First Protectorate Parliament

During the first nine months of The Protectorate Cromwell, with the aid of the Council Of State , had drawn up a list of 84 bills to present to Parliament for ratification. But the members of Parliament had their own and their constituents' interests to promote and in the end not enough of them would agree to work with Cromwell, or to sign a declaration of their acceptance of the ''Instrument of Government'', to make the constitutional arrangements in the ''Instrument of Government'' work. Cromwell dissolved the Parliament as soon as it was allowed under the terms of the ''Instrument of Government'', having failed to get any of the 84 bills passed.

PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCIES

The ''Instrument of Government'' specified the numbers of MPs that England and Wales sent to the Parliament (400).

By omission from the list Rotten Borough s were abolished. A few boroughs not previously enfranchised, notably Leeds and Manchester , received a seat.

All the traditional counties were represented ( Durham for the first time). In addition some well established sub-divisions of counties were given separate representation.

There were substantial changes in the number of seats many constituencies received, particularly amongst the counties.

This was the first systematic redistribution of Parliamentary seats in English history and would not be matched for a Royal Parliament until the Reform Act 1832 .

after the constituency name). Those areas marked
-- were divisions of a traditional county.

The ''Instrument of Government'' also made provision for members from Jersey and Guernsey , without defining the numbers or arrangements for the election of such members. It is not clear that any were actually elected, as they are not mentioned in the Journal of the House of Comnmons for this Parliament. It is also notable that when on 6 October and 7 October 1654 the House of Commons debated "the distribution of the number of members to serve in future Parliaments", Guibon Goddard MP recorded in his journal that "we agreed with the Instrument, in the whole number of four hundred, Jersey and Guernsey being left out, because not governed by our laws, but by municipal laws of their own; and we differed but little in the particular distribution."

The Lord Protector and his Council were given power to provide for the representation of Scotland and Ireland, which was done by later legislation giving 30 seats to each country. This was the first time Scotland and Ireland were represented in a Westminster Parliament.

SUMMARY OF CONSTITUENCIES AND MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT

''Key to categories: BC - Borough/Burgh constituencies, CC - County/Shire constituencies, UC - University constituencies, Total C - Total constituencies, EC - English constituencies, WC - Welsh constituencies, SC - Scottish constituencies, IC - Irish constituencies, EMP - English Members of Parliament, WMP - Welsh Members of Parliament, SMP - Scottish Members of Parliament, IMP - Irish Members of Parliament, Total MP - Total Members of Parliament.''

Table 1: Constituencies by type

Table 2: Constituencies, by number of seats

''Notes: (1) Monmouthshire (3 county seats) included in England, not Wales. (2) Dublin City and County treated as a county constituency (2 seats).''

LIST OF CONSTITUENCIES

England

#Reading: 1

#Buckingham Town: 1
#Wycombe: 1

#Cambridge University: 1

---: 2

#Launceston: 1
#Penryn: 1
#Truro: 1

: 11

#Clifton, Dartmouth, Hardness: 1
#Exeter: 2
#Honiton: 1
#Plymouth: 2
#Tiverton: 1
#Totnes: 1

#Lyme-Regis: 1
#Poole: 1
#Weymouth and Melcombe-Regis: 1

: 13

#Malden: 1

#Gloucester: 2
#Tewkesbury: 1

#Leominster: 1

#St. Alban's: 1

: 11

#Dover: 1
#Maidstone: 1
#Queenborough: 1
#Rochester: 1
#Sandwich: 1

#Liverpool: 1
#Manchester: 1
#Preston: 1

: 10

#Grantham: 1
#Great Grimsby: 1
#Lincoln: 2
#Stamford: 1

#Westminster: 2

: 10

#Lynn-Regis: 2
#Norwich: 2

#Peterborough: 1

#Newcastle-upon-Tyne: 1

#Oxford University: 1
#Woodstock: 1

#Ludlow: 1
#Shrewsbury: 2

#Newcastle-under-Lyne: 1
#Stafford: 1

: 11

#Bridgwater: 1
#Bristol: 2
#Taunton: 2
#Wells: 1

---: 2

#Southampton: 1
#Winchester: 1

: 10

#Dunwich: 1
#Ipswich: 2
#Sudbury: 1

#Reigate: 1
#Southwark: 2

#Chichester: 1
#East Grinstead: 1
#Lewes: 1
#Rye: 1

#Warwick: 1

: 10

#Marlborough: 1
#New Sarum: 2

East Riding
--: 4

North Riding
--: 4

West Riding
--: 6

#City of York: 2
#Halifax: 1
#Kingston-upon-Hull: 1
#Leeds: 1
#Richmond: 1
#Scarborough: 1

Wales

''Brecknockshire is attributed 3 seats in the text of the Instrument of Government linked to by this article, but other on-line versions say 2 and that is consistent with the total of 400 seats for England and Wales.''

Scotland

) and burghs of Scotland was made by ''An Ordinance by the Protector for Elections in Scotland'' of 27 June 1654 . The Burgh, amongst those in a district, where the elections were to take place is marked in capitals. The shire of Merse is more commonly known as Berwickshire.

Ireland

) and boroughs of Ireland was made by ''An Ordinance by the Protector for Elections in Ireland'' of 27 June 1654 . The Borough, amongst those in a district, where the elections were to take place is marked in capitals.

#BANDON and Kinsale: 1

and City: 2

The First Protectorate Parliament was preceded by the Barebones Parliament and succeeded by the Second Protectorate Parliament .

SEE ALSO

List Of Parliaments Of England

REFERENCES

Text of the Instrument of Government

The British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website: First Protectorate Parliament 1654-55

www.archontology.org: England: Parliament 1640-1660

BIBLIOGRAPHY

From Cromwell:The Oliver Comwell Website: a select bibliography of books and articles :

A number of articles explore aspects of Cromwell's Protectorate parliaments: H.R. Trevor-Roper's crucial 1956 article on 'Oliver Cromwell and his parliaments', which was included in several later collections and is perhaps most accessible in I. Roots (ed), Cromwell, A Profile (1973);

P. Gaunt, 'Law making in the first Protectorate Parliament' in C. Jones, M. Newitt & S. Roberts (eds), Politics and People in Revolutionary England (1986);

I. Roots, 'Law making in the second Protectorate Parliament' in H. Hearder & H.R. Loyn (eds), British Government and Administration (1974);

P. Gaunt, 'Cromwell's purge? Exclusions and the first Protectorate Parliament' in Parliamentary History 6 (1987);

C.S. Egloff, 'The search for a Cromwellian settlement: exclusions from the second Protectorate Parliament' in Parliamentary History 17 (1998);

D. L. Smith, ‘Oliver Cromwell, the first Protectorate Parliament and religious reform’ in Parliamentary History 19 (2000);

T.A. Wilson & F.J. Merli, 'Naylor's case and the dilemma of the Protectorate' in University of Birmingham Historical Journal 10 (1965-6); and C.H. Firth, 'Cromwell and the crown' in English Historical Review 17 & 18 (1902 & 1903).

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First Protectorate Parliament