Armagh Borough (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Armagh Borough (also known as Armagh City) was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons, the house of representatives of the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1613 to 1800.

Armagh Borough
Former borough constituency for the Irish House of Commons
County	County Armagh
Borough	Armagh
1613 (1613) (1613 (1613))–1801 (1801)
Seats	2
Replaced by	Armagh City

History

This constituency was the borough of Armagh in County Armagh.

During the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland the borough was not granted separate representation in the Protectorate Parliaments (1654–1659), from the county constituency of Down, Antrim and Armagh.

After the restoration, in 1660, the Parliament of Ireland was revived with the borough again represented. In the Patriot Parliament of 1689 summoned by King James II, Armagh Borough was represented by two members.^[1]

The city of Armagh, County Armagh, was the episcopal seat of the primate of All Ireland, the Archbishop of Armagh. The sovereign of Armagh corporation was the primate's land agent, or the seneschal of the manor, making the constituency a bishop's borough. The other burgesses were clergymen, "who seem to have held on an express or implied stipulation to resign on quitting the diocese, or in case of their becoming unwilling to act under the archbishop's direction". As these clergymen naturally looked to the archbishop for preferment, it is improbable that there were many resignations under the last clause of the agreement; and a corporation so managed must have been as easy to control as through tenants who had taken an oath, and against whom, moreover, the agent had the additional lever of the "hanging gale" (rent arrears).^[2]

At Armagh, in the closing years of the old representative system, the archbishop although he was not a member of the corporation, and had no constitutional connection with it commanded twelve of the thirteen votes by which the members of Parliament for the city were elected; and "so completely was the election of the members considered to be in the primate, that he regularly paid the expenses of the admission of the free burgesses, amounting to five pounds each".

Following the Acts of Union 1800 the borough retained one parliamentary seat in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

Members of Parliament, 1613–1801

• 1613–1615 Marcus Ussher and Christopher Conway^[3]
• 1634–1635 John Dillon and William Hilton^[3]
• 1639–1649 William Dixon and Sir Archibald Hamilton, Bt^[3]
• 1661–1666 Hon Sir James Graham and Thomas Chambers^[3]

1689–1801

Election		First member	First party		Second member	Second party
1689 Patriot Parliament		Francis Stafford			Constantine O'Neale
1692		Marmaduke Coghill			Edward Lyndon
1695					Samuel Dopping[a]
1713		Epaphroditus Marsh
1715		Silvester Crosse			Charles Bourchier
1716					John Eyre
1727		Edward Knatchbull			Ambrose Philips
1749					Philip Bragg
1759					Marquess of Tavistock
May 1761		Robert Cuninghame			Hon. John Ponsonby[b]
1761					Hon. Barry Maxwell
1768		George Macartney			Philip Tisdall[c]
1769					Charles O'Hara
1776		Philip Tisdall			Henry Meredyth
1777		George Rawson
January 1790					Henry Duquerry
May 1790					Robert Hobart[d]
1796		Sackville Hamilton
1798		Hon. Thomas Pelham			Patrick Duigenan
1799		Gerard Lake
1801		Succeeded by the Westminster constituency Armagh City

Notes

1. Also elected for Dublin University in 1715, for which he chose to sit.
2. Also elected for County Kilkenny in 1761, for which he chose to sit.
3. Also elected for Dublin University in 1768, for which he chose to sit.
4. Styled as Lord Hobart from 1793.

References

1. O'Hart 2007, p. 500.
2. Kowaleski-Wallace, Elizabeth (3 October 1991). Their Fathers' Daughters: Hannah More, Maria Edgeworth, and Patriarchal Complicity. Oxford University Press. p. 149. ISBN 9780195345025. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
3. Parliamentary Papers, Volume 62, Part 2. p. 606.

Bibliography

• O'Hart, John (2007). The Irish and Anglo-Irish Landed Gentry: When Cromwell came to Ireland. Vol. II. Heritage Books. ISBN 978-0-7884-1927-0.
• 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.