East Retford (UK Parliament constituency)

East Retford
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1572–1885
Seats	Two
Created from	Nottinghamshire
Replaced by	Bassetlaw

East Retford was a parliamentary constituency in Nottinghamshire, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons for the first time in 1316, and continuously from 1571 until 1885, when the constituency was abolished. Although East Retford was technically a parliamentary borough for the whole of its existence, in 1830 its franchise had been widened and its boundaries had been extended to include the whole Wapentake of Bassetlaw as a remedy for corruption among the voters, and from that point onward it resembled a county constituency in most respects.

History

The original borough

East Retford first sent members to Parliament in 1316, but thereafter the privilege lapsed until the borough was once more summoned to do so in 1571, probably at the instigation of the Earl of Rutland. Certainly, he considered himself entitled to influence its choice of members, and 1586 wrote to the borough asking for the nomination of one or both of the representatives; the borough authorities replied respectfully that "Having considered the matter" they felt themselves "bound to satisfy you in that and any other much weightier thing. May it please you, therefore, to make choice and nominate and we will ratify it." However, they went on to note that they would be particularly happy to oblige if the Earl were to renominate the sitting member, Denzil Holles (who may well have been his nominee at the previous election), and since Rutland proved happy to do so, the proprieties were observed without any hardship. The Earls of Rutland retained their influence in Retford for several decades, often holding the municipal post of High Steward.^{[ citation needed ]}

The borough consisted initially of the parish of East Retford, a market town which by 1830 had a population of around 2,500. By the end of the 17th century, the right to vote was restricted to the resident freemen of the town, but there was some dispute over who had a right to claim the freedom. (The House of Commons debated the borough's franchise seven times in a few years following 1700, coming to a different resolution each time, and never definitively settling all the details.) East Retford was not subject to the abuses common in many other freeman boroughs, where non-resident freemen could often vote and outnumbered the residents, but as elsewhere the town corporation was able to exert considerable control by deciding whom to admit as freemen. In the second half of the 18th century, the qualified electorate amounted to about 150.^{[ citation needed ]}

However, the borough was no more independent than it had been in Elizabethan times, and by 1800 had been under the influence of the main local landowner, the Duke of Newcastle, for well over a century. Although it was not quite an entirely safe pocket borough, the Duke could generally be confident of seeing his chosen candidates returned. This influence was strongest in the second half of the 18th century when the borough was managed for the Duke by one of the sitting MPs, John White: there were no contested elections between 1741 and 1796. But even then it was necessary to work to maintain the Duke's popularity among the freemen, and after 1765 the then Duke (who had been Prime Minister until 1761) found his hold on Retford challenged by his nephew, the Earl of Lincoln. As Lincoln was also Newcastle's heir, it might have seemed that the dispute could not permanently weaken the family's control: but in the event the voters had been so stirred up, by the time Lincoln inherited the Dukedom in 1768, that they were unwilling to renounce their independence. Henceforth the Dukes of Newcastle could only count on one of the two seats. When the Corporation candidate was beaten by the Duke's two choices in 1796, the bailiffs and aldermen of the Corporation created 38 honorary freemen to ensure they had a majority once more at the next election; but the Court of King's Bench ruled the manoeuvre illegal (though it was common practice in many other boroughs).^{[ citation needed ]}

Corruption and its consequences

With the election results in Retford no longer a foregone conclusion, it became worthwhile for candidates to take some pains to secure victory, and Retford's voters began to exploit the commercial value of their votes. The Newcastle influence became very limited while that of Earl Fitzwilliam waxed (though he himself and his Whig allies were apparently unconvinced of their own power), and the borough eventually became notorious for bribery. Retford's corruption took an unusual form: unlike the voters in most corrupt boroughs, the freemen tried to prevent contested elections, demanding instead that hopeful candidates should buy enough votes to secure a safe majority and avoid the need for a poll. At the elections of 1818 and 1820, the going tariff was 20 guineas for a vote, and the freemen (having two votes each) received 40 guineas for votes they never needed to cast.^{[ citation needed ]}

But the stability of the system depended on the electors being able to reach a consensus over two candidates who could meet their demands, and a balance had developed whereby the Fitzwilliam interest chose one candidate and the leading members of the corporation the other. Late in 1825, the prospective Corporation candidate for the next election withdrew through ill health, and Lord Fitzwilliam provocatively brought forward a second candidate of his own. The Corporation found another candidate and secured the support of the Tory Duke of Newcastle. The election of 1826 was fought with no holds barred. Both sides bought up all the votes they could at the usual rate, and several pubs were kept open for months before the election, serving free beer from six in the morning until midnight. The Tory stood on a "no popery" platform, with his supporters openly boycotting tradesmen who opposed them, and election day ended in a riot. The two Fitzwilliam candidates won, but the loser petitioned against the result and the extent of East Retford's corruption was displayed to the world.^{[ citation needed ]}

Parliament was united in being determined to find a remedy for East Retford's misbehaviour, but less clear as to what the most appropriate remedy would be. In the last years of the 18th century, several other boroughs found guilty of similar offences had been "thrown into the hundred" (had their boundaries extended to include the freeholders from the whole surrounding division of the county, so as to ensure that the corrupt townsmen could no longer sway the vote). But demands for a wider Parliamentary reform and a redistribution of seats to the more populous parts of the country were now widespread, and in the most recent corruption case (that of Grampound), the offending borough had been abolished altogether and its seats transferred elsewhere.^{[ citation needed ]}

There were therefore vigorous debates as to whether Retford's franchise should not be transferred to one of the larger unrepresented towns such as Manchester or Birmingham. But both the Tory government and Whig opposition were split on the issue - the harder-line anti-Reform Tories did not want to set a precedent for establishing new boroughs, while many of the Whigs were reluctant to weaken the case for wholesale Reform by making piecemeal improvements. Further complications affected both sides: the Whigs were embarrassed because a leading Whig had been implicated in vote-buying; the Tories were aware that throwing the borough into the hundred (or in Retford's case, the Wapentake) might well re-establish the lost influence of the Tory Duke of Newcastle over the constituency.^{[ citation needed ]}

The people of Retford themselves were by no means unanimous in wanting to retain the franchise. During the House of Lords debates on the Disfranchisement Bill, it emerged that the town had an active committee, led by a couple of attorneys and meeting at the Turk's Head Inn, trying to make the borough seem even more corrupt than it was and ensure its extinction. One of its members was later seen wearing a handsome gold watch, apparently presented in gratitude by well-wishers in Birmingham!^{[ citation needed ]}

The first compromise reached by the House of Commons was to put East Retford into the Wapentake while transferring the seats of another guilty borough, Penryn, to Manchester, but the latter Bill was defeated in the House of Lords. The question dragged on through the whole of the 1826–30 Parliament, and the Whig amendment to transfer Retford's seats to Birmingham was eventually defeated by 126 votes to 99. The Act that was passed in 1830 therefore reverted to the earlier practice, and the borough's boundaries were extended to encompass the Wapentake of Bassetlaw (which included the whole of the northern end of Nottinghamshire, including the town of Worksop): all those within this area who were qualified to vote in the county elections were given votes for East Retford.^{[ citation needed ]}

After 1830

This punishment saved East Retford's representation, in name at least. Within a year, Parliament was debating the Great Reform Bill, and the old borough's population was so small that it would have lost one of its seats. But the newly extended borough had a population of more than 37,000, and the Reform Act therefore left it untouched. It had 2,312 registered voters at the first reformed election, and around 7,500 after the second extension of the franchise in 1868. It retained its two members until 1885, when the constituency was replaced by an identically delineated single-member county constituency, Bassetlaw.^{[ citation needed ]}

Members of Parliament

MPs 1571–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1571	Henry Draycot	Thomas Broxholme [1]
1572	Job Throckmorton	George Delves [1]
1584 (Nov) – 1587	Denzil Holles	Thomas Waad [1]
1586	Denzil Holles	John Conyers [1]
1588	George Chaworth	Alexander Radcliffe [1]
1593	Roger Portington	Anthony Cooke [1]
1597	Roger Portington	John Roos [1]
1601	Roger Manners	Robert Kydman [1]
1604	Sir John Thornhagh	Sir Thomas Darrel
1614	Sir William Cavendish	Sir Walter Chute
1621	Sir Nathaniel Rich	Edward Wortley
1624	John Holles [2]	Sir Francis Wortley
1625	John, Lord Haughton	Sir Francis Wortley
1626	John, Lord Haughton	Sir Francis Wortley
1628	Sir Edward Osborne	Henry Stanhope, Lord Stanhope
1629–1639	No Parliaments convened

MPs 1640–1885

Year		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
April 1640		Sir Gervase Clifton [3]			Francis Pierrepont [3]
November 1640		Charles Cavendish [4]	Royalist		Sir Gervase Clifton [4]	Royalist
1644	Mansfield and Clifton disabled from sitting - both seats vacant
1646		Francis Thornhagh	Parliamentarian		Sir William Lister
November 1648	Thornhaugh killed at Battle of Preston - seat vacant
December 1648		Edward Neville		Lister excluded in Pride's Purge - seat vacant
1653	East Retford was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Clifford Clifton			William Cartwright
May 1659		Edward Neville
1660		Sir William Hickman			Wentworth Fitzgerald
1661					Clifford Clifton
1670					Sir Edward Dering
1679					Sir Edward Nevill
1685		John Millington
1689		Hon. Evelyn Pierrepont			John Thornhagh
1690		Richard Taylor
1698		Sir Willoughby Hickman
January 1701		Thomas White
April 1701		Sir Willoughby Hickman
December 1701		Thomas White
1702		Sir Willoughby Hickman			William Levinz
1706		Sir Hardolph Wastneys			Robert Molesworth
1708		William Levinz			Thomas White
1710 [5]		Thomas Westby
1711		Willoughby Hickman	Tory		Bryan Cooke
April 1713		Francis Lewis
August 1713					John Digby
1715		Thomas White
1722					Patrick Chaworth
1727					Sir Robert Clifton
1733		John White
1741					William Mellish
1751					John Shelley
1768		Sir Cecil Wray	Whig		John Offley
1774					Lord Thomas Pelham-Clinton [6]
1775					William Hanger
1778					Lord John Pelham-Clinton
1780		Wharton Amcotts
1781					Thomas Pelham-Clinton
1790		Sir John Ingilby
1794					Lt Colonel William Henry Clinton
1796		William Petrie			Sir Wharton Amcotts
1802		Lt Colonel Robert Craufurd			John Jaffray
1806		Major General Charles Craufurd			Thomas Hughan
1807					William Ingilby
1812		George Osbaldeston			Charles Marsh
1818		William Evans			Samuel Crompton
1826 [7]		William Battie-Wrightson	Whig [8]		Sir Robert Dundas	Whig [8]
1830		Charles Pierrepont	Whig [8]		Arthur Duncombe	Tory [8]
1831					Granville Harcourt-Vernon	Whig [8]
1835		Arthur Duncombe	Conservative [8]
1837						Conservative [8]
1847					George Monckton-Arundell	Conservative
1852		Hon. William Duncombe	Conservative
1857		Francis Foljambe	Whig [9]
1859			Liberal
1876 by-election					William Beckett-Denison	Conservative
1880					Frederick Mappin	Liberal
1885	Constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

General election 1830: East Retford ^{[8] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Charles Pierrepont	770	37.1
	Tory	Arthur Duncombe	697	33.5
	Whig	Granville Harcourt-Vernon	611	29.4
Turnout			1,283	c. 64.2
Registered electors			c. 2,000
Majority			73	3.6
	Whig hold		Swing
Majority			86	4.1
	Tory gain from Whig		Swing

General election 1831: East Retford ^{[8] [10]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Granville Harcourt-Vernon	1,075	40.7	+11.3
	Whig	Charles Pierrepont	954	36.2	−0.9
	Tory	Arthur Duncombe	610	23.1	−10.4
Majority			344	13.1	+9.5
Turnout			1,493	c. 74.7	c. +10.5
Registered electors			c. 2,000
	Whig hold		Swing	+8.3
	Whig gain from Tory		Swing	+2.2

General election 1832: East Retford ^{[8] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Granville Harcourt-Vernon	1,311	38.2	−2.5
	Whig	Charles Pierrepont	1,153	33.6	−2.6
	Tory	John Beckett	970	28.2	+5.1
Majority			183	5.4	−7.7
Turnout			1,980	85.6	c. +10.9
Registered electors			2,312
	Whig hold		Swing	−2.5
	Whig hold		Swing	−2.6

General election 1835: East Retford ^{[8] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Granville Harcourt-Vernon	1,286	34.7	−37.1
	Conservative	Arthur Duncombe	1,252	33.8	+19.7
	Conservative	Charles Pelham-Clinton	1,164	31.4	+17.3
Majority			34	0.9	−4.5
Turnout			2,199	89.4	+3.8
Registered electors			2,459
	Whig hold		Swing	−37.1
	Conservative gain from Whig		Swing	+19.1

General election 1837: East Retford ^{[8] [11]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Duncombe	1,372	34.7	+0.9
	Conservative	Granville Harcourt-Vernon	1,352	34.2	−0.5
	Whig	William Mason	1,234	31.2	N/A
Majority			118	3.0	N/A
Turnout			2,259	84.3	−5.1
Registered electors			2,680
	Conservative hold
	Conservative gain from Whig

Elections in the 1840s

General election 1841: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Duncombe	Unopposed
	Conservative	Granville Harcourt-Vernon	Unopposed
Registered electors			2,785
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

Duncombe was appointed a Groom in Waiting to Queen Victoria, causing a by-election.

By-election, 2 October 1841: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Duncombe	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

General election 1847: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Duncombe	Unopposed
	Conservative	George Monckton-Arundell	Unopposed
Registered electors			2,654
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1850s

Duncombe resigned to contest the 1852 by-election in East Riding of Yorkshire, causing a by-election.

By-election, 11 February 1852: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Duncombe	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Monckton-Arundell was appointed a Lord in Waiting to Queen Victoria, requiring a by-election.

By-election, 19 March 1852: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Monckton-Arundell	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

General election 1852: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Duncombe	Unopposed
	Conservative	George Monckton-Arundell	Unopposed
Registered electors			2,710
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

General election 1857: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Francis Foljambe	Unopposed
	Conservative	George Monckton-Arundell	Unopposed
Registered electors			2,646
	Whig gain from Conservative
	Conservative hold

General election 1859: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Francis Foljambe	Unopposed
	Conservative	George Monckton-Arundell	Unopposed
Registered electors			2,621
	Liberal hold
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1865: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Francis Foljambe	Unopposed
	Conservative	George Monckton-Arundell	Unopposed
Registered electors			2,489
	Liberal hold
	Conservative hold

General election 1868: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Francis Foljambe	Unopposed
	Conservative	George Monckton-Arundell	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,510
	Liberal hold
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1870s

General election 1874: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Francis Foljambe	Unopposed
	Conservative	George Monckton-Arundell	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,768
	Liberal hold
	Conservative hold

Monckton-Arundell's death caused a by-election.

By-election, 25 Feb 1876: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Beckett-Denison	3,538	51.4	N/A
	Liberal	Henry Fox Bristowe [12]	3,351	48.6	N/A
Majority			187	2.8	N/A
Turnout			6,889	84.7	N/A
Registered electors			8,131
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: East Retford ^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Francis Foljambe	4,333	30.4	N/A
	Liberal	Frederick Mappin	4,134	29.0	N/A
	Conservative	William Beckett-Denison	3,021	21.2	N/A
	Conservative	Henry Eyre [13]	2,776	19.5	N/A
Majority			1,113	7.8	N/A
Turnout			7,132 (est.)	86.2 (est.)	N/A
Registered electors			8,278
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	N/A

References

1. "History of Parliament" . Retrieved 27 September 2011.
2. Bore the courtesy title Lord Haughton from 1624
3. Willis, Browne (1750). "Short Parliament". Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. pp.  234.
4. Willis, Browne (1750). "Long Parliament". Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. p.  247.
5. At the election of 1710 Westby and White were initially declared elected, but on petition (in a dispute over the franchise) they were both declared not to have been duly elected
6. Pelham-Clinton was also elected for Westminster, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for East Retford in this Parliament
7. On petition, the result of the 1826 election was declared void for widespread bribery and corruption, and the writ was suspended. As an eventual result, an Act of Parliament was passed to extend the constituency boundaries to include the Wapentake of Bassetlaw.
8. Smith, Henry Stooks (1842). The Register of Parliamentary Contested Elections (Second ed.). Simpkin, Marshall & Company. pp. 128–129. Retrieved 5 November 2018– via Google Books.
9. Mair, Robert Henry, ed. (1872). Debrett's Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons, and the Judicial Bench. London: Bean & Son. p. 90. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
10. Harratt, Simon; Farrell, Stephen. "East Retford". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
11. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN   978-1-349-02349-3.
12. "Retford Election" . Sheffield Daily Telegraph. 19 February 1876. p. 3. Retrieved 29 December 2017– via British Newspaper Archive.
13. "To the Electors of East Retford and the Hundred of Bassetlaw" . Sheffield Daily Telegraph . 18 March 1880. p. 5. Retrieved 19 December 2017– via British Newspaper Archive.

External links

• Robert Beatson, "A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament" (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• Michael Brock, The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
• D. Brunton & D. H. Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• John Cannon, Parliamentary Reform 1640-1832 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972)
• "Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803" (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
• F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
• 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)
• J. Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
• Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)
• Frederic A. Youngs jr, Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "E" (part 1)