Armagh Borough
Former borough constituency
for the Irish House of Commons
CountyCounty Armagh
BoroughArmagh
1613 (1613) (1613 (1613))–1801 (1801)
Seats2
Replaced byArmagh City

Armagh Borough (also known as Armagh City) was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons, the house of representatives of the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1613 to 1800.

History

This constituency was the borough of Armagh in County Armagh.

During the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland the borough was not granted separate representation in the Protectorate Parliaments (1654–1659), from the county constituency of Down, Antrim and Armagh.

After the restoration, in 1660, the Parliament of Ireland was revived with the borough again represented. In the Patriot Parliament of 1689 summoned by King James II, Armagh Borough was represented by two members.[1]

The city of Armagh, County Armagh, was the episcopal seat of the primate of All Ireland, the Archbishop of Armagh. The sovereign of Armagh corporation was the primate's land agent, or the seneschal of the manor, making the constituency a bishop's borough. The other burgesses were clergymen, "who seem to have held on an express or implied stipulation to resign on quitting the diocese, or in case of their becoming unwilling to act under the archbishop's direction". As these clergymen naturally looked to the archbishop for preferment, it is improbable that there were many resignations under the last clause of the agreement; and a corporation so managed must have been as easy to control as through tenants who had taken an oath, and against whom, moreover, the agent had the additional lever of the "hanging gale" (rent arrears).[2]

At Armagh, in the closing years of the old representative system, the archbishop although he was not a member of the corporation, and had no constitutional connection with it commanded twelve of the thirteen votes by which the members of Parliament for the city were elected; and "so completely was the election of the members considered to be in the primate, that he regularly paid the expenses of the admission of the free burgesses, amounting to five pounds each".

Following the Acts of Union 1800 the borough retained one parliamentary seat in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Members of Parliament, 1613–1801

  • 1613–1615 Marcus Ussher and Christopher Conway[3]
  • 1634–1635 John Dillon and William Hilton[3]
  • 1639–1649 William Dixon and Sir Archibald Hamilton, Bt[3]
  • 1661–1666 Hon Sir James Graham and Thomas Chambers[3]

1689–1801

ElectionFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party
1689 Patriot Parliament Francis Stafford Constantine O'Neale
1692 Marmaduke Coghill Edward Lyndon
1695 Samuel Dopping[lower-alpha 1]
1713 Epaphroditus Marsh
1715 Silvester Crosse Charles Bourchier
1716 John Eyre
1727 Edward Knatchbull Ambrose Philips
1749 Philip Bragg
1759 Marquess of Tavistock
May 1761 Robert Cuninghame Hon. John Ponsonby[lower-alpha 2]
1761 Hon. Barry Maxwell
1768 George Macartney Philip Tisdall[lower-alpha 3]
1769 Charles O'Hara
1776 Philip Tisdall Henry Meredyth
1777 George Rawson
January 1790 Henry Duquerry
May 1790 Robert Hobart[lower-alpha 4]
1796 Sackville Hamilton
1798 Hon. Thomas Pelham Patrick Duigenan
1799 Gerard Lake
1801 Succeeded by the Westminster constituency Armagh City
Notes
  1. Also elected for Dublin University in 1715, for which he chose to sit.
  2. Also elected for County Kilkenny in 1761, for which he chose to sit.
  3. Also elected for Dublin University in 1768, for which he chose to sit.
  4. Styled as Lord Hobart from 1793.

References

  1. O'Hart 2007, p. 500.
  2. Kowaleski-Wallace, Elizabeth (3 October 1991). Their Fathers' Daughters: Hannah More, Maria Edgeworth, and Patriarchal Complicity. Oxford University Press. p. 149. ISBN 9780195345025. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Parliamentary Papers, Volume 62, Part 2. p. 606.

Bibliography

  • O'Hart, John (2007). The Irish and Anglo-Irish Landed Gentry: When Cromwell came to Ireland. Vol. II. Heritage Books. ISBN 978-0-7884-1927-0.
  • Leigh Rayment's historical List of Members of the Irish House of Commons. Cites: Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary (2002). The History of the Irish Parliament 1692-1800 (6 volumes). Ulster Historical Foundation.
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