Ardee (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Ardee (also known as Ardee Borough) was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons from 1378 to 1801.

Ardee
Former borough constituency for the Irish House of Commons
County	County Louth
Borough	Ardee
1378 (1378) (1378 (1378))–1801 (1801)
Seats	2
Replaced by	Disfranchised

History

Ardee in County Louth was enfranchised as a borough constituency in 1378.^[1] In 1665 the Lord Lieutenant (James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde) wrote to the Portreeve of Ardee recommending Sir Robert Byron, as Burgess in Parliament for Ardee, in the room of Captain John Chambers, "removed" and Colonel Brent Moore, in the "stead of Lieutenant John Ruxton, removed". In the Patriot Parliament of 1689 summoned by King James II, Ardee was represented by two members.^[2] It continued to send two Members of Parliament to the Irish House of Commons until the Parliament of Ireland was merged into the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 1 January 1801. The constituency was disenfranchised on 31 December 1800.

The borough was represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as part of the county constituency of Louth.

Electoral system and electorate

The parliamentary representatives of the borough were elected using the bloc vote for two-member elections and first past the post for single-member by-elections.

A summary of the borough electorate was included in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837. The electorate consisted of the members of the Borough Corporation (the local Council) and the freemen. All of the classes of electors qualified because of co-option by all or part of the existing ones, so this was a constituency with an oligarchic constitution rather than a democratic one.

Members of Parliament

• 1559–1559: Walter Dowdall and Walter Babe^[3]
• 1585–1586: John Dowdall and Robert Barnewall^[4]
• 1613–1615: Patrick Dowdall and Barnabas Matthew^[3]
• 1634–1635: John Dowdall and Thomas Kippaks (Cappock)^[5]
• 1639–1643: Henry Moore (succeeded to peerage 1643 and replaced by Raphael Hunt)^[6]
• 1661–1665: John Ruxton (expelled and replaced 1665 by Erasmus Smith) and John Chambers (expelled and replaced by Sir Richard Stephens)
• 1665–1666: Erasmus Smith^[7] and Sir Richard Stephens

1689–1801

Election		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
1689 Patriot Parliament		Hugh Gernon			John Babe
1692		Henry Tichborne			James Tisdall
1695		Brabazon Moore
1703		Robert Chambre
1713		Michael Tisdall
1715					William Moore
1727		Robert Parkinson			John Donnellan
1741					Tichborne Aston
1748					William Ruxton
1751					John Ruxton
1761		Charles Ruxton
1768		George Lowther
1776		Francis McNamara			Peter Metge
1783		John Ruxton			Charles Ruxton
1785		William Ruxton
1790		William Parkinson Ruxton			John Wolfe[note 1]
1798		Charles Ruxton			William Ruxton
1799		William Parkinson Ruxton
1801		Disenfranchised

Notes

1. Styled as The Honourable from 1795

References

1. "Ardee". Ulster Historical Foundation. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
2. O'Hart 2007, p. 502.
3. McGrath, Brid (13 September 1998). A biographical dictionary of the membership of the Irish House of Commons 1640–1641 (thesis). Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of History. hdl:2262/77206 – via www.tara.tcd.ie.
4. McGrath, Brid (1998). A biographical dictionary of the membership of the Irish House of Commons 1640–1641 (thesis thesis). Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of History. hdl:2262/77206.
5. Kearney, Hugh. Strafford in Ireland 1633–1641: A Study in Absolutism. p. 225.
6. Parliamentary Papers, Volume 62, Part 2. p. 626.
7. Beavan, Alfred P. (1908). Chronological list of aldermen: 1651–1700. The Aldermen of the City of London: Temp. Henry III – 1912. pp. 75–119. Retrieved 14 November 2011.

Bibliography

• O'Hart, John (2007). The Irish and Anglo-Irish Landed Gentry: When Cromwell came to Ireland. Vol. II. Heritage Books. ISBN 978-0-7884-1927-0.
• Leigh Rayment's historical List of Members of the Irish House of Commons. Cites: Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary (2002). The History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800 (6 volumes). Ulster Historical Foundation.