Calne (UK Parliament constituency)

Calne
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1295–1885
Number of members	Two (1295-1832); one (1832-1885)

Calne was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1295 until 1832, and then one member from 1832 until 1885, when the borough was abolished.

History

Calne was one of the towns represented in the Model Parliament of 1295, but sent members only sporadically for the next century. However, it was continuously represented from the reign of Richard II (1377-99). From medieval times, the borough consisted of the whole of the market town of Calne in the north-west of Wiltshire, and some of the surrounding district which was part of Calne parish. In 1831, the population of the borough was 2,640, and it contained 487 houses.

The right to vote was reserved to the corporation, which consisted of two "guild stewards", appointed annually, and a varying number of ordinary members or "burgesses", who were appointed by being co-opted by the existing members. This meant that once any interested party had secured control of the corporation it was generally easy to maintain, and the owner or "patron" of the borough usually had total power to nominate both the MPs. Indeed before 1830 there had not been a contested election in living memory.

In 1572, the manor of Calne was bought by Lionel Duckett, and his family were influential over elections in the borough for almost 200 years. By the mid 18th century, the patronage was shared between Thomas Duckett and William Northey, who generally used it to return themselves as MPs, although it could also be a source of revenue - in 1757 Duckett was paid a government pension of £500 a year to vacate his seat when Pitt the Elder wanted it for George Hay. Between 1763 and 1765, The Earl of Shelburne (who later became Marquess of Lansdowne) bought out Duckett and Northey, and his family controlled the borough in the Whig interest for about the next 75 years.

Nevertheless, the power of the corporation and the Lansdowne influence was apparently much resented. In 1807 the corporation insisted on re-electing an MP with whom they were satisfied, Joseph Jekyll, even though Lansdowne wanted to replace him. At the general election of 1826, the inhabitants attempted a revolt against Lansdowne's domination, trying to win over some of the corporation members, but the issue had not been taken as far as contesting the election. At the next opportunity, however, the 1830 general election, the townsmen put up their own candidates - one of several such rebellions against local aristocratic domination which took place in boroughs across the country at that election. All 18 members of the corporation voted for the Lansdowne candidates, but 60 of the local householders attempted to vote for their nominees, and when their votes were rejected by the returning officers they petitioned to have the election overturned. However, the Commons upheld the existing franchise and confirmed the result of the election.

In the initial version of the Reform Bill as proposed to Parliament in 1830, Calne would have kept both of its MPs. This was apparently because of a misunderstanding of how the 1821 census returns had been compiled, which made Calne seem much larger than it was. In fact, other boroughs of a similar size to Calne were to lose a seat, and as Lansdowne was a member of the cabinet it was politically impossible to let Calne benefit from any anomalies. Calne became one of the causes celebres round which debate on the Bill revolved, but the government eventually transferred it to Schedule B, the list of boroughs that were to lose a seat.

Under the Great Reform Act as it was eventually passed in 1832, Calne kept one of its two seats, its boundaries being extended to bring in the whole of Calne parish and parts of the neighbouring Calstone Wellington and Blackland parishes. This increased the population to 4,795; the franchise was reformed as elsewhere, and there were 191 residents qualified to vote in the first post-Reform election. This extension of the electorate could not free the borough from the Lansdowne influence, however, and the MP was a member of the Marquess's family for all but 13 of the borough's remaining 53 years of existence.

Calne was eventually abolished as a constituency with effect from the general election of 1885, the area being included from that point in the Chippenham (or Wiltshire North West) county division.

Members of Parliament

1295-1640

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Parliament	First member	Second member
1388 (Feb)	William Wichampton	Ricard Roude [1]
1399	Robert Salman	John Felawe [1]
1413 (May)	Robert Salman	Robert Roude [1]
1414 (Apr)	Robert Salman	Robert Roude [1]
1414 (Nov)	Robert Salman	Robert Roude [1]
1415	William Clerk	John Blake [1]
1416 (Mar)
1416 (Oct)
1417	Robert Long	Robert Salman [1]
1419
1420	John Bailey	Richard Chamberlain [1]
1421 (May)	Robert Blake	Walter Studley [1]
1421 (Dec)	John Justice	Robert Green [1]
1472	Roger Townshend
1510-1523	No names known[2]
1529	William Crowche	John Turgeys [2]
1536	?
1539	?
1542	?
1545	Robert Long	Francis Goodere [2]
1547	Griffin Curteys	John Cock
1553 (Mar)	?
1553 (Oct)	Robert Hungerford	William Allen [2]
1554 (Apr)	William Baseley	William Allen [2]
1554 (Nov)	Sir John Marvyn	Edward Wastfield [2]
1555	William Allen	Edward Wastfield [2]
1558	William Allen	Richard Nicholas [2]
1559	Andrew Baynton	Richard Kingsmill[3]
1562/3	William Clerke	William Allen [3]
1571	Edward Chambers	Richard Danvers [3]
1572	William Allen, died and replaced Nov 1575 by Sir Edward Baynton	William Weare alias Browne [3]
1584	Stephen Duckett	John Lever [3]
1586	Stephen Duckett	John Lever[3]
1588	Henry Jackman	John Lever [3]
1593	Henry Jackman	Thomas Edwards [3]
1597	Thomas Edwards	Richard Lowe [3]
1601	Lionel Duckett	Richard Lowe [3]
1604	William Swaddon	John Noyes
1606-1611	Sir Edmund Carey
1614-?		Richard Lowe
1621-1622	John Duckett	John Pym
1624	John Duckett	Sir Edward Howard
1625	George Lowe	Sir Edward Howard
1626	George Lowe	Sir John Eyres
1628-1629	George Lowe	Sir John Maynard
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

1640-1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		William Maynard			Walter Norborne
November 1640		George Lowe	Royalist		Hugh Rogers	Parliamentarian
February 1644	Lowe disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1645		Rowland Wilson
February 1650	Wilson died - seat vacant
1653	Calne was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Edward Bayntun			William Duckett
May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Edward Bayntun			William Duckett
1661		George Lowe
February 1679		Sir George Hungerford			Walter Norborne
August 1679					Lionel Duckett
1681					Walter Norborne
1685		Sir John Ernle			Thomas Richmond Webb
1689		Henry Chivers			Lionel Duckett
1690					Henry Bayntun
1691					William Wyndham
1695		Henry Blaake			George Hungerford
1698					Henry Chivers
January 1701		Walter Long			Walter Hungerford
November 1701		Henry Blaake			Edward Bayntun
March 1702					Henry Chivers
July 1702		Sir Charles Hedges
1705		Edward Bayntun			George Duckett	Whig
1710		James Johnston			William Hedges
1713		William Northey
1715		Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Bt			Richard Chiswell
1722		Benjamin Haskins Stiles[4]			George Duckett	Whig
February 1723		Edmund Pike Heath
February 1723					Matthew Ducie Moreton
1727		William Duckett			William Wardour
1734					Walter Hungerford
1741		William Elliot	Whig
1747					William Northey
1754		Thomas Duckett
1757		George Hay
1761		Thomas Duckett			Daniel Bull
1762					Hon. Thomas FitzMaurice
1766		John Calcraft
1768		John Dunning	Whig
1774					Isaac Barré	Whig
1782		James Townsend	Whig
1787		Joseph Jekyll
1790					John Morris
1792					Benjamin Vaughan
1796					Sir Francis Baring, Bt	Whig
1802					Lord Henry Petty	Whig
1806					Osborne Markham
1807					Henry Smith
1812					Hon. James Abercromby	Whig
1816		Sir James Macdonald, Bt
1830					Thomas Babington Macaulay	Whig
1831		Charles Richard Fox	Whig
1832	Representation reduced to one member

1832-1885

Election		Member	Party
	1832	Earl of Kerry	Whig
	1836 by-election	Hon. John Fox-Strangways	Whig
	1837	Earl of Shelburne	Whig
	1856 by-election	Sir William Williams, Bt	Liberal
	1859	Robert Lowe	Liberal
	1868	Lord Edmond FitzMaurice	Liberal
1885		Constituency abolished

Notes

1. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
2. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
3. "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
4. Styles was also elected for Devizes, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Calne

Election results

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References

• Michael Brock, "The Great Reform Act" (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
• 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)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1961)
• 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)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol I" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 1)