Old Sarum was from 1295 until 1832 a parliamentary constituency of England, Great Britain (until 1800), and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was a so-called rotten borough, with an extremely small electorate that was consequently vastly over-represented and could be used by a patron in gaining such undue influence. The constituency was on the site of what had been the original settlement of Salisbury, known as Old Sarum. The population and cathedral city had moved in the 14th century to New Sarum, at the foot of the Old Sarum hill. It became one of the more notorious constituencies in the unreformed House of Commons and was abolished under the Reform Act 1832.
History In 1295, during the reign of King Edward I, Old Sarum was given the right to send two members to the House of Commons of England even though the site had ceased to be a city with the dissolution of Old Sarum Cathedral in 1226. The seat of the Bishop had moved to New Salisbury – and the location of the new cathedral – in 1217–18. All that remained at Old Sarum was a small hamlet. But that was largely abandoned when Edward II ordered the castle's demolition in 1322. The remains of the old settlement were razed for its materials that were used to construct the new city and Salisbury Cathedral. Evidence of quarrying showed it continued well into the 14th century. Two hundred years later Henry VIII sold the former Royal Castle to Thomas Compton.Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol 1, no. 5715, 26 December 1514. Cited in:
Despite having no significant population, the borough was organised with a burgage franchise, meaning that the inhabitants of designated houses (burgage tenements) had the right to vote. From at least the 17th century, Old Sarum had no resident voters, but the landowner retained the right to nominate tenants for each of the burgage plots, and they were not required to live there. For many years, the borough was owned by the Pitt family and was their pocket borough:Page 60, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition – London: St Martin's Press, 1957) one of its Members in the late 18th century was William Pitt the Elder. In 1802, the head of the family, Lord Camelford, sold the borough to the Earl of Caledon, who owned it until its abolition; the price was reported as £60,000, even though the land and manorial rights were worth £700 a year at most: an indication of the value of a pair of parliamentary seats. At its final election, in 1831, there were eleven voters, all of whom were landowners who lived elsewhere. This made Old Sarum the most notorious of the rotten boroughs, being described as "a wall with two niches". The Reform Act 1832 subsumed the Old Sarum area into an enlarged borough of Wilton.
In the last years, the spectacle of an Old Sarum election drew a small crowd to observe the ritual presentation of the two candidates and the hollow call for any further nominations. Stooks Smith quotes a contemporary description dating from the 1802 general election:
Place of election Elections in Old Sarum were conducted on a mobile hustings under a specific tree, which died in 1905, in what was known as the "electing acre". citing Journal of the House of Commons, xv, page 60 (11 December 1705)
Members of Parliament 1295–1640
ParliamentFirst memberSecond member 1386 Walter Upton Bartholomew Avery 1388 (Feb) John Avery I 1388 (Sep) 1390 (Jan) 1390 (Nov) 1391 1393 1394 John Avery I John Chipplegh 1395 Robert Page 1397 (Jan) 1397 (Sep) John Avery I Robert Page 1399 1414 (Apr) Robert Long William Chesterton 1414 (Nov) 1415 1416 (Mar) 1416 (Oct) 1417 John Giles John Noble 1419 1420 1421 (May) Henry Bradley John Ludwell 1421 (Dec) John Fruysthorp 1423John Everard 1435 Henry Long 1442 Richard Long 1510–1523 No names known 1529 Thomas Hilton William Lambert 1536 ? 1539 ? 1542 ? 1545 William Hulcote John Bassett 1547John Young ? by Jan 1552 William Thomas 1553 (Mar) James Brande William Wekys 1553 (Oct) Sir Nicholas Throckmorton John Throckmorton 1554 (Apr) Richard Clipper Edmund Twyneho 1554 (Nov) John Tull Francis Killinghall 1555 John Marshe William Chamber 1558 Sir Henry Jones John Bateman 1559 John Harington Henry Hart 1562–3 Edward Herbert Henry Compton 1571 John Young Edmund Ludlow 1572 Hugh Powell John Frenche 1584 Richard Topcliffe Roger Gifford 1586 Edward Berkeley Richard Topcliffe 1588–9 Roger Gifford Henry Baynton I 1593 Anthony Ashley Edmund Fortescue 1597 William Blaker Nicholas Hyde 1601 Robert TurnerHenry Hyde 1604–1611 William Ravenscroft Edward Leache 1614William Price 1621–1622 George Myne Thomas Brett 1624 Sir Robert Cotton Sir Arthur Ingram, sat for York and repl. by Michael Oldisworth 1625 Michael Oldisworth Sir John Stradling 1626Sir Benjamin Rudyerd 1628Christopher Keightley 1629–1640No Parliaments summoned
1640–1832 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640Sir William HowardEdward HerbertRoyalistNovember 1640Hon. Robert CecilParliamentarianEdward HerbertRoyalist1641Sir William SavileRoyalistSeptember 1642Savile disabled from sitting – seat vacant1646Roger Kirkham1647Sir Richard LucyDecember 1648Cecil not recorded as sitting after Pride's Purge1653Old Sarum was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659Richard HillWilliam LudlowMay 1659Old Sarum was not represented in the restored RumpApril 1660Seymour BowmanJohn Norden1661Edward NicholasJohn Denham1669Sir Eliab Harvey February 1679Eliab HarveyJohn YoungAugust 1679The Lord ColeraineSir Eliab Harvey1681Sir Thomas MompessonJanuary 1689John YoungThomas PittMarch 1689William HarveyJohn Hawles1690Sir Thomas Mompesson1695Thomas Pitt1698Charles Mompesson1705Robert Pitt1708William Harvey1710Thomas PittPitt's victory in the 1715 general election was the last contested election in Old Sarum.1713Robert Pitt1716Sir William Strickland, BtWhigMarch 1722Thomas PittNovember 1722George Morton Pitt1724John Pitt1726George Pitt1727Thomas Pitt of BoconnocWas also elected for Okehampton, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Old SarumThe Earl of LondonderryMarch 1728Matthew St QuintinMay 1728Thomas Harrison1734Thomas Pitt of BoconnocRobert Nedham1735William Pitt1741George Lyttelton1742James GrenvilleMay 1747Edward WillesJuly 1747Thomas Pitt of BoconnocSir William Irby, BtDecember 1747Earl of MiddlesexWas also elected for Bodmin, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Old SarumThe Viscount DoneraileJanuary 1751Paul JodrellNovember 1751Simon Fanshawe1754Viscount PulteneyThomas Pitt of Boconnoc1755Sir William CalvertMarch 1761Thomas Pitt of BoconnocHowell GwynneDecember 1761Thomas Pitt (the younger)1768William Gerard HamiltonJohn Craufurd1774Pinckney WilkinsonThomas Pitt (the younger)January 1784The Hon. John VilliersMarch 1784George Hardinge1790John Sullivan1796The Earl of Mornington1797Charles Williams-Wynn1799Sir George Yonge1801Rev. John Horne TookeRadical1802Nicholas VansittartToryHenry AlexanderTory1806The Lord Blayney1807Josias PorcherTory1812James AlexanderTory1818Arthur Johnston CrawfordTory1820Josias AlexanderTory1828Stratford CanningTory1830Josias AlexanderTory
Elections
The last reported contested election in Old Sarum occurred at a by-election in November 1751, after the death of Paul Jodrell. The proprietor at the time, Thomas Pitt, had sold the privilege of choosing the Members to the Pelham Government for £2,000 and a pension of £1,000 a year, but the administration's choice of Simon Fanshawe was opposed by James Pitt (younger brother of George Pitt, Member for Dorset) and by John Thorold. The number of votes for each candidate was not recorded.
Notes and references Notes
References
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) Smith, Henry Stooks (1844–1850) The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847, in 3 Volumes, London: Simpkin & Marshall, republished Craig, F.W.S. (ed.) (1973), Chichester : Political Reference Publications,