Northallerton (UK Parliament constituency)

Northallerton
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1640–1885

Northallerton was a parliamentary borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire, represented by two Members of Parliament in the House of Commons briefly in the 13th century and again from 1640 to 1832, and by one member from 1832 until 1885.

The constituency consisted of the market town of Northallerton, the county town of the North Riding. In 1831 it encompassed only 622 houses and a population of 3,004. The right to vote was vested in the holders of the burgage tenements, of which there were roughly 200 – most of which were ruined or consisted only of stables or cowhouses, and had no value except for the vote which was attached to them. As in most other burgage boroughs, the ownership of the burgages had early become concentrated in the hands of a single family, who in effect had a free hand to nominate both MPs. At the time of the Great Reform Act in 1832, the patrons were the Earl of Harewood and Henry Peirse, who was the Earl's brother-in-law.

Under the Reform Act, the boundaries were extended to include neighbouring Romanby and Brompton, increasing the population to 4,839, and its representation was reduced to a single member. The Act also, of course, extended the franchise.

At the 1885 election, the constituency was abolished, being absorbed into the new Richmond division of the North Riding.

Members of Parliament

Northallerton re-enfranchised by Parliament, Nov 1640

MPs 1640–1832

Election			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		November 1640	Henry Darley	Parliamentarian	John Wastell	Parliamentarian
		1653	Northallerton was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament
		1654,1656	Northallerton was unrepresented in the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
		January 1659	James Danby		Major George Smithson
		May 1659	Henry Darley		One seat vacant
		April 1660	Thomas Lascelles		Francis Lascelles
		July 1660			George Marwood[1]
		1661	Gilbert Gerard[2]		Roger Talbot
		1679			Sir Henry Calverley
		1685	Sir David Foulis		Sir Henry Marwood
		1689	Thomas Lascelles		Sir William Robinson
		1695			Sir William Hustler
		1697	Ralph Milbancke
		1701	Robert Dormer
		February 1702	Daniel Lascelles
		July 1702	John Aislabie	Tory
		November 1702			Robert Dormer
		May 1705	Sir William Hustler
		December 1705			Roger Gale
		1710	Robert Raikes
		1713	Leonard Smelt		Henry Peirse
		1715			Cholmley Turner
		1722			Henry Peirse
		1740	William Smelt
		1745	Henry Lascelles
		1752	Daniel Lascelles
		1754			Edwin Lascelles	Tory
		1761			Edward Lascelles	Tory
		1774			Henry Peirse (younger)	Whig
		1780	Edwin Lascelles	Tory
		1790	Edward Lascelles	Tory
		1796	Viscount Lascelles	Tory
		1814	John Bacon Sawrey Morritt	Tory
		1818	Viscount Lascelles	Tory
		1820	William Lascelles	Whig
		1824			Marcus Beresford	Whig
		1826	Admiral Sir John Beresford	Tory	Henry Lascelles	Tory
		1831			William Lascelles	Tory

MPs 1832–1885

Election		Member	Party
1832		Representation reduced to one member
	1832	John George Boss	Whig
	1835	William Battie-Wrightson	Whig
	1857		Liberal
	1865	Charles Mills[3]	Conservative
	1866	Hon. Egremont William Lascelles	Conservative
	1868	John Hutton	Conservative
	1874	George William Elliot	Conservative
	1885	Constituency abolished: see Richmond (Yorks)

Notes

1. Created a baronet as Sir George Marwood, December 1660
2. Created a baronet as Sir Gilbert Gerard, 1665
3. Mills' election was declared void on petition, and a by-election held in which he did not stand as a candidate

References

• 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)
• 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)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 2)