Kent (UK Parliament constituency)

Former parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom

For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation).

Kent

Former county constituency
for the House of Commons
1290–1832
Seats| Two
Replaced by| Eastern Kent, Western Kent and Greenwich

Kent was a parliamentary constituency covering the county of Kent in southeast England. It returned two "knights of the shire" (Members of Parliament) to the House of Commons by the bloc vote system from the year 1290. Members were returned to the Parliament of England until the Union with Scotland created the Parliament of Great Britain in 1707, and to the Parliament of the United Kingdom after the union with Ireland in 1801 until the county was divided by the Reform Act 1832.

## History

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### Boundaries

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The constituency consisted of the historic county of Kent. (Although Kent contained eight boroughs, each of which elected two MPs in its own right for part of the period when Kent was a constituency, these were not excluded from the county constituency, and the ownership of property within the borough could confer a vote at the county election. This was even the case for the city of Canterbury, which had the status of a county in itself: unlike those in almost all other counties of cities, Canterbury's freeholders were entitled to vote for Kent's MPs.)

The constituency boundaries may have theoretically encompassed a much larger area and population than would at first appear. After the American Revolution, it was apparently solemnly argued in Parliament that the rebels' complaint of no taxation without representation was mistaken, since "all the grants of land in America were to be held of the Manor of Greenwich in the County of Kent, and therefore the Knights of the Shire for the County of Kent represented all Americans". However, this somewhat flimsy argument - relying on an obsolete legal fiction dating back to the land ownership laws of the feudal system \- seems not to have been received entirely respectfully even in the 18th century, and it is certainly not recorded that Kent's returning officer was ever bothered by American colonists demanding their right to vote.

### Franchise

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In medieval times, the custom in Kent, as elsewhere, was for the MPs for the county and those for its boroughs to be elected on the same day at the county court, by the suitors to the court, which meant the tiny handful of the local nobility who were tenants in chief of the Crown. Thus we find it recorded that in the second year of the reign of Henry V, "In the County Court of Kent, held at Rochester, Four Coroners and Eight others present, chose the Knights for the County, and the same person elect two Citizens for Canterbury, and two for Rochester."

From 1430, the Forty Shilling Freeholder Act extended the right to vote to every man who possessed freehold property within the county valued at £2 or more per year for the purposes of land tax; it was not necessary for the freeholder to occupy his land, nor even in later years to be resident in the county at all.

Except during the period of the Commonwealth in the mid 17th century, Kent had two MPs elected by the bloc vote method, under which each voter had two votes. In the nominated Barebones Parliament, five members represented Kent. In the First and Second Parliaments of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, however, there was a general redistribution of seats and Kent elected 11 members, though most of the county's boroughs lost one or both of their MPs. The traditional arrangements were restored from 1659.

### Political character

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At the time of the Great Reform Act in 1832, Kent had a population of approximately 480,000, though only between 8,000 and 9,000 of these were qualified to vote at the start of the 19th century, and fewer than 4,000 actually voted at the last contested election, in 1818. It has been estimated that in this period around a third of Kent's voters were urban, spread among a couple of dozen medium-sized and small towns: Canterbury, Maidstone, Dover, Deal, Chatham and the growing resorts of Ramsgate and Margate were the biggest, but at the election of 1802 the pollbooks show that only Canterbury (with 384 voters) contributed more than 250 to the poll.

With the villages outvoting the towns by two to one, no particular local interest predominated. By custom, the choice was generally one member from East Kent and one from West Kent. The county's MPs were generally drawn from the leading local families of gentry, but rarely from the nobility, and the voters jealously guarded their independence: although important peers wielded significant influence at times - the Earl of Westmorland and Earl of Winchelsea at the turn of the 18th century for example, the Duke of Dorset sixty years later - it always fell far short of control over the outcome.

Elections were held at a single polling place, and voters from the rest of the county had to travel to the county town to exercise their franchise. It was normal for voters to expect the candidates for whom they voted to meet their expenses in travelling to the poll, making the cost of fighting an election substantial. Contested elections were therefore rare in most counties, but Kent was something of an exception: voters went to the polls at 14 of the 29 general elections between 1700 and 1832, a total exceeded only by Surrey among the other English counties.

Those elections which were contested seem rarely to have been decided on party lines, and too great an adherence to party loyalty by the MPs was sometimes resented. The voters also expected the solicitous attention of their members. Jupp reprints the resolutions passed by a County meeting of Kent freeholders in 1820:

> 1\. That it is essential to the honour and credit of this County, that it should be represented by two gentlemen constantly resident therein.
> 2\. That it is the opinion of this Meeting that this county was in the last Parliament very inefficiently represented by one of its members, inasmuch as his residence was elsewhere, and the Freeholders were thereby deprived of that easy access and free communication which are essential between the constituent and the representative.
> 3\. That it is the opinion of this meeting that the conduct of a County member in Parliament should be at all times marked by independence, equally free from subserviency to any Administration and unshackled by any Party indiscriminately hostile thereto.
> 4\. That we cannot recognise in Mr Honywood's uniform opposition to every measure recently proposed in Parliament, for the purpose of restraining the career of sedition, blasphemy and crime, the influence of that elevated spirit, which should direct the actions of an independent representative for this great and enlightened County.

These sentiments were clearly not held universally, however, since the apostrophised Mr Honywood was re-elected at that year's election.

### Abolition

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The constituency was abolished in 1832 by the Great Reform Act, being divided into two two-member county divisions, Eastern Kent and Western Kent.

## Members of Parliament

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### MPs 1290–1660

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This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2008)

|

* Constituency created (1290)

Parliament | First member | Second member

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1372 | James Peckham |
1376–1388 | Sir Thomas Fogge
1377 (Oct) | James Peckham | John Freningham
1378 | Sir Thomas Fogge |
1380 (Nov) | Sir Thomas Fogge | William Guildford[1]
1381 | John Freningham | Sir Thomas Fogge
1383 (Feb) | James Peckham | Sir Thomas Fogge
1383 (Oct) | Sir Thomas Fogge |
1384 (Nov) | Sir Thomas Fogge | William Guildford[2]
1386 | William Bettenham[3] | Geoffrey Chaucer[3]
1388 (Feb) | Sir Thomas Fogge[3] | James Peckham[3]
1388 (Sep) | William Bettenham[3]
1390 (Jan) | Sir Arnold Savage[3] | John Cobham[3]
1390 (Nov) | Sir Thomas Cobham[3]
1391 | Nicholas Potyn[3]
1393 | Sir William Burcester[3]
1394 | Sir William Pecche[3] | John Cobham[3]
1395 | Sir Nicholas Haute[3] | Thomas Brockhill[3]
1397 (Jan) | Nicholas Potyn[3]
1397 (Sep) | Sir William Pecche[3] | John Cobham[3]
1399 | John Freningham[3] | Thomas Brockhill[3]
1401 | Sir Arnold Savage[3] | Robert Clifford[3]
1402 | Thomas Brockhill[3]
1404 (Jan) | Sir Reynold Braybrooke[3]
1404 (Oct) | Sir Thomas Clinton | Henry Horne[3]
1406 | Richard Clitheroe[3] | Robert Clifford[3]
1407 | John Darell[3]
1410 | returns lost
1411 | Reynold Pympe[3] | William Nutbeam[3]
1413 (Feb) | returns lost
1413 (May) | John Darell[3] | John Butler I[3]
1414 (Apr) | Sir Thomas Clinton[3]
1414 (Nov) | Sir Arnold Savage II[3] | Robert Clifford[3]
1415 | returns lost
1416 (Mar) | William Cheyne[3] | John Wilcotes[3]
1416 (Oct) | returns lost
1417 | John Darell[3] | Roger Rye[3]
1419 | William Haute[3] | Edward Guildford[3]
1420 | William Rickhill[3] | Thomas Town[3]
1421 (May) | returns lost
1421 (Dec) | Thomas Ellis[3] | Roger Honyton[3]
1422 | Geoffrey Lowther | Reginald Lowther
1426 | Edward Guildford |
1430 | William Scott
1435 | Edward Guildford |
1445–1446 | Thomas Browne |
1449 | John Cheyne |
1450 | William Haute |
1455 | Gervase Clifton | Sir Thomas Kyriell[4]
1461–1462 | Sir John Fogge | Sir Thomas Kyriell[4]
1463–1465 | Sir John Fogge |
1467 | Sir John Scott |
1478 | Sir John Fogge |
1483 | Sir John Fogge |
1489-1495 | Sir Richard Guildford (3 times) | [5]
1510 | No names known[6]
1512 | ?Sir Edward Poynings | ? [6]
1515 | ?Sir Thomas Nevill | ? [6]
1523 | ?
1529 | Sir Edward Guildford, died
and replaced Oct 1534 by Sir John Dudley | Sir Henry Guildford [6]
1536 | ?Thomas Cromwell | ? [6]
1539 | Sir Thomas Cheyne | Gregory Cromwell [6]
1542 | Sir Thomas Cheyne | Sir Thomas Wyatt, died
and replaced Jan 1543 by Sir John Guildford [6]
1545 | Sir Thomas Cheyne | George Harper [6]
1547 | Sir Thomas Cheyne | Sir Thomas Wyatt II [6]
1553 (Mar) | Sir Thomas Cheyne | Sir Henry Sidney [6]
1553 (Oct) | Sir Thomas Cheyne | Sir Robert Southwell [6]
1554 (Apr) | Sir Thomas Cheyne | Sir John Baker [6]
1554 (Nov) | Sir Thomas Cheyne | Sir John Baker [6]
1555 | Sir John Baker | Sir Robert Southwell [6]
1558 | Sir Thomas Cheyne | Sir John Baker [6]
1558–9 | Sir Anthony St. Leger I | Sir Richard Sackville, sat for Sussex,
repl. Feb 1559 by Sir Thomas Kempe[7]
1562–3 | Sir Henry Sidney | Sir Henry Cheyne[7]
1571 | Sir Thomas Scott | Sir Henry Sidney[7]
1572 | Sir Henry Sidney | Sir Thomas Scott[7]
1584 (Nov) | Sir Philip Sidney | Edward Wotton[7]
1586 (Oct) | Sir Henry Brooke alias Cobham I | Sir Thomas Scott[7]
1588 (Oct) | Henry Brooke alias Cobham II | Sir Henry Brooke alias Cobham I[7]
1593 | Sir Edward Hoby | Moyle Finch[7]
1597 (Sep) | Sir Robert Sidney | Sir William Brooke alias Cobham, killed in duel
and replaced Jan 1598 by Percival Hart[7]
1601 | Francis Fane | Sir Henry Nevill
Parliament of 1604-1611  | Sir John Scott | John Leveson
Addled Parliament (1614) | Sir Peter Manwood | Sir Thomas Walsingham
Parliament of 1621-1622  | Viscount Lisle | Sir George Fane
Happy Parliament (1624–1625) | Nicholas Tufton | Sir Edwin Sandys
Useless Parliament (1625) | Mildmay Fane | Sir Albertus Morton
Parliament of 1625-1626  | Sir Edward Hales | Sir Edward Scott
Parliament of 1628-1629  | Thomas Finch | Sir Dudley Digges
No Parliament summoned 1629-1640

### MPs 1640–1832

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Year |  | First member | First party |  | Second member | Second party

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April 1640 |  | Norton Knatchbull |  |  | Sir Roger Twysden |
November 1640 |  | Sir John Colepeper | Royalist |  | Sir Edward Dering | Royalist
1642  |  | Augustine Skinner |
January 1644  | Colepeper disabled from sitting - seat vacant
1645  |  | John Boys |
December 1648  | Boys excluded in Pride's Purge \- seat vacant
1653 | Kent had five members in the Barebones Parliament: Viscount Lisle, Thomas Blount, William Kenrick, William Cullen, Andrew Broughton
1654 | Kent had 11 members in the First Protectorate Parliament: Lieutenant Colonel Henry Oxenden,
William James, Colonel John Dixwell, John Boys, Sir Henry Vane (senior), Lambert Godfrey,
Colonel Richard Beal, Augustine Skinner, John Selliard, Colonel Ralph Weldon, Daniel Shatterden
1656 | Kent had 11 members in the Second Protectorate Parliament: Henry Oxenden, Richard Meredith,
Sir Thomas Style, William James, Colonel John Dixwell, John Boys, Lambert Godfrey,
Colonel Richard Beal, John Selliard, Colonel Ralph Weldon, Daniel Shatterden
January 1659 |  | Sir Thomas Style |  |  | William James |
May 1659 |  | Augustine Skinner |  | One seat vacant
April 1660  |  | Sir Edward Dering |  |  | Sir John Tufton |
1661  |  | Sir Thomas Peyton |
1679  |  | Sir Vere Fane |  |  | (Sir) Edward Dering[8] |
1685  |  | Sir William Twysden |  |  | Sir John Knatchbull |
1689  |  | Sir Vere Fane |
1691  |  | Sir Thomas Roberts |
1695  |  | Philip Sydney |
1698  |  | Sir James Oxenden |  |  | Sir Stephen Lennard |
January 1701  |  | Sir Thomas Hales |  |  | Thomas Meredith |
December 1701  |  | William Campion |
1702  |  | Sir Francis Leigh |
1705  |  | Sir Cholmeley Dering, Bt | Tory |  | Viscount Villiers |
1708 |  | Sir Thomas Palmer |  |  | Sir Stephen Lennard, Bt |
January 1710 by-election  |  | David Polhill |
October 1710 |  | Sir Cholmeley Dering, Bt | Tory |  | Percival Hart |
1711 by-election  |  | Sir William Hardres |
1713 |  | Sir Edward Knatchbull, 4th Bt |
February 1715 |  | Mildmay Fane |  |  | William Delaune |
September 1715 by-election  |  | Colonel the Hon. John Fane |
1722 |  | Sir Edward Knatchbull, 4th Bt |  |  | Sir Thomas Twisden | Tory
1727 |  | Sir Roger Meredith |  |  | Sir Robert Furnese | Whig
1733 by-election  |  | Sir Edward Dering | Tory
1734 |  | The Viscount Vane |
1735 by-election  |  | Sir Christopher Powell | Whig
1741 |  | Sir Roger Twisden | Tory
1754 |  | Hon. Lewis Watson | Whig |  | Hon. Robert Fairfax |
1760 by-election  |  | Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham, 6th Bt | Whig
1763 by-election  |  | Sir Brook Bridges | Whig
1768 |  | John Frederick Sackville |
1769 by-election  |  | Sir Charles Farnaby |
1774 |  | Hon. Charles Marsham |  |  | Thomas Knight, junior |
1780 |  | Filmer Honywood |
1790 |  | Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Bt |
1796 |  | Sir William Geary, Bt | Tory
1802 |  | Filmer Honywood | Whig
1806 |  | Sir Edward Knatchbull, 8th Bt | Tory |  | William Honywood | Whig
1812 |  | Sir William Geary, Bt | Tory
1818 |  | William Philip Honywood | Whig
1819 by-election |  | Sir Edward Knatchbull, 9th Bt | Tory
1830 |  | Thomas Law Hodges | Whig
1831 |  | Thomas Rider | Whig
1832 | Constituency abolished: see Eastern Kent, Western Kent

### Notes

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1. ^ "GUILDFORD, (D.1448/9), of Halden in Rolvenden, Kent. | History of Parliament Online".
2. ^ "GUILDFORD, (D.1448/9), of Halden in Rolvenden, Kent. | History of Parliament Online".
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar Woodger, L. S. (1993). "Kent". In Clark, Linda; Rawcliffe, Carole; Roskell, J. S. (eds.). The House of Commons 1386–1421. The History of Parliament Trust.
4. ^ a b Curry, Anne. "Kyriell, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50135. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
5. ^ Cavill. The English Parliaments of Henry VII 1485-1504.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o "History of Parliament". Retrieved 16 September 2011.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i "History of Parliament". Retrieved 16 September 2011.
8. ^ Succeeded to baronetcy, June 1684

## Election results

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### Elections in the 1790s

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General election, 30 June 1790: Kent[1] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | 4,285  |
| Whig | Filmer Honywood | 3,101  |
| Tory | Charles Marsham | 2,724  |
General election, 16 June 1796: Kent[1] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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|
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| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | 5,211  |
| Tory | Sir William Geary | 4,418  |
| Whig | Filmer Honywood | 4,285  |
| Tory gain from Whig
| Tory hold

### Elections in the 1800s

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General election, 13 July 1802: Kent[1] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Whig | Filmer Honywood | 4,761  |
| Tory | Sir William Geary | 4,085  |
| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | 3,933  |
| Whig gain from Tory
| Tory hold
General election, 11 November 1806: Kent[1] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Whig | William Philip Honywood | 1,854  |
| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | 1,852  |
| Tory | Sir William Geary | 828  |
| Tory hold
| Whig hold
General election, 13 May 1807: Kent[1] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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|
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| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | Unopposed
| Whig | William Philip Honywood | Unopposed
| Tory hold
| Whig hold

### Elections in the 1810s

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General election, 13 October 1812: Kent[1] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Tory | Sir William Geary | Unopposed
| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | Unopposed
| Tory gain from Whig
| Tory hold
General election, 27 June 1818: Kent[1] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | 3,417  | 93.0
| Whig | William Philip Honywood | 2,997  | 81.6
| Tory | Sir William Geary | 934  | 25.4
| Tory hold
| Whig gain from Tory
Kent by-election 16 November 1819[1] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | Unopposed
| Tory hold

### Elections in the 1820s

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General election, 18 March 1820: Kent[2] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Whig | William Philip Honywood | Unopposed
| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | Unopposed
| Whig hold
| Tory hold
General election, 20 June 1826: Kent[2] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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|
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| Whig | William Philip Honywood | Unopposed
| Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | Unopposed
| Whig hold
| Tory hold

### Elections in the 1830s

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General election, 9 August 1830: Kent[2] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Whig | Thomas Law Hodges | Unopposed
| Ultra-Tory | Sir Edward Knatchbull | Unopposed
| Whig hold
| Ultra-Tory gain from Tory
General election, 11 May 1831: Kent[2] Party  | Candidate  | Votes  | %

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| Whig | Thomas Law Hodges | Unopposed
| Whig | Thomas Rider | Unopposed
| Whig hold
| Whig gain from Ultra-Tory

## References

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* Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
* D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
* John Cannon, Parliamentary Reform 1640-1832 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972)
* Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [2]
* Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
* Peter Jupp, British and Irish Elections 1784-1831 (Newton Abbott: David & Charles, 1973)
* F D MacKinnon, On Circuit (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1940), quoted in Michael Gilbert (ed.), The Oxford Book of Legal Anecdotes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)
* Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754-1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
* J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
* Charles Henry Parry (ed), The Parliaments and Councils of England (London: John Murray, 1839)
* J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
* Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)
* Dictionary of National Biography
* Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 1)

1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Kent". History of Parliament. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
2. ^ a b c d "Kent". History of Parliament. Retrieved 27 February 2025.