Yarmouth was a borough constituency of the House of Commons of England then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of 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 constituency was abolished by the Reform Act 1832, and from the 1832 general election its territory was included in the new county constituency of Isle of Wight.
Boundaries The constituency was a Parliamentary borough on the Isle of Wight, part of the historic county of Hampshire. Its boundaries were coterminous with the parish of Yarmouth. At the time that it was disfranchised, there were 114 houses in the borough and town, and a population of only 586.
History The borough was seen as a rotten borough and in the late eighteenth century was managed, together with the other Isle of Wight boroughs of Newtown and Newport by Thomas Holmes.Page 25, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
Members of Parliament MPs 1584–1640 ParliamentFirst memberSecond member 1584 Arthur Gorges William Stubbs 1586 Thomas West John Duncombe 1588 Daniel Hills John Howe 1593 Robert Dillington Robert Crosse 1597 Benedict Barnham John Snow 1601 William Cotton Stephen Theobald 1604 Arthur BromfieldThomas Cheeke 1614 Arthur BromfieldThomas Cheeke 1621–1622 Arthur Bromfield Thomas Risley 1624William BeestonThomas Risley 1625 Edward Clarke sat for Hythe replaced by Sir John Suckling John Oglander 1626 Sir Edward ConwaySir John Oglander 1628–1629 Edward Dennis Sir John Oglander 1629–1640 No Parliaments summoned
MPs 1640–1832 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640William OglanderJohn BulkeleyNovember 1640Philip SidneyParliamentarianSir John LeighParliamentarianDecember 1648Leigh excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant1653Yarmouth was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the ProtectorateJanuary 1659John Sadler Richard Lucy May 1659Philip Sidney One seat vacant in the restored RumpFebruary 1660 Sir John Leigh April 1660 Richard Lucy 1661 Edward Smith 1678 Thomas Lucy February 1679 Sir Richard Mason August 1679 Thomas Wyndham 1681 Lemuel Kingdon Sir Thomas LittletonSir Thomas Littleton died April 1681 1685 Thomas Wyndham William Hewer 1689 Sir Robert Holmes Hon. Fitton Gerard 1690 Sir John TrevorSir John Trevor was expelled from the House of Commons for accepting a bribe Tory Charles Duncombe ToryApril 1695 Henry Holmes ToryNovember 1695 Anthony Morgan 1710 Sir Gilbert Dolben, 1st Baronet Tory1715At the election of 1715, Raymond and Holmes were declared to have defeated Morgan and Janssen, but on petition the result was reversed in 1717 Sir Robert Raymond Tory1717 Colonel Anthony Morgan Sir Theodore JanssenSir Theodore Janssen was expelled from the House of Commons on 30 January 1721 for his role in the South Sea Bubble 1721 by-election William Plumer 1722 Thomas Stanwix 1725 by-election Colonel Maurice Morgan 1727 Paul Burrard 1733 by-election Maurice Bocland 1734 Lord Harry PowlettPowlett was also elected for Hampshire in a disputed election. He sat for Yarmouth until 1737 when the petition against the Hampshire result was withdrawn, then chose to represent Hampshire rather than Yarmouth for the remainder of the Parliament Whig1736 by-election Thomas Gibson 1737 by-election Anthony Chute 1741 by-election Colonel Maurice Bocland 1744 by-election Robert Carteret 1747 Thomas HolmesThomas Holmes was created The Lord Holmes (in the peerage of Ireland) in 1760 Whig Colonel Henry HolmesMajor General from 1756, Lieutenant General from 1759 1762 by-election Jeremiah Dyson Tory1765 by-election John Eames 1768At the election of 1768, Strode and Clarke were declared to have defeated Dummer and Parker, but on petition the result was reversed in 1769 William Strode Jervoise Clarke Whig1769 Thomas Dummer Major General the Hon. George Lane Parker 1774 Edward Meux Worsley Jervoise Clarke Whig1775 by-election James Worsley 1779 by-election Captain Robert Kingsmill 1780 Edward Morant Edward Rushworth 1781 by-election Sir Thomas Rumbold 1784 Philip Francis 1787 by-election Thomas Clarke Jervoise 1790 Edward Rushworth 1791 by-election Jervoise Clarke Jervoise Whig Sir John Leicester, Bt 1796 Edward Rushworth 1797 by-election William Peachy 1802 James Patrick Murray February 1803 by-election Colonel Charles Macdonnell October 1803 by-election Henry Swann ToryFebruary 1804 by-election John Delgarno March 1804 by-election Captain Sir Home Riggs Popham January 1806 by-election David Scott November 1806 Thomas William Plummer May 1807 Hon. William Orde-Powlett August 1807 by-election Admiral Sir John Orde January 1808 by-election Benjamin Griffinhoofe April 1808 by-election John Delgarno June 1808 by-election George Annesley 1810 by-election Thomas Myers 1812 Richard Wellesley Sir Henry Montgomery, Bt 1816 by-election John Leslie Foster Tory1817 by-election Alexander Maconochie ToryMarch 1818 by-election John Copley ToryJune 1818 John Taylor Tory William Mount Tory1819 by-election Sir Peter Pole Tory John Wilson Croker Tory1820 Theodore Broadhead Tory1821 by-election Theodore HeTheodore Broadhead (2) later adopted the surname Brinckman Tory1826 Thomas Hamilton Tory Joseph Phillimore Tory1827 by-election Thomas Wallace Tory1830 William Yates Peel Tory George Lowther Thompson Tory1831 Sir Henry Willoughby Whig Charles Cavendish Whig 1832 Constituency abolished
Notes
Elections
See also Politics of the Isle of Wight Parliamentary representation from Isle of Wight Great Yarmouth (UK Parliament constituency) in Norfolk
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 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)