Misplaced Pages

Northumberland, was a County constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England from 1290 to 1707, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Members of Parliament.

The constituency was split into two two-member divisions, for Parliamentary purposes, by the Reform Act of 1832. The county was then represented by the North Numberland and South Northumberland constituencies.

Members of Parliament

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

MPs 1290–1640

MPs 1640–1832

Elections

The county franchise, from 1430, was held by the adult male owners of freehold land valued at 40 shillings or more. Each elector had as many votes as there were seats to be filled. Votes had to be cast by a spoken declaration, in public, at the hustings, which took place in the town of Alnwick. The expense and difficulty of voting at only one location in the county, together with the lack of a secret ballot contributed to the corruption and intimidation of electors, which was widespread in the unreformed British political system.

The expense, to candidates, of contested elections encouraged the leading families of the county to agree on the candidates to be returned unopposed whenever possible. Contested county elections were therefore unusual. The Tory Percys, led by the Duke of Northumberland, shared the county representation with the Whig Grey Family.

See also

• History of parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Northumberland
• List of former United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
• Unreformed House of Commons

Sources

1. Great Britain; Rickards, George K. (George Kettilby) (1807). The statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland [1807-1868/69]. unknown library. London, His Majesty's statute and law printers. p. 335.
2. ^ "History of Parliament". Retrieved 1 September 2011.
3. ^ "OGLE, Sir Robert (c.1370-1436), of Ogle, Northumb". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
4. Cavill. The English Parliaments of Henry VII 1485-1504.
5. ^ "History of Parliament". Retrieved 1 September 2011.
6. ^ "History of Parliament". Retrieved 1 September 2011.
7. Expelled, December 1641, "for being concerned in a plot to bring up the King's army in the North, to over-awe the Parliament"
8. Fenwick was temporarily disabled from sitting in January 1644, but re-admitted in June 1646
9. Charles Howard, Robert Fenwick, Henry Dawson and Henry Ogle were collectively nominated for the Four Northern Counties (Northumberland, Durham, Westmorland and Cumberland
10. Created a baronet, June 1660
11. Expelled from the House of Commons for involvement in the Jacobite rising of 1715
12. On petition, Wrightson was adjudged not to have been duly elected
13. On petition, Ossulston waived his return in favour of his opponent, Allgood
14. Styled Viscount Howick from 1806
15. The Poll Book of the Contested Election for the County of Northumberland, from June 20th to July 6th, 1826. Alnwick: W. Davison. 1827. (results at p.381)

• 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)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 3)

• Parliamentary constituencies in Northumberland (historic)
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1290
• Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1832
• Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey