Hedon, sometimes spelt Heydon, was a
parliamentary borough in the
East Riding of Yorkshire
The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...
, represented by two
Members 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 of ...
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. ...
briefly in the 13th century and again from 1547 to 1832.
History
The constituency consisted of the market town of
Hedon
Hedon is a town and civil parish in Holderness in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately east of Hull city centre. It lies to the north of the A1033 road at the crossroads of the B1240 and B1362 roads.
It is ...
, in
Holderness
Holderness is an area of the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the north-east coast of England. An area of rich agricultural land, Holderness was marshland until it was drained in the Middle Ages. Topographically, Holderness has more in common wit ...
to the east of
Hull, which had been of some importance in medieval times but which by 1831 had dwindled to 217 houses and a population of 1,080, and the borough was disfranchised in the
Great Reform Act
The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...
of 1832.
The right of election in Hedon was vested in the
burgess __NOTOC__
Burgess may refer to:
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* Burgess (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Burgess (given name), a list of people
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* Burgess, Missouri, U ...
es generally, meaning that a high proportion of the male population had the vote. In 1826, when the election was contested, 331 burgesses recorded their votes. Nevertheless, the result was rarely in doubt, Hedon being a classic example of a
pocket borough
A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...
where the influence of the landowner or "patron" was substantial if not absolute. At first the influence seems to have been shared between two families of important local landowners, the Constables of
Burton Constable and the Hildyards of
Winestead
Winestead is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in an area known as Holderness. It is situated approximately south-east of the town of Hedon and north-west of the village of Patrington. It is situated to the north of the A10 ...
. The patron at the start of the 18th century was
Henry Guy; he bequeathed it to his protégé
William Pulteney, who not only sat for the borough himself for much of his career but made the other seat available to his cousin and his brother. After Pulteney's death the borough passed to the distinguished admiral
Lord Anson
Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, (23 April 1697 – 6 June 1762) was a Royal Navy officer. Anson served as a junior officer during the War of the Spanish Succession and then saw active service against Spain at the Batt ...
, who used his patronage to provide seats for some of his naval colleagues;
[Pages 29-30, Lewis Namier, "The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III" (2nd edition - London: Macmillan, 1957)] one of these,
Admiral Sir Charles Saunders, inherited the patronage in turn when Anson died.
Members of Parliament
MPs 1547–1640
MPs 1640–1832
Notes
References
*
Michael Brock
Michael George Brock (9 March 1920 – 30 April 2014) was a British historian who was associated with several Oxford colleges during his academic career. He was Warden of Nuffield College, Oxford, from 1978 to 1988.
Youth and education
Michae ...
, ''The Great Reform Act'' (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
*D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
*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)
*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
The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history.
Origins
The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...
, 1991)
*{{Rayment-hc, h, 2, date=March 2012
Parliamentary constituencies of the East Riding of Yorkshire (defunct)
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1547
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1832
Rotten boroughs
Hedon