Thirsk (UK Parliament constituency)

Thirsk
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1547–1885
Number of members	Two (until 1832); One (1832-1885)

Thirsk was a parliamentary borough in Yorkshire, represented in the English and later British House of Commons in 1295, and again from 1547. It was represented by two Members of Parliament until 1832, and by one member from 1832 to 1885, when the constituency was abolished and absorbed into the new Thirsk and Malton division of the North Riding of Yorkshire.

The borough consisted of originally of the town of Old Thirsk, and included a population of only 1,378 at the 1831 census. The right to vote was restricted to the holders of burgage tenements, of which there were 50 in 1831. The Frankland family were the local landowners (in 1816 Sir Thomas owned 49 of the 50 burgage tenements), and in effect could nominate whoever they wanted as Members of Parliament; there was no contested election in Thirsk between 1715 and 1832.

The Great Reform Act of 1832 expanded the boundaries to include the townships of Thirsk, Sowerby, Carlton Miniott, Sandhutton, Bagby and South Kilvington, increasing the population to 4,672 and encompassing 1,064 houses, which was considered big enough for the borough to retain one of its two members.

Members of Parliament

• Constituency re-created (1547)

MPs 1547–1660

Parliament	First member	Second member
1547	Sir William Cavendish	Robert Flint [1]
1553 (Mar)	Thomas Lee	Reginald Beseley [1]
1553 (Oct)	Thomas Eynns	John Gascoigne [1]
1554 (Apr)	Thomas Waterton	Reginald Beseley [1]
1554 (Nov)	Christopher Lascelles	Edward Beseley [1]
1555	Christopher Lascelles	Robert Roos [1]
1558	Christopher Lascelles	Thomas Eynns [1]
1558/9	Thomas Eynns	Francis Wilstrop[2]
1562/3	Thomas Eynns	Christopher Lascelles [2]
1571	John Dawney	Thomas Layton [2]
1572 (Apr)	John Dawney	Edward Gates [2]
1584	Sir John Dawney	Robert Bowes [2]
1586 (Oct)	Sir John Dawney	Henry Bellasis [2]
1588/9	Sir John Dawney	Henry Bellasis [2]
1593	Sir John Dawney	Henry Bellasis[2]
1597 (Sep)	George Leycester	Thomas Belasyse [2]
1601 (Oct)	Henry Bellasis	John Mallory [2]
1604–1611	Sir Edward Swift	Timothy Whittingham
1614	Thomas Belasyse	Sir Robert Yaxley
1620	Thomas Belasyse	Sir John Gibson
1624	Thomas Belasyse	Sir William Sheffield
1625	Henry Belasyse	Henry Stanley
1626	Henry Belasyse	William Cholmeley
1628	Christopher Wandesford	William Frankland
1629–1640	No Parliaments summoned

MPs 1640–1832

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		April 1640	William Frankland		John Belasyse
		November 1640	Sir Thomas Ingram	Royalist	John Belasyse	Royalist
		September 1642	Ingram and Belasyse both disabled from sitting - seats vacant
		1645	William Ayscough		Francis Lascelles
		December 1648	Ayscough excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant
		1653	Thirsk was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
		January 1659	Colonel Thomas Talbot		Major General Goodricke
		May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
		April 1660	Barrington Bourchier		William Stanley
		July 1660			The Earl of Ancram
		1661	Sir Thomas Ingram		Walter Strickland
		1671			Sir William Frankland
		1673	Sir William Wentworth
		1679	Nicholas Saunderson
		1681	Sir William Ayscough
		1685	Thomas Frankland		Sir Hugh Cholmeley
		1689			Richard Staines
		1695	Sir Godfrey Copley
		1698			Sir Thomas Frankland
		1709	Leonard Smelt
		1710	Ralph Bell
		1711			Thomas Worsley
		1713			Thomas Frankland [3]
		1717	Thomas Pitt
		1722	William St Quintin [4]
		1727	Thomas Robinson
		1734	Frederick Meinhardt Frankland
		1747			Thomas Frankland [5]
		1749	William Monckton[6]
		1754	Roger Talbot
		1761	Henry Grenville
		1765	James Grenville
		1768	William Frankland
		1774	Thomas Frankland
		1780	Sir Thomas Gascoigne		Beilby Thompson
		1784	Sir Thomas Frankland		Sir Gregory Page-Turner
		1785	Robert Vyner
		1796	Sir Thomas Frankland, Bt
		1801	William Frankland
		1805			Hon. Richard Griffin
		1806	James Topping		Robert Greenhill-Russell [7]	Whig
		1807	William Frankland	Whig
		1815	Robert Frankland [8]	Whig
		1832	Representation reduced to one member

MPs 1832–1885

Election		Member	Party
	1832	Sir Robert Frankland	Whig
	1834 by-election	Samuel Crompton [9]	Whig
	1841	John Bell [10]	Whig
	1847		Conservative
	March 1851 by-election	Sir William Payne-Gallwey	Conservative
	1880	Hon. Lewis Payn Dawnay	Conservative
	1885	constituency abolished

Notes

1. "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-09-28.
2. "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-09-28.
3. Succeeded to the baronetcy as Sir Thomas Frankland, October 1726
4. Succeeded to the baronetcy as Sir William St Quintin, June 1723
5. Succeeded to the baronetcy as Sir Thomas Frankland, January 1768
6. Succeeded as 2nd Viscount Galway in the peerage of Ireland in 1751
7. Created a baronet as Sir Robert Greenhill-Russell, September 1831
8. Succeeded to the baronetcy as Sir Robert Frankland, January 1831
9. Sir Samuel Crompton from 1838
10. In July 1849 a Commission of Lunacy declared Bell to be of unsound mind, but as the law then stood he could not be deprived of his seat on those grounds and remained an MP until his death in 1851

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)
• F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• 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 "T" (part 1)