Dorset was a county constituency in southern England, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1290 until 1832, and three MPs thereafter. In 1885 the constituency was abolished, and replaced by four single-member divisions.
History
Members of Parliament
Before 1640
- 1545: Sir John Rogers
- 1586-1587: Ralph Horsey
- 1586-1587: Sir Robert Napier
- 1588-1589: Sir John Wolley
| Parliament |
First member |
Second member |
| Parliament of 1597-1598 |
Sir Walter Raleigh |
Ralph Horsey |
| Parliament of 1601 |
George Trenchard |
Sir Edmund Unedall |
| Parliament of 1604-1611 |
Sir Thomas Freke |
John Williams |
| Addled Parliament (1614) |
Sir John Strangways |
Sir Mervyn Audley |
| Parliament of 1621-1622 |
Sir Thomas Trenchard |
| Happy Parliament (1624-1625) |
|
|
| Useless Parliament (1625) |
|
|
| Parliament of 1625-1626 |
Sir George Morton |
|
| Parliament of 1628-1629 |
|
|
| No Parliament summoned 1629-1640 |
-
1640-1832
| Year |
|
First member |
First party |
|
Second member |
Second party |
| April 1640 |
|
Lord Digby |
Royalist |
|
Richard Rogers |
Royalist |
| November 1640 |
| 1641 |
|
John Browne |
Parliamentarian |
| September 1642 |
Rogers disabled from sitting - seat vacant |
| 1645 |
|
Sir Thomas Trenchard |
|
| December 1648 |
Trenchard did not sit after Pride's Purge - seat vacant |
| 1653 |
|
William Sydenham |
|
|
John Bingham |
|
| Dorset had six seats in the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate |
| 1654 |
William Sydenham, John Bingham, Sir Walter Earle, John Fitzjames, John Trenchard, Henry Henley |
| 1656 |
William Sydenham, John Bingham, Robert Coker, John Fitzjames, John Trenchard, James Dewey |
| Dorset reverted to two seats in the Third Protectorate Parliament |
| January 1659 |
|
Sir Walter Earle |
|
|
John Bingham |
|
| May 1659 |
Not represented in the restored Rump |
| April 1660 |
|
John Fitzjames |
|
|
Robert Coker |
|
| Apr 1661 |
|
John Strode |
|
|
Giles Strangways |
|
| 1675 |
|
Lord Digby |
|
| 1677 |
|
Thomas Browne |
|
| 1679 |
|
Thomas Strangways I |
|
|
Thomas Freke |
|
| 1701 |
|
Thomas Trenchard |
|
| 1702 |
|
Thomas Chafin |
|
| 1711 |
|
Richard Bingham |
|
| 1713 |
|
George Chafin |
|
|
Thomas Strangways II |
|
| Jan 1727 |
|
George Pitt |
|
| Sep 1727 |
|
Edmund Morton Pleydell |
|
| 1747 |
|
George Pitt |
Tory
later Independent |
| 1754 |
|
Humphry Sturt |
|
| 1774 |
|
Hon. George Pitt |
|
| 1784 |
|
Francis John Brown |
|
| 1790 |
|
William Morton Pitt |
|
| 1806 |
|
Edward Berkeley Portman I |
|
| 1823 |
|
Edward Portman II |
|
| 1826 |
|
Henry Bankes |
|
| 1831 |
|
John Calcraft |
Whig |
| 1832 |
|
Lord Ashley |
Tory |
| 1832 |
Representation increased to 3 members |
1832-1885
Election results
-
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) [1]
- F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
- Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
- J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
- J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
- Heywood Townshend, Historical Collections:: or, An exact Account of the Proceedings of the Four last Parliaments of Q. Elizabeth (1680) [2]
- British History Online - 'List of members nominated for Parliament of 1653', Diary of Thomas Burton esq, volume 4: March - April 1659 (1828),
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
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