Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION EIGHT.
DOVER IN PARLIAMENT.
I. THREE PERIODS.

The representation of Dover in Parliament appears to
date from January, 1265, when Simon de Montford, to gain
popular sympathy, convoked a Parliament, and, hoping to
win the support of the Cinque Ports, invited Dover and the
other Ports to each send four of their Burgesses to sit in
that assembly. The writs on that occasion, and for about
a century later, were sent direct to the Mayors or Bailiffs of
the several Ports, but all the returns to those early writs are
lost. In 1366 Edward III. adopted the plan of sending the
Parliamentary writs for all the Cinque Ports towns en bloc
to the Lord Warden at Dover Castle, and from that date,
with some exceptions, the returns to the writs are preserved.
When regular Parliamentary representation began, the Bur-
gesses of Parliament from Dover — two in number — were
invariably local men, usually the Mayor for the time being
and one of the Jurats.

The mode of election at Dover was for the whole of
the Freemen to be assembled, by the blowing of the Town
Horn, in one of the Churches (originally in St. Peter's, and
later in St. Mary's), and every Freeman on the roll had a
vote. There does not appear to have been much anxiety
to be returned as a Member of Parliament in those days,
and it is probable that the Corporation quietly arranged
the selection, for there are no early records of contested
elections. In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, however, a
select body, called the Common Council, then recently
formed, sometimes assumed the right of choosing the two
Burgesses of Parliament, without consulting the general body
of the Freemen. At other times attempts were made to
restrict the Parliamentary franchise to Freemen resident
within the Borough ; but the House of Commons, whenever
appealed to, required all Freemen to be given the oppor-



366 ANNALS OF DOVER

tunity of voting, whether resident in the Borough or not.
From the year 1366 the representation of Dover in Parhament
has been continuous, but the roll of Members returned is
not complete, many of the returns to writs having been lost,
but the names of Members on record from 1366 to 1916
number 137.

The whole term of Dover's Parliamentary representa-
tion from 1366 to the present time may be divided into three
periods, the first dating from the fortieth year of Edward III.
to the end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, which was a
time when no great local interest was taken in Parliamentary
representation. From time to time, two members of the
Corporation were deputed to be " the Burgesses of Parlia-
ment," as they were termed; but there was no fuss about it.
In those early days Parliaments were supposed to be called
annually, hence, there were usually elections every year, and
sometimes twice a year. The chosen Burgesses were paid
three shillings a day for their " wages," in addition to the
expenses of riding there and back. The guinea a week was
well earned, for it was a tiresome and often a perilous journey
to and from Westminster; and as the Parliament was usually
convened during the short days of early Spring and sometimes
during the late Autumn, in the same year, there was a good
deal of coming and going. In addition to the perils of the
road, there were sometimes perils in Parliament, or after
the return home, if the Members did not speak and vote as
the King and his Ministers desired. That, no doubt,
accounted for the absence of contested elections.

The second electoral period, beginning with the Stuart
Kings and extending to the enactment of the Parliamentary
Reform Act of 1832, was marked by fiercely contested
elections. The payment of the Dover Burgesses of Parlia-
ment then ceased, not owing to any change in the law, but
because of the keen competition for seats in the House of
Commons, which induced the candidates not only to render
gratuitous service, but to bribe the Freemen to elect them.
During the time of the Stuart Kings the Court backed the
candidates, and openly did the bribery when necessary, but,
later, in the Georgian times, the contested elections were
fought by rival men of wealth, who were prepared, first of
all, to purchase the Freedom of the Borough for themselves
and then to buy the votes of the Freemen also. Dover during
this second period was represented by a succession of men



DOVER IN PARLIAMENT 367

who were in various ways notable. Some made the Borough
a stepping-stone to fortune, while others squandered fortunes
in securing the use of that step, which, in most cases, was
to them of no ultimate advantage. As to the constituency
itself, there was no change in this second period, except that
for a short time during the Commonwealth it was deprived
of one of its Members, but the Restoration restored the
representation to the status quo ante bellum.

The third period, which commenced in 1832, with the
creation of a new representation law, has seen the Parlia-
mentary franchise extended again and again; and if the
great European War had not for a time, at least, blocked
domestic legislation, there might have been more to record
in that direction. The other Parliamentary changes of the
third period are not entirely novel. Dover is again, and now
permanently, reduced to a one-Member constituency, and the
Member for Dover is once again paid " wages," with these
differences, that the wage, instead of being for the days
worked, is for work or play all the year round, and the money
comes out of the National Exchequer instead of the Dover
Muniment Box.

While rapidly reviewing the Dover Parliamentary
elections of these three periods, it is obvious that there is
some danger of the narrative becoming a mere dry list of
names and dates. The patriotism, pathos, zeal and humour,
together with the local colour of the times and circumstances,
cannot be pictured in the few lines devoted to each election.
The old battle-cries cannot be revived, nor the music of
the hired bands re-echoed ; the processions, the banners, the
speeches and the squibs must be all cut out of the story ;
and then — what will be left ? There will be just as much left
as the imaginations of those who follow the narrative can
read into it. If that should amount to very little, there will
be, at least, a plain, unvarnished tale of a long period of
representative government, affording a fair sample of what
the electors of the various constituencies of England were
doing during the dynastic changes and hard times of six
centuries. As already hinted, no attempt can be made to
follow the elections in detail, yet to keep the record of the
local elections in touch with the Parliamentary history of the
times, a few facts as to the successive reigns will be thrown
in and very brief biographic jottings respecting the men whom
the electors of Dover from time to time delighted to honour.



368 ANNALS OF DOVER