# Wootton Bassett (UK Parliament constituency)

Wootton Bassett was a parliamentary borough in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1447 until 1832, when the rotten borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

## History

The borough consisted of the town of Wootton Bassett, a market town in northern Wiltshire. Even when the borough was created by Henry VI it was a town of little consequence, with no significant industry or trade; by the 19th century it suffered from endemic unemployment, and the money to be gained by electoral corruption was probably one of its economic mainstays.
In 1831, the population of the borough was approximately 1,500, and contained 349 houses. The right to vote was exercised by all inhabitant householders paying scot and lot. At the last contested election, this amounted to 309 eligible voters, of whom 228 cast valid votes; in other words, only a comparatively small proportion of households were excluded from the franchise. The local landowners were generally recognised as "patrons" of the borough, and at most periods were able to exercise close control as they were the employers of the majority of the voters. However, they were occasionally vulnerable to the intervention of monied outsiders, since Wootton Bassett's voters had few scruples at selling their votes to the highest bidder.
At the end of the 17th century, the St John family of Lydiard Tregoze had the predominant influence in the borough, and could usually return their chosen candidates without difficulty, the main competing interest being that of the Hydes. After Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke fled abroad in 1715 following the Jacobite Rebellion the St John influence was weakened, and a wealthy local landowner and clothier, Robert Neale of Corsham, was able to secure election in 1741. Neale then began to strengthen his interest, hoping to gain control of the second seat in alliance with the Hydes, and this led to a vigorous contest for control of the borough in the 1750s.
Corruption was playing its part in Wootton Bassett elections at least from the late 17th century. In 1690, a candidate who petitioned against the election of Henry St John was found to have bribed the voters himself, reportedly purchasing votes at one-and-a-half guineas a head, and his agent was taken into custody by order of the House of Commons. Again in 1700, bribery was reported to the committee and the agent was committed to Newgate Prison.
At the election of 1754, Robert Neale attempted to win the support of the Mayor (who was ex officio returning officer) with a bribe of £500, and both sides spent lavishly. The St John candidates (John Probyn and Thomas Estcourt Cresswell) paid 30 guineas a head to voters, the total cost including treating at taverns coming to £6000, while Neale admitted spending £1800 and his co-candidate the Earl of Drumlanrig probably spent a similar amount. St John's candidates were successful, but Neale petitioned against the outcome and (as a supporter of the government) apparently expected a partisan decision to overturn the result in his favour. In the event, the Duke of Newcastle, then serving as the prime minister, refused to support the petition but Neale was compensated £1000 from secret government funds.
After another contested election in election of 1784, when George Tierney, backed by the Hydes, spent £2500 in an unsuccessful attempt to win a seat against the St John candidates, the two families reached an agreement to nominate one MP each at future elections. This lasted until the early years of the following century when a barrister, James Kibblewhite, began to acquire property in the town and secured both a majority on the Corporation and sufficient "influence" with the voters to have his candidates returned as MPs – the nature of the influence is indicated by reports that the price of a vote had risen to 45 guineas a man. When Benjamin Walsh, who was elected on this occasion, was shortly afterwards declared bankrupt it emerged on the investigation of his accounts that he had paid £4000 for his seat. Kibblewhite sold his interest in the borough to Joseph Pitt for £22,000, but Pitt was unable to retain control over the voters despite his domination of the corporation and the St Johns and Hydes once more resumed the patronage.
Perhaps surprisingly, the corruption at Wootton Bassett never led to a major scandal or to any attempts to disfranchise the borough – unlike nearby Cricklade, which was "thrown into the hundred" for its misdemeanours in the 1770s, or Hindon which nearly suffered the same fate. However, the town was far too small to justify separate representation after the Great Reform Act, and the constituency was abolished in 1832. The town was within the penally-expanded boundaries of Cricklade, which retained both its MPs, and was thereafter part of that borough constituency.

## Members of Parliament
### 1447–1640

| Parliament | First member | Second member |
| 1449–1450 | John Daunt | |
| 1510–1523 | No names known | No names known |
| 1529 | Richard Tracy | Walter Winston |
| 1536 | ? |
| 1539 | ? |
| 1542 | ? |
| 1545 | Edmund Brydges | Hugh Westwood |
| 1547 | John Seymour | Robert Huick |
| 1553 (Mar) | Gabriel Pleydell | William Garrard |
| 1553 (Oct) | Henry Poole | John Throckmorton |
| 1554 (Apr) | John Tull | Giles Payne |
| 1554 (Nov) | Giles Payne | William Hampshire |
| 1555 | Edmund Plowden | Richard Bruning |
| 1558 | Richard Bruning | Humphrey Moseley |
| 1559 | Christopher Dysmars | Humphrey Moseley |
| 1562–3 | John Hippisley, sat for Wells replaced Jan 1563 by Matthew Poyntz | Gabriel Pleydell |
| 1571 | Henry Knyvet | John Winchcombe |
| 1572 | Henry Knyvet | Edmund Dunch |
| 1584 | Thomas Vavasour | John Hungerford |
| 1586 | Thomas Vavasour | John Hungerford |
| 1589 | Sir Henry Knyvet | John Hungerford |
| 1593 | John Hungerford | William Meredith |
| 1597 | Henry Dacre | John Lowe |
| 1601 | John Wentworth | John Rice |
| 1604–1611 | Henry Martin | Alexander Tutt |
| 1614 | Sir William Willoughby | Edward Hungerford |
| 1621 | Richard Harrison | John Wrenham |
| 1624 | Sir Roland Egerton | John Bankes |
| 1625 | Robert Hyde | Sir Walter Tichborne |
| 1626 | Sir John Francklyn | Sir Thomas Lake |
| 1628 | Sir John Francklyn | Anthony Rous |
| 1629–1640 | No Parliaments summoned | No Parliaments summoned |

### 1640–1832

| Year | | First member | First party | | Second member | Second party |
| April 1640 | | Thomas Windebanke | | | Edward Hyde | |
| November 1640 | | William Pleydell | Royalist | | Edward Poole | Parliamentarian |
| February 1644 | Pleydell disabled from sitting – seat vacant | Pleydell disabled from sitting – seat vacant | Pleydell disabled from sitting – seat vacant | | | | Edward Poole | Parliamentarian |
| 1645 | | Edward Massie | | | Edward Poole | Parliamentarian |
| December 1648 | Massie and Poole excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant | Massie and Poole excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant | Massie and Poole excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant | Massie and Poole excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant | Massie and Poole excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant | Massie and Poole excluded in Pride's Purge – both seats vacant |
| 1653 | Unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | Unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | Unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | Unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | Unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate | Unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate |
| January 1659 | | Henry St John | | | Robert Stevens | |
| May 1659 | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump | Not represented in the restored Rump |
| April 1660 | | John Pleydell | | | Lord Herbert of Raglan | |
| June 1660 | | John Pleydell | | | Sir Baynham Throckmorton | |
| 1661 | | John Pleydell | | | Sir Walter St John | |
| February 1679 | | John Pleydell | | | Laurence Hyde | |
| August 1679 | | Henry St John | | | Laurence Hyde | |
| 1681 | | Henry St John | | | John Pleydell | |
| 1689 | | Henry St John | | | John Wildman | |
| 1695 | | Thomas Jacob | | | Henry Pinnell | |
| 1698 | | Henry St John | | | Henry Pinnell | |
| January 1701 | | Henry St John | | | Henry Pinnell | |
| November 1701 | | Henry St John | | | Thomas Jacob | |
| 1702 | | Henry St John | | | Henry Pinnell | |
| 1705 | | Henry St John | | | John Morton Pleydell | |
| 1706 | | Henry St John | | | Francis Popham | |
| 1708 | | Robert Cecil | | | Francis Popham | |
| October 1710 | | Henry St John | | | Richard Goddard | |
| December 1710 | | Edmund Pleydell | | | Richard Goddard | |
| 1713 | | Edmund Pleydell | | | Richard Cresswell | |
| 1715 | | Sir James Long | | | William Northey | |
| 1722 | | Colonel Robert Murray | | | William Chetwynd | |
| 1727 | | John St John | | | John Crosse | |
| 1734 | | Sir Robert Long | | | Captain Nicholas Robinson | |
| 1741 | | Robert Neale | | | John Harvey-Thursby | |
| 1747 | | Robert Neale | | | Martin Madan | |
| 1754 | | John Probyn | | | Thomas Estcourt Cresswell | |
| 1761 | | Major the Hon. Henry St John | | | Thomas Estcourt Cresswell | |
| 1774 | | Major the Hon. Henry St John | | | Robert Scott | |
| 1780 | | Major the Hon. Henry St John | | | William Strahan | |
| 1784 | | Hon. George North | | | Hon. Robert Seymour Conway | |
| 1790 | | John Thomas Stanley | | | The Viscount Downe | |
| 1796 | | John Denison | | | Edward Clarke | |
| July 1802 | | General the Hon. Henry St John | | | Robert Williams | |
| December 1802 | | Peter William Baker | Tory | | Robert Williams | |
| 1806 | | Robert Knight | Whig | | Robert Williams | |
| 1807 | | Sir John Murray | Tory | | John Cheesment | Tory |
| 1808 | | Sir John Murray | Tory | | Benjamin Walsh | |
| 1811 | | Robert Knight | Whig | | Benjamin Walsh | |
| March 1812 | | Robert Knight | Whig | | John Attersoll | Whig |
| October 1812 | | James Kibblewhite | Whig | | John Attersoll | Whig |
| March 1813 | | Richard Ellison | | | John Attersoll | Whig |
| April 1813 | | Richard Ellison | | | Robert Rickards | |
| 1816 | | Richard Ellison | | | William Taylor Money | |
| 1820 | | Horace Twiss | Tory | | Sir George Philips Bt | Whig |
| 1830 | | Viscount Mahon | Tory | | Thomas Hyde Villiers | Whig |
| 1831 | | Viscount Mahon | Tory | | Viscount Porchester | Tory |
| 1832 | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished |
Notes
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
* ↑ Pollard, Albert. "Tracy, Richard" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 57. pp. 140–142.
* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
* ↑ Massie was disabled from sitting in January 1648 but the order was revoked in June 1648
* ↑ St John was also elected for Berkshire, which he chose to represent, and did not sit again for Wootton Bassett
* ↑ Lieutenant Colonel 1762, Colonel 1776, Major General 1779, General 1797
* ↑ Later adopted the surname Severn
* ↑ Expelled from the House, 5 March 1812, after conviction for attempting to defraud the Solicitor-General, Sir Thomas Plumer