Bridgnorth was a parliamentary borough in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

which was represented in the House of Commons of England from 1295 until 1707, then in the House of Commons of Great Britain until 1800, and in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

from 1801 until its abolition in 1885. It was represented by two

burgess __NOTOC__ Burgess may refer to: People and fictional characters * Burgess (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Burgess (given name), a list of people Places * Burgess, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Burgess, Missouri, U ...

es until 1868, when it was reduced to one

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP).

Boundaries

According to the 1881 census, the borough of Bridgnorth comprised the parishes of

Quatford Quatford is a village in the Severn Valley, Shropshire, England. It is located on the A442, just south of the town of Bridgnorth and on the bank of the River Severn. History Quatford is one of the oldest settlements in the area. It was listed ...

, part of

Quatt Quatt is a small village in Shropshire, England in the Severn Valley. The civil parish, formally known as Quatt Malvern, has a population of 219 according to the 2001 census, reducing to 200 at the 2011 census. It lies on the A442 south of Brid ...

, St. Leonard and St Mary (in Bridgnorth town),

Astley Abbotts Astley Abbotts is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England, located immediately north of Bridgnorth, and straddling the B4373 Bridgnorth to Broseley road. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 396. The Church ins ...

, Eardingdon, Oldbury, Romsley and Tasley. This was smaller than the

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

, which only contained the first four.

History

By the eighteenth century Bridgnorth had one of the widest franchises in England, consisting of "the burgesses and freement within and without the borough". There were more than a thousand voters in the contested elections of 1727, 1734 and 1741Pages 242 to 243,

Lewis Namier Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier (; 27 June 1888 – 19 August 1960) was a British historian of Polish-Jewish background. His best-known works were ''The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III'' (1929), ''England in the Age of the Ameri ...

, ''

The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III ''The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III'' was a book written by Lewis Namier. At the time of its first publication in 1929 it caused a historiographical revolution in understanding the 18th century by challenging the Whig view ...

'' (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957) although in 1920 it was noted as 700. Between 1661 and 1870 at least one of the MPs for Bridgnorth came from the Whitmore family.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1295–1640

MPs 1640–1868

MPs 1868–1885

Elections

Elections in the 1830s

Hanbury-Tracy resigned, by accepting the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, after a petition was lodged against his election.

Elections in the 1840s

Elections in the 1850s

Pigot's election was declared void on petition due to bribery, causing a by-election. Whitmore was appointed a

Lord Commissioner of the Treasury In the United Kingdom there are at least six Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, serving as a commission for the ancient office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the ...

, requiring a by-election.

Elections in the 1860s

On 22 March 1866, after scrutiny, Dalberg-Acton was unseated and Whitmore was duly elected in his place. Whitmore was then appointed a

, requiring a by-election. The seat was reduced to one member for the 1868 election.

Elections in the 1870s

Whitmore resigned, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1880s

Notes and references

Sources

*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

* David Hayton, 'The Country Party in the House of Commons 1698-1699', ''Parliamentary History'', volume 6 (1987), 141-63 * *{{Rayment-hc, b, 5, date=March 2012 Parliamentary constituencies in Shropshire (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1295 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1885 Bridgnorth