Great Bedwyn (UK Parliament constituency)

Great Bedwyn was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire, centred on Great Bedwyn, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

Great Bedwyn
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
1295–1832
Seats	Two

Members of Parliament

1295–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1295	Sir William Russell (d.1311), Lord of Yaverland[1]
1386	John Combe	William Bailiff[2]
1388 (Feb)
1388 (Sep)
1390 (Jan)	John Combe	William Plomer[2]
1399	Thomas Smith	Geoffrey Mauncell[2]
1420	John Benger	John Everard[2]
1421 (May)
1421 (Dec)	Thomas Hussey	Maurice Hommedieux[2]
1449	Sir Thomas Malory
1491	William Paston[3]
1510–1523	No names known[4]
1529	William Newdigate died and replaced 1532/3 by ?Thomas Polsted	John Berwick[4]
1536	?
1539	?
1542	?
1545	John Winchcombe alias Smallwood	John Seymour[4]
1547	Anthony Browne	Robert Pagman[4]
1553 (Mar)	?
1553 (Oct)	Richard Fulmerston	John Hungerford[4]
1554 (Apr)	Richard Fulmerston	Sir Edmund Rous[4]
1554 (Nov)	Richard Fulmerston	Edward Hungerford[4]
1555	Henry Clifford	David Seymour[4]
1558	John Temple	George Hidden[4]
1559	Francis Newdigate	Henry Clifford[5]
1562–3	John Thynne	Stephen Hales[5]
1571	Nicholas St John	Thomas Blagrave[5]
1572	Simon Bowyer	George Ireland[5]
1584	Richard Wheler	Roger Puleston[5]
1586	Richard Wheler	Roger Puleston[5]
1588	John Seymour	Henry Ughtred[5]
1593	Thomas Hungerford	James Kirton[5]
1597	Sir Anthony Hungerford	Francis Castilian
1601	Sir Anthony Hungerford	Levinus Munck
1604–1611	John Rodney	Sir Anthony Hungerford
1614	Robert Hyde	Sir Giles Mompesson
1621–1622	Sir Francis Popham	Sir Giles Mompesson
1624	Hugh Crompton	William Cholmeley
1625	Sir John Brooke	William Cholmeley
1626-?	John Selden	Sir Maurice Berkeley
1628	Edward Kyrton	Sir John Trevor
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

1640–1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Charles Seymour			Richard Hardinge	Royalist
November 1640		Sir Walter Smith	Royalist
February 1644	Smith and Harding disabled from sitting – both seats vacant
1646		Edmund Harvey	Parliamentarian		Henry Hungerford	Parliamentarian
December 1648				Hungerford not recorded as sitting after Pride's Purge
1653	Great Bedwyn was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Thomas Manley			Henry Hungerford
May 1659		Colonel Edmund Harvey		One seat vacant
1660		Robert Spencer			Thomas Gape
1661		Duke Stonehouse			Henry Clerke
1663		John Trevor
1673		Daniel Finch
February 1679		Francis Stonehouse			John Deane
August 1679					William Finch
1681		Sir John Ernle			John Wildman
1685		Lemuel Kingdon			Thomas Loder
1689		Sir Edmund Warneford			John Wildman
1690		The Viscount Falkland			Sir Jonathan Raymond
1694		Francis Stonehouse
1695					Admiral Sir Ralph Delaval
1698					Charles Davenant
1701					Michael Mitford
1702					Hon. James Bruce
May 1705		Sir George Byng[6]			Nicholas Pollexfen
December 1705		Lord Bruce[7]
November 1707					Tracy Pauncefort[8]
December 1707					Nicholas Pollexfen
1708					Samuel Vanacker Sambrooke
1710					Sir Edward Seymour
1711		Thomas Millington
1715		Stephen Bisse			William Sloper
1722		Robert Bruce			Charles Longueville
1727		Sir William Willys			Viscount Lewisham[9]
1729					William Sloper
1732		Francis Seymour
1734		Brigadier Robert Murray
1738		Edward Popham
1741		Sir Edward Turner	Whig		Lascelles Metcalfe
1747		William Sloper
1754					Sir Robert Hildyard
1756		Hon. Robert Brudenell
1761		Vice Admiral Thomas Cotes			William Woodley
1766					William Burke
1767		Sir Thomas Fludyer
March 1768		Hon. James Brudenell			Hon. Robert Brudenell[10]
May 1768					William Burke
November 1768		William Northey
1771		Benjamin Hopkins
October 1774		The Earl of Courtown			Paul Methuen
December 1774		Viscount Cranborne
1780		Sir Merrick Burrell
1781					Paul Cobb Methuen
1784		Marquess of Graham			Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Manners
June 1790					Lord Doune
December 1790		Viscount Stopford	Tory
1792					Edward East
1796		Lieutenant General the Hon. Thomas Bruce			John Wodehouse[11]
1797		Sir Robert Buxton
1802					Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, Bt
1806		Viscount Stopford	Tory		James Henry Leigh	Tory
April 1807		Sir Vicary Gibbs	Tory
May 1807		Sir John Nicholl	Tory
March 1818					John Buxton	Tory
1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

1. Wiffen, J. H. Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, 1884, vol. 1, pp.127–131. The Russell family, of Kingston Russell, Dorset, held the manor of Little Bedwyn
2. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
3. Cavill. The English Parliaments of Henry VII 1485-1504.
4. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
5. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
6. Byng was also elected for Plymouth, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Great Bedwyn
7. Bruce was re-elected in 1710, but had also been elected for Marlborough, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Great Bedwyn
8. On petition, Pauncefort was found not to have been duly elected and was taken into custody by order of the House of Commons for bribery and corruption at his election
9. On petition (in a dispute over the franchise), Lewisham was declared not to have been duly elected
10. Brudenell was also elected for Marlborough, which he chose to represent, and did not sit in this Parliament for Great Bedwyn
11. Styled The Hon. John Wodehouse from October 1797

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) via Internet Archive
• 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)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "G" (part 2)
• Ward, John (1859). "Great Bedwyn: Parish, Church, Representative History". Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine. 6 (18): 261–316 – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.