Epaphroditus Marsh (January 1637 – July 1719) was an Irish politician. He sat in the Irish House of Commons as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Fethard, Tipperary from 1703 to 1713, [1] for Armagh Borough from 1713 to 1715, [1] and then for Fethard again from 1715 until his death in 1719. [1]
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive franchise, similar to the Unreformed House of Commons in contemporary England and Great Britain. In counties, forty-shilling freeholders were enfranchised whilst in most boroughs it was either only the members of self-electing corporations or a highly-restricted body of freemen that were able to vote for the borough's representatives. Most notably, Catholics were disqualified from sitting in the Irish parliament from 1691, even though they comprised the vast majority of the Irish population. From 1728 until 1793 they were also disfranchised. Most of the population of all religions had no vote. The vast majority of parliamentary boroughs were pocket boroughs, the private property of an aristocratic patron. When these boroughs were disfranchised under the Act of Union, the patron was awarded £15,000 compensation for each.
Fethard was a constituency in County Tipperary represented in the Irish House of Commons to 1800.
Armagh Borough was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons from 1613 to 1800.
