Higham Ferrers was a
parliamentary borough in Northamptonshire, which was represented 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. ...
from 1558 until 1832, when it was abolished by 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 ...
. It was one of the very small number of English boroughs in that period which was entitled to elect only one rather than two Members of Parliament.
History
The borough consisted of the parish of
Higham Ferrers
Higham Ferrers is a market town and civil parish in the Nene Valley in North Northamptonshire, England, close to the Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire borders. It forms a single built-up area with Rushden to the south and has an estimated popula ...
, a small market town in the east of
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
. In 1831, the population of the borough was 965, and it contained 169 houses; a further two houses were in the town but outside the boundaries of the borough.
Higham Ferrers was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1556 and was first summoned to elect a representative to the Parliament of 1557–1558. The right to vote was exercised by the Mayor,
aldermen
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...
, burgesses (members of the town corporation), and
freemen, provided they were householders in the borough and not receiving alms; in 1831 this comprised a total of 33 voters. Since the corporation elected its own successors and had the right to create freemen (which was sparingly used), this ensured that the power was self-perpetuating and usually entirely under the influence of the local landowner or "patron".
In the first few years of its existence, during the early
Elizabethan period
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
, Higham Ferrers seems to have been entirely under the sway of the
Duchy of Lancaster
The Duchy of Lancaster is the private estate of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the sovereign. The estate consists of ...
, electing Duchy officers as its MPs, but later in the same reign the influence of the local landed families became more evident, in particular the Hattons and the Montagus of Boughton. From the start of the 18th century, however, the Watson-Wentworth family, later
Marquesses of Rockingham, owned the borough and exercised an unchallenged right to nominate its MP; on the death of the
2nd Marquess in 1784, the patronage passed to his nephew and heir, the
Earl Fitzwilliam
Earl Fitzwilliam (or FitzWilliam) was a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain held by the head of the Fitzwilliam family (later Wentworth-Fitzwilliam).
History
The Fitzwilliams acquired extensive holdings in th ...
, who still retained it at the time of the Reform Act.
Higham Ferrers was abolished as a constituency by the Reform Act, those of its inhabitants who were qualified subsequently voting in the
Northern division of the county.
Members of Parliament
1558–1640
1640–1832
Notes
References
*
Robert Beatson
Robert Beatson, LL.D. FRSE FSA (1741–1818) was a Scottish compiler and miscellaneous writer.
Life
He was born on 25 June 1741 at Dysart in Fife, Scotland, the son of David Beatson of Vicarsgrange.
He was educated for the military professio ...
, ''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
*
J. E. Neale, ''The Elizabethan House of Commons'' (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
*
T. H. B. Oldfield, ''The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland'' (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
* Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, ''The Unreformed House of Commons'' (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
* 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)
*
{{Refend
Parliamentary constituencies in Northamptonshire (historic)
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1558
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1832
Rotten boroughs
Rushden