Until the
Reform Act 1832, there were eight
constituencies
An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...
in the
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised ...
and its successors related to the
cinque ports. The cinque port constituencies were slightly different from
parliamentary boroughs. The 1832 Act abolished most such distinctions, and disfranchised some of the cinque ports as
rotten
Rotten may refer to:
* Axl Rotten, ring name of American professional wrestler Brian Knighton (1971–2016)
* Bonnie Rotten, American former pornographic actress, feature dancer, fetish model, and director
* Ian Rotten, ring name of American profe ...
.
List
The eight constituencies were:
* the original five Cinque Ports:
**
Dover
**
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west ...
**
Hythe
Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to:
Places Australia
* Hythe, Tasmania
Canada
*Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada
England
* T ...
(reduced to one member 1832)
**
New Romney (abolished 1832)
**
Sandwich
A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...
* the two Ancient Towns:
**
Rye (abolished 1832)
**
Winchelsea
Winchelsea () is a small town in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately south west of Rye and north east of Hastings. The ...
(abolished 1832)
* one connected town:
**
Seaford (abolished 1832)
Peculiarities
The ways in which the cinque ports differed from parliamentary boroughs included:
* Whereas the MPs from a borough were called "burgesses" (or "citizens" in a borough with
city status City status is a symbolic and legal designation given by a national or subnational government. A municipality may receive city status because it already has the qualities of a city, or because it has some special purpose.
Historically, city status ...
) those from a cinque port were called
barons
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knigh ...
. Barons had higher
precedence than other MPs: whereas burgesses and citizens were called to a new Parliament on the first day, and
knights of the shire
Knight of the shire ( la, milites comitatus) was the formal title for a member of parliament (MP) representing a county constituency in the British House of Commons, from its origins in the medieval Parliament of England until the Redistribution ...
(elected for
county constituencies
In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons.
Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called " constitue ...
) on the second day, the barons were summoned to the Commons on the third day, along with the peers to the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
.
* Whereas the
returning officer
In various parliamentary systems, a returning officer is responsible for overseeing elections in one or more constituencies.
Australia
In Australia a returning officer is an employee of the Australian Electoral Commission or a state electoral ...
in a borough was the mayor or other head of the
municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including (but not necessarily limited to) cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. The term can also be used to describe municipally ...
, the returning officer in the cinque ports was the
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
* Until the
Glorious Revolution, the Lord Warden claimed the right to nominate one of the two members returned by each cinque port.
[Porritt & Porritt 1903, p.547] This right was contested by the corporations. In the 1620s, Sandwich and Dover burgesses objected to
Lord Zouche's nominees; the Sandwich objection was rejected, while that of Dover was accepted and the MPs unseated. The right was definitively extinguished by the Parliamentary Elections Act 1689 (2 Will. & Mary c.7).
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
* {{cite book , title=The History of Parliament , volume=House of Commons 1660–1690 , last= Henning , first=Basil Duke , editor1-last= Henning , editor1-first=Basil Duke , chapter-url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/constituencies/cinque-ports , chapter=Cinque Ports , publisher=History of Parliament Online
rig. Boydell and Brewer, access-date=7 April 2017