The constituency of Queenborough was a rotten borough situated on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
From 1572 until it was abolished by the Reform Act 1832, it returned two Members of Parliament. The franchise was vested in the freemen of the town, of whom there were more than 300. Its electorate was therefore one of largest of the 56 boroughs that were abolished. Most freemen, however, were non resident.
A small town in Kent, England, which grew as a port near the Thames Estuary. It was formerly a municipal borough in the Faversham parliamentary division of Kent, and is two miles south of Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey, nearby the westward entrance to the Swale, where it joins the River Medway. It is now in the Sittingbourne and Sheppey parliamentary constituency and governed by Swale Borough Council and Queenborough Town Council.
Members of Parliament 1572-1640
ParliamentFirst memberSecond member 1571 John Brooke alias Cobham John Parker 1572 (May) John Brooke alias Cobham William Butler, died and replaced Dec 1580 by Sir Humphrey Gilbert 1584 (Nov) John Brooke alias Cobham William Parry, expelled from the House and replaced Feb 1585 by Sir Edward Hoby 1586 (Sep) Sir Edward Hoby Michael Sondes 1588 William Boys Michael Sondes 1593 John Brooke alias Cobham John Baynham 1597 Sir George Carew Michael Sondes 1601 Sir Michael Sondes Nicholas Troughton 1604 Sir Edward Stafford Michael Sondes 1605Richard Wright 1614 Roger Palmer Robert Hatton 1621-1622 James Palmer William Frowde 1624 Roger Palmer Robert Pooley 1625 Roger Palmer Sir Edward Hales 1626 Roger Palmer Robert Pooley 1628 Roger Palmer Sir John Hales 1629–1640 No Parliaments summoned
1640-1832 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond partyApril 1640Sir Edward Hales ParliamentarianJohn WolstenholmeNovember 1640William Harrison RoyalistJune 1643Harrison disabled from sitting - seat vacant1645Sir Michael LiveseyApril 1648Hales disabled from sitting1648Augustine Garland1653Queenborough was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament1654Augustine Garland Queenborough had only one seat in the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate1656Gabriel Livesey January 1659Thomas BaylesHon. James Herbert May 1659Augustine GarlandOne seat vacantApril 1660 Sir William Wheler Hon. James Herbert 1661 Sir Edward Hales 1677 James Herbert January 1681 William Glanville February 1681 Gerard Gore 1685 Sir John Godwin Caleb Banks 1689 Robert Crawford James Herbert (the younger) 1690 Sir John Banks 1695 Caleb Banks 1696 Thomas King 1705 Rear-Admiral Sir John Jennings 1708 Henry Withers 1710 Colonel Thomas King James Herbert (the third) 1713 Charles Fotherby 1715 Philip Jennings 1722 Vice Admiral James Littleton Lieutenant Colonel John Cope 1723 Captain Lord Forbes 1727 Sprig Manesty John Crowley 1728 Captain Sir George Saunders 1729 Richard Evans 1735 Lord Archibald Hamilton 1741 Thomas Newnham 1754 Sir Charles Frederick Captain Sir Peircy BrettRear Admiral from 1762 1774 Sir Walter Rawlinson 1784 John Clater Aldridge Captain George Bowyer 1790 Gibbs Crawfurd Richard Hopkins 1793 Augustus Rogers Tory 1794 John Sargent Tory 1796 Evan Nepean Tory 1802 John Prinsep Whig George Peter Moore WhigMarch 1806 Sir Samuel Romilly WhigOctober 1806 William Frankland Whig 1807 Joseph HuntHunt was expelled from the Commons on 23 May 1810 Tory Hon. John Villiers Tory 1810 Richard Wellesley ToryJanuary 1812 Sir Robert Moorsom ToryOctober 1812 John Osborn Tory 1818 Hon. Edmund Phipps Tory 1820 Hon. John Villiers Tory George Peter Holford Tory 1824 Lord Frederick Cavendish-Bentinck Whig 1826 The Lord Downes Tory John Capel ToryAugust 1830At the election of 1830 Holmes and Durham were initially declared to have defeated Capel and Gladstone and took their seats, but on petition the result was reversed. Holmes had also been elected for Haslemere, and sat for that constituency for the rest of the parliament. William Holmes Tory Sir Philip Charles Henderson Durham ToryDecember 1830 John Capel Tory Thomas Gladstone Tory 1831 Lt General Sir John Colquhoun Grant Tory 1832 Constituency abolished
Notes
References Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954) Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949) Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)