Swords (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Pre-1801 Irish constituency

Swords

Former borough constituency
for the Irish House of Commons
County| County Dublin
Borough| Swords
–1801 (1801)
Replaced by| Disfranchised

Swords was a borough constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons until its abolition in 1801. Elections for the borough were considered to "afford scenes of the greatest corruption". This was because the borough was not in the control of a single patron.[1] The borough was disfranchised by the Acts of Union 1800, with effect from 1 January 1801. Where in other disfranchised boroughs the former patron was given compensation of £15,000, in the case of Swords, it was vested "for such uses or purposes as shall appear to them to tend most to the advantage and improvement of the condition of the inhabitants of the said borough".[2]

## Members of Parliament

[edit]

* 1585 Walter Fitzsimons and Thomas Taylor[3]
* 1613–1615 William Blakeney and John Fitzsimons (died and replaced by Richard Carwell)[3]
* 1634–1635 Richard Barnewell and Lucas Netterville (expelled 1634 and replaced by Sir William Anderson)[3]
* 1639–1642 John Taylor[4] and George Blakeney (both expelled 1642)
* 1642 Charles Forster and Christopher Huetson[5]
* 1661–1666 John Povey and Sir William Tichborne[5]

### 1689–1801

[edit]

Election | First member | Party | Second member | Party

|
|
|
|

1689 | Francis Barnwall |  |  | Robert Russell |  |
1692  | Richard Forster |  |  | John Reading |  |
1695  | Thomas Ashe |  |
1703  | Robert Molesworth |  | Whig | James Peppard |  |
1713 | Plunket Plunket |  |
1715  | Richard Molesworth[a] |  |
1727  | Hon. Bysse Molesworth |  |  | Edward Bolton  |  |
1759  | Thomas Cobbe |  |
1761 | Hamilton Gorges |  |
1768  | John Hatch |  |  | John Damer |  |
1776  | Thomas Cobbe |  |  | Charles King |  |
1783 | Charles Cobbe |  |  | John Hatch |  |
1790  | John Claudius Beresford |  |  | Eyre Massey |  |
January 1798  | Francis Synge |  |  | Charles Cobbe |  |
1798  | Marcus Beresford |  |
1801  | Constituency disfranchised

1. ^ from 1716 Hon. Richard Molesworth

### References

[edit]

1. ^ Forbes, Suzanne (19 January 2021). "'Always rowdy, violent and colourful'?: Eighteenth century elections in the borough of Swords, Co. Dublin". The History of Parliament.
2. ^ Johnston-Liik, Edith Mary. "County Dublin". History of the Irish Parliament. Ulster Historical Foundation.
3. ^ a b c McGrath, Bríd (1998). A biographical dictionary of the membership of the Irish House of Commons 1640–1641. Department of History (PhD thesis). Trinity College Dublin. hdl:2262/77206.
4. ^ "Chronicles of the County Wexford, being a record of memorable incidents, disasters, social occurrences, and crimes, also, biographies of eminent persons, &c., &c., brought down to the year 1877". Enniscorthy, printed at the "Watchman" office. 1890.
5. ^ a b Parliamentary Papers, Volume 62, Part 2. p. 614.

## Sources

[edit]

* 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.

* v
* t
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Parliamentary constituencies in Dublin Dublin City and County

Parliament of Ireland
to 1800|

* County Dublin (????-1800)
* Dublin City (1264-1800)
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* Newcastle (c.1613-1800)
* Swords (????-1800)

Westminster 1801-1922
and First Dáil 1918|

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Dáil Éireann
1918–present|

| Historic|

* Dublin Artane (1977-1981)
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* Dublin University (1918-1937)

|

Current|

* Dublin Bay North (2016-)
* Dublin Bay South (2016-)
* Dublin Central (1981-)
* Dún Laoghaire (1977-)
* Dublin Fingal East (2024-)
* Dublin Fingal West (2024-)
* Dublin Mid-West (2002-)
* Dublin North-West (1981-)
* Dublin Rathdown (2016-)
* Dublin South-Central (1948-)
* Dublin South-West (1981-)
* Dublin West (1981-)

Seanad Éireann
1937-present|

* Dublin University (1937-)

European Parliament
1979-present|

* Dublin (1979-)

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