon. Charles Anderson-Pelham Whig1831 Sir William Horne Whig 1832 Constituency abolished Notes
See also Isle of Wight Newport (Isle of Wight) (UK Parliament constituency) Politics of the Isle of Wight Parliamentary representation from Isle of Wight
References 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) D Englefield, J Seaton & I White, Facts About the British Prime Ministers (London: Mansell, 1995) 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)