History of Parliament

The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in which the history of an institution is told through the individual biographies of its members. After various amateur efforts the project was formally launched in 1940 and since 1951 has been funded by the Treasury. As of 2010 the volumes covering the House of Commons in 1386-1421, 1509-1629, and 1660-1832 have been completed and published (in 41 separate volumes containing over 20 million words); research work on the remaining periods and on the House of Lords is ongoing. In 2011 the completed sections were republished on the internet.

The publication in 1878-9 of the 'Official Return of Members of Parliament', an incomplete list of the name of every Member elected to serve in lower Houses of Parliaments in the United Kingdom and predecessor states, gave a useful source on which Victorian historians could build, and there were several publications which identified and gave some biographical and genealogical details of the Members of Parliament for certain constituencies. Among those writing histories was Josiah Wedgwood, who was himself Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1906. In 1918-22 Wedgwood published the "Staffordshire Parliamentary History".

In 1928, Wedgwood decided to take the subject further. Together with other MPs who were interested in the subject, he wrote a memorial to the Prime Minister urging him to appoint a Committee to prepare a complete record of the personnel of every Parliament since 1264. The memorial noted that the Official Return was incomplete and inaccurate, and contained no information beyond a list of names; it attempted to head off Treasury objections to the cost, by pointing to the fact that pledges of voluntary assistance had been obtained. Wedgwood quickly obtained the signatures of more than 200 MPs. On 17 July 414 had signed, together with a number of members of the House of Lords, and a delegation saw Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin who was again wary of the cost; the delegation insisted that the question of publication need not be considered until the availability of material was assessed. Baldwin agreed to take the matter under consideration. The result of the pressure was that Baldwin announced in December (by which time 512 MPs were on board) that the Government agreed to appoint a Select Committee to report on materials available to write such a history.

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