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Okehampton
Okehampton
Former borough constituency; for the House of Commons
1640–1832
Seats	Two

Okehampton was a parliamentary borough in Devon, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons in 1301 and 1313, then continuously from 1640 to 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.

History

The borough consisted of part of the parish of Okehampton, an entirely rural area with the small market town of Okehampton itself at its centre. In 1831, the population of the borough was 1,508, and contained 318 houses; the whole parish had a population of 2,055.

From its revival in the 17th century, the right to vote in Okehampton rested with all the freeholders and freemen of the borough, but the Town Corporation had considerable influence over the rest of the voters, and when it was unable to have its way by persuasion did not always stop short of outright coercion. In 1705 at the corporation's instigation an Okehampton freeman was forced into the army, and then offered his discharge if he would vote for Sir Simon Leach. (This was illegal on every count, for voters had statutory exemption from impressment.)

Through control of the corporation (which like most at that period was self-electing), the main local landowners or "patrons" of the borough could therefore be sure of being able to choose Okehampton's MPs; this favour was maintained either by direct expenditure or by working for the interests of the Corporation members in other ways. As landowners they also had power to create voters directly, since they could convey the freehold of parcels of their land in the borough to reliable placemen. In the mid 18th century, the patrons were Thomas Pitt and the Duke of Bedford, and each was regarded as having unrestrained power to nominate one MP.

However, Pitt mortgaged his seat to the government after going bankrupt in 1754,^[1] so that at the next two elections the ministry could nominate a member. The government had to secure this influence by exercising patronage, and Namier quotes a number of letters that show how the process worked in Okehampton. In 1759, the corporation was eager for the promotion of a local naval officer, Lieutenant Joseph Hunt. The Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, urged Lord Anson, the First Lord of the Admiralty, to promote Hunt because "the interest of the borough of Oakhampton ... absolutely depends upon it. The King expects that I should keep up his interest in boroughs; I can't do it without I have the assistance of the several branches of the Government." Anson grudgingly replied that whenever the borough became vacant by the death of the sitting member he would promote Hunt to a command, but he also protested that the frequent demands to use naval patronage for political reasons weakened the navy "which has done more mischeif to the publick ... than the loss of a vote in the House of Commons".

In the event the sitting member, Thomas Potter, died just two days later and the following day Hunt was promoted to Commander. The new MP was a Rear-Admiral, George Brydges Rodney, and he seems to have secured his election with the promise of further preferment for Hunt: 18 months later, on the eve of the next general election, the government's election-manager in Okehampton wrote to Rodney to remind him that he had promised that Hunt should be made his flag Captain as soon as he had a ship. Rodney, knowing that Anson was unlikely to agree to promote Hunt again, wrote asking Newcastle to help by insisting upon it; but, instead, Rodney was persuaded to stand at Penryn rather than Okehampton, and the captaincy of the flagship went to a Penryn man. (In fact Hunt got his promotion the same month, December 1760, but was killed in action the following year.)

Circumstances in Okehampton were somewhat changed at the end of the 18th century, however, by the judgments in two disputed elections. In 1791, there was a petition against the result of an election at which the patrons – who were, by this time, the Duke of Bedford and Earl Spencer – had created 72 new voters by conveying them freeholds a few weeks before the election. The Commons committee that heard the petition declared all 72 votes invalid.

Spencer and Bedford shortly afterwards sold their interest in the borough, and it was eventually bought by Albany Savile for £60,000. A second disputed election in 1810 led to a judgment that reaffirmed and strengthened the patron's power: on this occasion, it was determined that the franchise belonged to the freeholders and freemen of the borough, and further that the patron had the right to create freemen at will. This, of course, gave him total control of elections since he could create new voters without limit to swamp any opposition. Nevertheless, the relationship was not one-sided, and Savile did much for the town, lending considerable sums to the Corporation which were never repaid.

In 1816 there were 220 voters.

Okehampton was abolished as a constituency by the Reform Act. The borough was on the boundary between the new Northern Devon and Southern Devon county divisions, and its voters were divided between the two from 1832.

Members of Parliament

Okehampton re-enfranchised by Parliament in Nov 1640

1640–1832

Year		First member	First party	Second member	Second party
November 1640		Edward Thomas	Parliamentarian	Lawrence Whitaker	Parliamentarian
December 1648	Thomas excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant			Lawrence Whitaker	Parliamentarian
1653	Okehampton was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
January 1659		Robert Everland		Edward Wise
May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
1660		Josias Calmady I		Edward Wise
1661		Sir Thomas Hele
1671		Sir Arthur Harris
1677				Henry Northleigh
1679				Josias Calmady II
1681				Sir George Cary
1685		Sir Simon Leach		William Cary
1689		Henry Northleigh
1694		John Burrington
1695		John Burrington		Thomas Northmore
1698		William Harris
1702		Sir Simon Leach
1705		John Dibble
1708				William Harris
1709				Christopher Harris
1713		William Northmore	Tory	Christopher Harris
1722		Robert Pitt		John Crowley
1727		William Northmore	Tory	Thomas Pitt
1735		George Lyttelton		Thomas Pitt
1754		George Lyttelton		Robert Vyner
1756		William Pitt (the Elder)	Whig
1757		Thomas Potter
1759		Rear Admiral George Brydges Rodney
1761		Alexander Forrester		Wenman Coke
1768		Thomas Pitt		Thomas Brand
1770		Thomas Pitt		Hon. Richard Fitzpatrick
1774		Richard Vernon		Alexander Wedderburn	Tory
1778		Richard Vernon		Humphrey Minchin
1784^[2]		John Luxmoore		Thomas Wiggens
1785		Viscount Malden		Humphrey Minchin
1790		Colonel John St Leger^[3]		Robert Ladbroke
1796		Thomas Tyrwhitt	Whig	Richard Bateman-Robson	Whig
1802		Henry Holland, junior	Whig	James Charles Stuart Strange	Whig
1804		Henry Holland, junior	Whig	Viscount Althorp	Whig
1806		Richard Bateman-Robson	Whig	Joseph Foster-Barham	Whig
1807		Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle	Whig	Albany Savile	Tory
1812		The Lord Graves	Tory
1818		Christopher Savile	Tory
1819		The Lord Dunalley	Whig
1820		The Lord Dunalley	Whig	Lord Glenorchy	Whig
1824		William Henry Trant	Tory	Lord Glenorchy	Whig
1826		Sir Compton Domvile	Tory	Joseph Strutt	Tory
1830		Lord Seymour	Tory	George Agar-Ellis	Whig
April 1831		William Henry Trant	Tory	John Thomas Hope	Tory
July 1831		Sir Richard Vyvyan	Tory	John Thomas Hope	Tory
1832	Constituency abolished

Notes

^ Page 141, Lewis Namier, The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III (2nd edition - London: St Martin's Press, 1957)
^ At the election of 1784, Luxmoore and Wiggens were initially returned as elected, but on petition they were declared not have been duly elected and their opponents, Malden and Minchen, were seated in their place
^ Major-General from 1795

References

Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
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)
Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig – Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol I" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979)
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "O"