Heytesbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Heytesbury was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire which elected two Members of Parliament. From 1449 until 1707 it was represented in the House of Commons of England, and then in the British House of Commons until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Reform Act 1832.

Heytesbury
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
1449–1832
Seats	Two

History

The borough consisted of a small part of the small market town or large village of Heytesbury, in the south-west of Wiltshire. In 1831, when the population of the whole parish was 1,394, the borough had a population of only 81. Already a small settlement, much of Heytesbury burned to the ground in 1765, but this did not affect its right to return members to parliament. The houses lost were subsequently rebuilt.

Heytesbury was a burgage borough, meaning that the right to vote was reserved to the householders of specific properties or "burgage tenements" within the borough; there were twenty-six of these tenements by the time of the Reform Act, and all had been owned by the heads of the A'Court family since the 17th century, giving them control of the choice of the two Members.^[1] Shortly before the Reform Act, the head of the family, Sir William Ashe A'Court, was raised to the peerage as Lord Heytesbury. By 1832 there had been no contested elections for more than half a century.

Heytesbury was abolished as a constituency by the Reform Act, which swept away all such rotten and pocket boroughs. Its residents who were qualified to vote were transferred into the new South Wiltshire county division.

Members of Parliament

1449–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1491	John Kingsmill[2]
1510–1523	No names known[3]
1529	Sir John Seymour	Robert Seymour[3]
1536	?
1539	?
1542	?
1545	William Sharington	Edward Chamberlain[3]
1547	Thomas Throckmorton	Thomas Eynns[3]
1553 (Mar)	?
1553 (Oct)	Fulk Mounslowe alias Langley	Thomas Hill[3]
1554 (Apr)	Richard Forsett	Christopher Dymars[3]
1554 (Nov)	Henry Unton	?Thomas Chaffyn[3]
1555	Thomas Hungerford	Fulk Mounslowe alias Langley[3]
1558	Christopher Sackville	Henry Partridge[3]
1559	Sir Ralph Hopton	Richard Pallady[4]
1562–3	Richard Kingsmill	Richard Cabell[4]
1571	Thomas Wroughton	Richard Cabell[4]
1572	Sir John Thynne, died and replaced 1580 by Jasper Moore	Edward Stafford[4]
1584	John Thynne	Lawrence Hyde I (died 1590)[4]
1586	John Thynne	John Bennett[4]
1588	Francis Zouche	Joshua Elmer[4]
1593	John Thynne	Thomas Thynne[4]
1597	John Thynne	Lawrence Hyde II[4]
1601	John Thynne	Richard Smythe[4]
1604–1611	Sir William Eyre	Walter Gowen
1614	Sir Henry Ludlow	Walter Gowen
1621–1622	Sir Thomas Thynne	Sir Henry Ludlow
1624	Sir Thomas Thynne	Sir Henry Ludlow
1625	Sir Charles Berkeley	Edward Bisse[5]
1626	Sir Charles Berkeley	William Blake
1628–1629	Sir Charles Berkeley	William Rolfe
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

1640–1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Sir John Berkeley			Thomas Moore
November 1640		Edward Ashe	Parliamentarian		Thomas Moore	Parliamentarian
December 1648				Moore excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant
1653	Heytesbury was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		John Ashe			Samuel Ashe
May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Thomas Moore			John Jolliffe
1661		Sir Charles Berkeley
1668		William Ashe	Whig
February 1679					Edward Ashe
1689					William Sacheverell	Whig
1690					William Trenchard
1695					Edward Ashe
1701		Sir Edward Ernle
1702		William Monson
1708		William Ashe
1713		Pierce A'Court
1715		William Ashe
1722		Pierce A'Court
1725		Lord Charles Cavendish	Whig
1727		Horatio Townshend
1734		Pierce A'Court-Ashe
1747					William Ashe
1751					William A'Court[6]
1768		Charles FitzRoy-Scudamore
1774		Hon. William Gordon
September 1780		William Eden[7]
December 1780		Francis Burton
1781					William Pierce Ashe A'Court
1784		William Eden[8]
1790					Michael Angelo Taylor
1791					The Earl of Barrymore
1793		Charles Rose Ellis
1793					The Viscount Clifden
1796		Sir John Leicester, Bt
February 1802					William Wickham
July 1802		Charles Abbot[9]			Viscount Kirkwall
December 1802		Dr Charles Moore
1806		Charles Abbot[10]			Sir William a'Court
January 1807		Dr Charles Moore			Michael Symes
May 1807					Viscount Fitzharris
1812		Samuel Hood[11]			Charles Duncombe
1818		George James Welbore Agar-Ellis			William Henry John Scott
March 1820		Edward Henry A'Court			Charles Ashe A'Court
August 1820					Henry Handley
1826					Henry Stafford Northcote
1830					Sir George Staunton	Independent
1831
1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. Namier, Lewis (1957). The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd ed.). London: St Martin's Press. pp. 1–4, 146, 438 n2.
2. Cavill. The English Parliaments of Henry VII 1485-1504.
3. "History of Parliament 1509–1558: Heytesbury". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
4. "History of Parliament 1558–1603: Heytesbury". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 27 October 2011.
5. "BISSE, Edward (c.1588-by 1647), of Spargrove, Som". historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
6. William A'Court Ashe from 1768
7. Eden was also elected for Woodstock, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Heytesbury in this Parliament
8. Created The Lord Auckland (in the Peerage of Ireland), September 1789
9. Abbot was also elected for Woodstock, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Heytesbury
10. Abbot was also elected for Oxford University, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Heytesbury
11. Succeeded as The Lord Bridport (in the Peerage of Ireland), May 1814

References

• Beatson, Robert (1807). A Chronological Register of Both Houses of the British Parliament, from the Union in 1708, to the Third Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in 1807. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme.
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
• T. H. B. Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
• J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 – England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 3)