Morpeth (UK Parliament constituency)

Morpeth
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1553–1983
Number of members	1553–1832: two 1832–1983: one
Replaced by	Wansbeck and Berwick-upon-Tweed^[1]

Morpeth was a borough constituency centred on the town of Morpeth in Northumberland represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of England until 1707, the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and then the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Morpeth elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) until the 1832 general election, when the Great Reform Act reduced its representation to one MP, elected under the first past the post system. The constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election.

Members of Parliament

1553-1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1553 (Oct)	John Watson	William Ward^[2]
1554 (Apr)	Thomas Bates	William Ward ^[2]
1554 (Nov)	Sir Henry Percy	William Ward ^[2]
1555	?Cuthbert Horsley	?Thomas Bates ^[2]
1558	Robert Wheatley	Thomas Bates ^[2]
1558/9	William Ward	Nicholas Purslow^[3]
1562 (Dec)	William Ward	Arthur Welshe ^[3]
1571	Francis Gawdy	Nicholas Mynn ^[3]
1572 (Apr)	Sir George Bowes died and replaced Dec 1580 by Richard Drake	Richard Wroth^[3]
1584	William Carey	George Gifford ^[3]
1586	Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth	Anthony Felton ^[3]
1588/9	Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth	Henry Noel ^[3]
1593	Robert Carey, 1st Earl of Monmouth, sat for Callington, replaced by Edmund Bowyer	Francis Tyndale ^[3]
1597 (Sep)	Robert Printis	Thomas Carleton ^[3]
1601 (Oct)	George Savile	John Browne ^[3]
1604–1611	Sir Christopher Perkins	John Hare
1614	William Button	Arnold Herbert
1621–1622	Robert Brandling	John Robson Robson declared ineligible, being a priest replaced by Ralph Fetherstonhaugh
1624	Sir Thomas Reynell	Sir William Carnaby
1625	Sir Thomas Reynell	Sir Anthony Herbert
1626	Sir Thomas Reynell	John Bankes
1628	Sir Thomas Reynell	John Bankes
1629–1640	No Parliaments convened

1640-1832

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
November 1640		Sir William Carnaby	Royalist		John Fenwick	Royalist
August 1642	Carnaby disabled from sitting - seat vacant				John Fenwick	Royalist
January 1643	Carnaby disabled from sitting - seat vacant			Fenwick disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1645		Hon. John Fiennes			George Fenwick
December 1648	Fiennes excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant				George Fenwick
1653	Morpeth was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Robert Delaval			Robert Mitford
May 1659	Morpeth was unrepresented in the restored Rump
April 1660		Thomas Widdrington jnr (died May 1660)			Ralph Knight
June 1660		Sir George Downing			Ralph Knight
1661					Henry Widdrington
1666					Edward Howard
1679					Daniel Collingwood
1685		Sir Henry Pickering			Theophilus Oglethorpe
1689		Charles Howard			Roger Fenwick
1692		George Nicholas			Roger Fenwick
1695		George Nicholas			Sir Henry Belasyse
1698		Philip Howard	Whig
January 1701		William Howard
May 1701		Sir Richard Sandford
December 1701		Emanuel Scrope Howe	Whig		Sir John Delaval
1705		Sir Richard Sandford			Edmund Maine
1708					Sir John Bennett
1710					Christopher Wandesford
1713		Sir John Germain			Oley Douglas
1715		Viscount Morpeth			The Viscount Castlecomer ^[4]
1717					Hon. George Carpenter
1727					Thomas Robinson
1734					Sir Henry Liddell
1738		Henry Furnese
1741		Robert Ord
1747					Viscount Limerick
1754					Thomas Duncombe	Tory
1755		Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh				Tory
1761		Viscount Garlies				Whig
1768		Peter Beckford			Sir Matthew White Ridley
1774		Francis Eyre ^[5]			Peter Delmé
1775		Hon. William Byron
1776		Gilbert Elliot
1777		John William Egerton	Tory
1780		Anthony Morris Storer
1784		Major Sir James Erskine ^[6]	Whig
1790					Francis Gregg
1795					Viscount Morpeth
1796		William Huskisson	Tory
1802		William Ord	Whig
1806					Hon. William Howard
1826					Viscount Morpeth
1830					Hon. William Howard
1832	representation reduced to one member

1832-1983

Year		Member	Party
	1832	Frederick George Howard	Liberal
	1834	Edward George Granville Howard	Liberal
	1837	Granville George Leveson-Gower	Liberal
	1840	Edward George Granville Howard	Liberal
	1853	Sir George Grey	Liberal
	1874	Thomas Burt	Liberal-Labour
	1918	John Cairns	Labour
	1923	Robert Smillie	Labour
	1929	Ebenezer Edwards	Labour
	1931	Godfrey Nicholson	Conservative
	1935	Robert Taylor	Labour
	1954	Will Owen	Labour
	1970	George Grant	Labour
1983		constituency abolished

Notes

↑ "'Morpeth', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
1 2 3 4 5 "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-12-23.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-09-28.
↑ Castlecomer was also elected for Ripon but there was a petition against his election there; he sat for Morpeth until the petition was withdraw, then chose to represent Ripon, a by-election was held for Morpeth
↑ On petition, Eyre was declared not to have been duly elected, and his opponent Byron was seated in his place
↑ Adopted the surname St Clair-Erskine, July 1789. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel 1792, Colonel 1795.

Election results

Elections in the 1920s

Morpeth by-election, 1923
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Smillie	20,053	60.5	+12.2
	Liberal	Frank Crane Thornborough	13,087	39.5	+7.3
Majority			6,966	21.0	−4.9
Turnout			33,140	76.9	48
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1923: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Smillie	16,902	64.2
	Liberal	John Dodd	9,411	35.8
Majority			7,491	28.4
Turnout				59.4
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1924: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Smillie	19,248
	Unionist	Irene Mary Bewick Ward	10,828
	Liberal	John Dodd	3,805
Majority
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1929: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ebenezer Edwards	25,508	61.3
	Unionist	Irene Mary Bewick Ward	9,206	22.1
	Liberal	John Ritson	6,888	16.6
Majority			16,302	39.2
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Godfrey Nicholson	20,806	51.35
	Labour	Ebenezer Edwards	18,714	48.65
Majority			1,092	2.69
Turnout				70.28
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert John Taylor	28,900	59.17
	Conservative	Godfrey Nicholson	19,944	40.83
Majority			8,956	18.34
Turnout				78.68
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert John Taylor	38,521	73.23
	Conservative	Gilbert James Morley Longden	14,079	26.77
Majority			24,442	46.47
Turnout				79.50
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert John Taylor	27,548	71.51
	Conservative	T. Turnbull	10,973	28.49
Majority			16,575	43.03
Turnout				86.55
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert John Taylor	27,718	71.88
	Conservative	Peter M. Colvin-Smith	10,843	28.12
Majority			16,875	43.76
Turnout				85.47
	Labour hold		Swing

Morpeth by-election, 1954
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	William James Owen	23,491
	Conservative	Sir Robert William Elliott	9,469
Majority			14,022
Turnout
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	William James Owen	25,452	70.56
	Conservative	Sir Robert William Elliott	10,619	29.44
Majority			14,833	41.12
Turnout				80.40
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

General Election 1959: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	William James Owen	27,435	71.91
	Conservative	Derek Bloom	10,716	28.09
Majority			16,719	43.82
Turnout				84.11
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1964: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	William James Owen	26,114	72.70
	Conservative	Derek Bloom	9,805	27.30
Majority			16,309	45.40
Turnout				80.81
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	William James Owen	25,223	74.36
	Conservative	Nigel Porter	8,698	25.64
Majority			16,525	48.72
Turnout				76.93
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Grant	21,826	60.35
	Conservative	K. Ian Tunnicliffe	9,515	26.31
	Liberal	Raymond McClure	4,825	13.34
Majority			12,311	34.04
Turnout				75.98
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Grant	22,026	56.40
	Conservative	David Maurice Curry	8,992	23.03
	Liberal	H. Devereux	8,035	20.57
Majority			13,034	33.38
Turnout				81.18
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Grant	22,696	63.80
	Conservative	David Maurice Curry	8,009	22.52
	Liberal	B. Rodgers	4,866	13.68
Majority			14,687	41.29
Turnout				73.32
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Morpeth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Grant	21,744	56.29
	Conservative	S. Edwards	9,913	25.66
	Liberal	A. Thompson	6,972	18.05
Majority			11,831	30.63
Turnout				77.44
	Labour hold		Swing

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)
Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 3)