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Appleby constituency
Created:	1295, 1885
Abolished:	1832, 1918
Type:	House of Commons
Members:	two until 1832, then one

Appleby was the name of a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom) for two periods, as a borough represented by two Members of Parliament from 1295 until abolished by the Great Reform Act of 1832, and later as a county constituency represented by a single member from 1885 to 1918.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The borough (1295-1832) 1.2 The county constituency (1885-1918) 2 Members of Parliament 2.1 1295-1660 2.2 1660-1832 2.3 1885-1918 3 References

The parliamentary borough of Appleby consisted of the town of Appleby, the county town of Westmorland, and was consistently represented in the House of Commons from the Model Parliament of 1295 until the Reform Act.

The right to vote rested with the occupiers of around a hundred burgage tenements. By the 18th century, the majority of the burgages were owned by the Lowther and Tufton families, which enabled them to put in reliable tenants at election time and ensure their complete control of who was elected. The seats were frequently kept for members of those families, but Appleby's other representatives included William Pitt the younger, who was MP for Appleby when he became Prime Minister in 1783 (although he stood down at the following general election when he was instead elected for Cambridge University).

A later member for Appleby was Viscount Howick, subsequently (as Earl Grey) the Prime Minister whose administration passed the Great Reform Act of 1832; but Grey's history as a former MP for the town did not save it from losing both its members under the Act. Appleby was regarded as a classic example of a pocket borough, completely in the control of its owners who were also the major local landowners, and with a population of only 1,233 at the 1831 census unlikely to be freed from their influence even by widening the franchise. Nevertheless, as the only county town to be disfranchised, Appleby was one of the more controversial cases in the debates on the reform bill, the opposition making unsuccessful attempts to amend the bill so as to save at least one of its MPs.

After abolition the borough was absorbed into the Westmorland county constituency.

The Appleby constituency created for the 1885 election was, in full, "The Appleby or Northern Division of Westmorland", and was sometimes referred to as Westmorland North. It consisted of the whole of the northern half of the county, including the towns of Ambleside, Grasmere and Kirkby Stephen. It was abolished at the 1918 general election, the whole county henceforth being united in a single Westmorland constituency.

• 1529-1536: Sir Thomas Wharton

...

Long Parliament

• 1640-1643: Sir John Brooke (Royalist) - disabled to sit, March 1643
• 1640-1643: Viscount Dungarvan (Royalist) - disabled to sit, November 1643. The Viscount Boyle (in the Irish peerage) from September 1642; Earl of Cork from September 1643
• 1645-1651: Henry Ireton - died November 1651
• 1645(?)-1653: Richard Salway

Appleby was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate

Third Protectorate Parliament

• 1659: Adam Baynes
• 1659: Nathaniel Redding

Long Parliament (restored)

• 1659-1660: ?

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1660	Sir Henry Cholmley		Christopher Clapham
		1661	John Lowther		John Dalston
		1668	Thomas Tufton	Tory
		1679	Richard Tufton		Anthony Lowther
		January 1681	Sackville Tufton
		February 1681			Sir John Bland
		1685			Philip Musgrave
		January 1689	Richard Lowther
		July 1689			William Cheyne
		1690	Charles Boyle
		1694	Sir John Walter
		1695	Sir William Twysden		Sir Christopher Musgrave
		1697	Sir John Walter
		1698			Gervase Pierrepont
		1701	Wharton Dunch
		1702	James Grahme
		1705			William Harvey
		1708	Nicholas Lechmere		Edward Duncombe
		1710	Thomas Lutwyche
		1713			Sir Richard Sandford, Bt.
		1722	Sackville Tufton
		1723			James Lowther
		1727			Sir John Ramsden
		1730	Walter Plumer
		1741	George Bubb Dodington [1]
		1742	Sir Charles Wyndham
		1747	Randle Wilbraham
		1754	William Lee [2]		Philip Honywood
		1756	Fletcher Norton
		1761	John Stanwix
		1767	Charles Jenkinson	Whig
		1773	Fletcher Norton the younger
		1774	George Johnstone	Independent
		1780	William Lowther[3]	Tory
		1781	Hon. William Pitt	Whig
		1784	Hon. John Leveson Gower		Richard Penn
		1790	Hon. Robert Banks Jenkinson [4]	Tory	Richard Ford	Tory
		January 1791	Hon. William Grimston
		May 1791			Hon. John Rawdon
		1796	Hon. John Tufton		John Courtenay
		1799	Robert Adair	Whig
		1802	Sir Philip Francis	Whig
		May 1807	Viscount Howick	Whig	James Ramsay Cuthbert	Whig
		July 1807	Nicholas William Ridley-Colborne	Whig
		October 1812	James Lowther	Tory	John Courtenay	Whig
		December 1812			George Tierney	Whig
		1818	George Fludyer	Tory	Lucius Concannon	Whig
		1819	Adolphus Dalrymple	Tory
		March 1820			George Tierney [5]	Whig
		May 1820			Thomas Creevey	Whig
		1826	Hon. Henry Tufton	Whig	Viscount Maitland	Tory
		1831	Charles Henry Barham	Whig
1832			Constituency abolished

Notes

1. ^ Dodington was also elected for Bridgwater, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
2. ^ At the 1754 election Lee and Honywood defeated Sir John Ramsden and Fletcher Norton, but this election was subsequently declared void and a by-election held in February 1756, at which Norton rather than Lee was elected
3. ^ Lowther was also elected for Carlisle, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
4. ^ Jenkinson was also elected for Rye, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
5. ^ Tierney was also elected for Knaresborough, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby

Year		Member	Party
	1885	Hon. William Lowther	Conservative
	1892	Sir Joseph Savory	Conservative
	1900	Richard Rigg	Liberal
	1905	Leifchild Stratten Jones	Liberal
	January 1910	Lancelot Sanderson	Conservative
	1915	Sir H. Cecil Lowther	Conservative
1918		constituency abolished: see Westmorland

• Michael Brock, "The Great Reform Act" (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, “Members of the Long Parliament” (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.