Pembroke (UK Parliament constituency)
| Pembroke | |
|---|---|
| Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons |
|
| 1542–1885 | |
| Number of members | one |
| Replaced by | Pembroke and Haverfordwest |
Pembroke (or Pembroke Boroughs) was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Pembroke in West Wales. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.
For the creation and early history of the seat, see the Boundaries section below.
The constituency was abolished by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 for the 1885 general election, when it was replaced by the new Pembroke and Haverfordwest constituency.
From its first known general election in 1542 until 1885, the constituency consisted of a number of boroughs within the historic county of Pembrokeshire in Wales.
On the basis of information from several volumes of the History of Parliament, it is apparent that the history of the borough representation from Wales and Monmouthshire is more complicated than that of the English boroughs.
The Laws in Wales Act 1535 (26 Hen. VIII, c. 26) provided for a single borough seat for each of 11 of the 12 Welsh counties and Monmouthshire. The legislation was ambiguous as to which communities were enfranchised. The county towns were awarded a seat, but this in some fashion represented all the ancient boroughs of the county as the others were required to contribute to the members wages. It was not clear if the burgesses of the contributing boroughs could take part in the election. The only election under the original scheme was for the 1542 Parliament. It seems that only burgesses from the county towns actually took part. An Act of 1544 (35 Hen. VIII, c. 11) confirmed that the contributing boroughs could send representatives to take part in the election at the county town. As far as can be told from surviving indentures of returns, the degree to which the out boroughs participated varied, but by the end of the sixteenth century all the seats had some participation from them at some elections at least.
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