Denbigh Boroughs (UK Parliament constituency)

For the 1918–1983 constituency, see Denbigh (UK Parliament constituency).

Denbigh Boroughs
Former District of Boroughs constituency
for the House of Commons
Preserved county	Denbighshire
Major settlements	Denbigh, Holt, Ruthin, and Wrexham
1542 (1542)–1918 (1918)
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Denbigh Wrexham

Denbigh District of Boroughs (variously referred to as Denbigh District, Denbigh Boroughs or just Denbigh) was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Denbigh in Wales. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the British House of Commons.

The constituency first returned an MP in 1542, to the English Parliament. From 1707 to 1800, the MPs sat in the Parliament of Great Britain, and after the Act of Union 1800, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was abolished for the 1918 general election.

Boundaries

From its first known general election in 1542 until 1918, the constituency consisted of a number of boroughs within the historic county of Denbighshire in Wales.

The seat should not be confused with the county constituency of Denbighshire, which existed from the sixteenth century until 1885. The county was divided into East Denbighshire and West Denbighshire between 1885 and 1918.

After 1918 Denbighshire was represented in Parliament by two single member county constituencies, which included all the boroughs formerly in the Denbigh District of Boroughs. One of these was Wrexham, but the other was the Denbigh division of Denbighshire.

Denbigh (1535-1832)

On the basis of information from several volumes of the History of Parliament, it is apparent that the history of the borough representation from Wales and Monmouthshire is more complicated than that of the English boroughs.

The Laws in Wales Act 1535 (26 Hen. VIII, c. 26) provided for a single borough seat for each of 11 of the 12 Welsh counties and Monmouthshire. The legislation was ambiguous as to which communities were enfranchised. The county towns were awarded a seat, but this in some fashion represented all the ancient boroughs of the county as the others were required to contribute to the members wages. It was not clear if the burgesses of the contributing boroughs could take part in the election. The only election under the original scheme was for the 1542 Parliament. It seems that only burgesses from the county towns actually took part. An Act of 1544 (35 Hen. VIII, c. 11) confirmed that the contributing boroughs could send representatives to take part in the election at the county town. As far as can be told from surviving indentures of returns, the degree to which the out boroughs participated varied, but by the end of the sixteenth century all the seats had some participation from them at some elections at least.

The original scheme was modified by later legislation and decisions of the House of Commons (which were sometimes made with no regard to precedent or evidence: for example in 1728 it was decided that only the freemen of the borough of Montgomery could participate in the election for that seat, thus disenfranchising the freemen of Llanidloes, Welshpool and Llanfyllin).

In the case of Denbighshire, the county town was Denbigh. The out boroughs were Chirk, Holt, and Ruthin. At some point, between 1603 and 1690, Chirk ceased to participate.

In 1690-1790 the freemen of the three remaining boroughs were entitled to vote. There were about 1,400 electors in 1715 (including non resident freemen). This number was reduced to about 400 after 1744, when only resident freemen were allowed to vote. The electorate increased to about 500 in the 1754-1790 period.

Denbigh Boroughs (1832-1918)

This was a district of boroughs constituency, which grouped a number of parliamentary boroughs in Denbighshire into one single member constituency. The voters from each participating borough cast ballots, which were added together over the whole district to decide the result of the poll. The enfranchised communities in this district, from 1832, were the four boroughs of Denbigh, Holt, Ruthin, and Wrexham.

The exact boundaries of the parliamentary boroughs in the district were altered by the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1868, but the general nature of the constituency was unchanged. There were no further boundary changes in the 1885 redistribution of parliamentary seats.

After 1918

In the redistribution of seats which took place at the 1918, the Denbigh Boroughs constituency was abolished, along with the two county divisions of East Denbighshire and West Denbighshire. They were replaced by a new county division called Denbigh, which comprised the whole of the county, except for the Municipal Borough of Wrexham and part of the Chirk Rural District which formed the Wrexham division.

The local authorities in the Denbigh division were the Municipal Boroughs of Denbigh and Ruthin; the Urban Districts of Abergele and Pensarn, Colwyn Bay and Colwyn, Llangollen, and Llanrwst; as well as the Rural Districts of Llangollen, Llanrwst, Llansillin, Ruthin, St Asaph (Denbigh), Uwchaled, part of Chirk, and the part of Glan Conway not in Caernarvonshire.

Members of Parliament

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MPs 1542-1660

As there were sometimes significant gaps between Parliaments held in this period, the dates of first assembly and dissolution are given. Where the name of the member has not yet been ascertained or is not recorded in a surviving document, the entry unknown is entered in the table.

Elected	Assembled	Dissolved	Member	Note
1542	16 January 1542	28 March 1544	unknown
1545	23 November 1545	31 January 1547	unknown
1547	4 November 1547	15 April 1552	unknown
1553	1 March 1553	31 March 1553	unknown
1553	5 October 1553	5 December 1553	unknown
1554	2 April 1554	3 May 1554	unknown
1554	12 November 1554	16 January 1555	unknown
1555	21 October 1555	9 December 1555	unknown
1558	20 January 1558	17 November 1558	unknown
1559	23 January 1559	8 May 1559	unknown
1562 or 1563	11 January 1563	2 January 1567	Humphrey Llwyd
1571	2 April 1571	29 May 1571	unknown
1572	8 May 1572	19 April 1583	unknown
1584	23 November 1584	14 September 1585	unknown
1586	13 October 1586	23 March 1587	unknown
1588	4 February 1589	29 March 1589	John Towerbridge
1593	18 February 1593	10 April 1593	Simon Thelwall
1597	24 October 1597	9 February 1598	John Panton
1601	27 October 1601	19 December 1601	Richard Myddleton
1604	19 March 1604	9 February 1611	Hugh Myddleton
1614	5 April 1614	7 June 1614	Hugh Myddleton
1620	16 January 1621	8 February 1622	Hugh Myddleton
1624	12 February 1624	27 March 1625	Hugh Myddleton
1625	17 May 1625	12 August 1625	Hugh Myddleton
1626	6 February 1626	15 June 1626	Hugh Myddleton
1628	17 March 1628	10 March 1629	Hugh Myddleton
1640	13 April 1640	5 May 1640	John Salusbury
1640	3 November 1640	5 December 1648	Simon Thelwall	Long Parliament
...	6 December 1648	20 April 1653	Simon Thelwall	Rump Parliament
...	4 July 1653	12 December 1653	unrepresented	Barebones Parliament
1654	3 September 1654	22 January 1655	unrepresented	First Protectorate Parliament
1656	17 September 1656	4 February 1658	unrepresented	Second Protectorate Parliament
1658/59	27 January 1659	22 April 1659	John Manley	Third Protectorate Parliament
...	7 May 1659	20 February 1660	unknown	Rump Parliament restored
...	21 February 1660	16 March 1660	unknown	Long Parliament restored

MPs 1660-1983

Year		Member	Party
	1660	John Carter
	1661	Sir John Salusbury
	1685	Sir John Trevor
	1689	Edward Brereton
	1705	William Robinson
	1708	Sir William Williams, Bt.
	1710	John Roberts
	1713	John Wynne
	1715	John Roberts
	1722	Robert Myddelton
	1733	John Myddelton
	1741	John Wynn
	1747	Richard Myddelton
	1788	Richard Myddelton
	1797	Thomas Jones
	1802	Hon. Frederick West
	1806	Robert Myddelton Biddulph
	1812	Viscount Kirkwall	Tory
	1818	John Wynne Griffith	Whig
	1826	Frederick Richard West	Tory
	1830	Robert Myddleton-Biddulph	Whig
	1832	John Madock	Whig
	1835	Wilson Jones	Conservative
	1841	Townshend Mainwaring	Conservative
	1847	Frederick Richard West	Conservative
	1857	Townshend Mainwaring	Conservative
	1868	Watkin Williams	Liberal
	1880	Sir Robert Alfred Cunliffe, Bt	Liberal
	1885	Hon. George Thomas Kenyon	Conservative
	1895	William Tudor Howell	Conservative
	1900	Hon. George Thomas Kenyon	Conservative
	1906	Allen Clement Edwards	Liberal
	1910	Hon. William Ormsby-Gore	Conservative
	1918	constituency abolished. See Denbigh and Wrexham

Election results

See also

• Denbigh (UK Parliament constituency) (from 1918)
• Denbighshire (UK Parliament constituency) (abolished 1885)
• East Denbighshire (UK Parliament constituency) (1885–1918)
• West Denbighshire (UK Parliament constituency) (1885–1918)

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• The House of Commons 1509-1558, by S.T. Bindoff (Secker & Warburg 1982)
• The House of Commons 1558-1603, by P.W. Hasler (HMSO 1981)
• The House of Commons 1690-1715, by Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley and D.W. Hayton (Cambridge University Press 2002)
• The House of Commons 1715-1754, by Romney Sedgwick (HMSO 1970)
• The House of Commons 1754-1790, by Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke (HMSO 1964)
• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844-50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 1)