Appleby was enfranchised as parliamentary borough in 1295, and abolished by the Great Reform Act of 1832. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) using the bloc vote system. It was represented in the House of Commons of England until 1707, in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and finally in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. Its best-known MP was William Pitt the Younger who became Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24.
For the 1885 general election the Redistribution of Seats Act created a county constituency of the same name, which returned a single MP elected by the first-past-the-post system. The county constituency was abolished at the 1918 general election.
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 county constituency (1885–1918)
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.
^The by-election in 1723 was due to the death of Sir Richard Sandford, Bt.
^The by-election in 1730 was due to Tufton succeeding to the peerage as Earl of Thanet
^ abIn 1741, Dodington was also elected for Bridgwater, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
^ abAt 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
^The 1767 by-election was due to the death of Stanwix, who was drowned while returning from Ireland
^The 1773 by-election was due to the resignation of Jenkinson
^ abIn 1780, Lowther was also elected for Carlisle, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby, causing a by-election in 1781
^ abJenkinson was also elected for Rye, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
^The May 1791 by-election was caused by the resignation of Richard Ford
^The 1799 by-election was caused by the death of Hon. John Tufton
^The July 1807 by-election was caused by the resignation of Charles Grey to contest a vacancy in Tavistock
^The December 1812 by-election was caused by the resignation of John Courtenay
^The 1819 by-election was caused by the resignation of George Fludyer
^ abTierney was also elected for Knaresborough, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Appleby
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
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