Cork City (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Pre 1801 Irish constituency

Cork City (also known as Cork Borough) was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons until its abolition on 1 January 1801.

This constituency was the parliamentary borough of Cork in County Cork. It comprised the whole of the County of the City of Cork. Cork had the status of a county of itself, although it remained connected with County Cork for certain purposes. A Topographical Directory of Ireland, published in 1837, describes the area covered. This seems to be the same area used, for the Parliament of Ireland constituency, in previous centuries. The county of the city comprises a populous rural district of great beauty and fertility, watered by several small rivulets and intersected by the river Lee and its noble estuary: it is bounded on the north by the barony of Fermoy, on the east by that of Barrymore, on the south by Kerricurrihy, and on the west by Muskerry: it comprehends the parishes of St. Finbarr, Christ Church or the Holy Trinity, St. Peter, St. Mary Shandon, St. Anne Shandon, St. Paul and St. Nicholas, all, except part of St. Finbarr's, within the city and suburbs, and those of Curricuppane, Carrigrohanemore, Kilcully, and Rathcoony, together with parts of the parishes of Killanully or Killingly, Carrigaline, Dunbullogue or Carrignavar, Ballinaboy, Inniskenny, Kilnaglory, White church, and Templemichael, without those limits; and contains, according to the Ordnance survey, an area of 44,463 statute acres, of which, 2396 are occupied by the city and suburbs. The Directory also has a passage on the representative history, which includes some information that applies to the pre 1801 constituency. The right of election was vested in the freemen of the city, and in the 40s. freeholders and £50 leaseholders of the county of the city, of whom the freemen, in 1831, amounted in number to 2331, and the freeholders to 1545, making a total of 3876; but by the act of the 2nd of Wm. IV., cap. 88 (under which the city, from its distinguished importance, retains its privilege of returning two representatives to the Imperial parliament, and the limits of the franchise, comprising the entire county of the city, remain unaltered), the non resident freemen, except within seven miles, have been disfranchised, and the privilege of voting at elections has been extended to the £10 householders, and the £20 and £10 leaseholders for the respective terms of 14 and 20 years. The number of voters registered up to Jan. 2nd, 1836, amounted to 4791, of whom 1065 were freemen; 2727 £10 householders; 105 £50, 152 £20, and 608 forty shilling freeholders; 3 £50, 7 £20, and 2 £10 rent chargers; and 1 £50, 26 £20, and 95 £10 leaseholders: the sheriffs are the returning officers. Thus, before the Union, the electorate comprised the freemen of the city (including non residents), and the Forty Shilling Freeholders of the county of the city. It returned two members to the Parliament of Ireland to 1800.

In the Patriot Parliament of 1689 summoned by James II, Cork City was represented with two members. Following the Act of Union 1800 the borough retained two parliamentary seats in the United Kingdom House of Commons.

ElectionFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party 1559 John Meade Stephen Coppinger 1585 John Meade Thomas Sarsfield 1613 Edmund Terry David Terry 1634 Dominick Coppinger Sir William Sarsfield 1639 Sir Andrew Barrett Dominick Roche 1661 Sir Peter Courthorpe Sir Richard Kyrle 1689 Patriot Parliament Sir James Fitz Edmond Cotter John Galway 1692 Alan Brodrick Whig Robert Rogers 1703 Thomas Erle 1710 Edward Hoare 1713 St John Brodrick 1715 Edmond Knapp 1727 Hugh Dickson Edward Webber 1731 Jonas Morris 1735 Emanuel Pigott 1739 Matthew Deane 1751 Thomas Newenham 1761 John Hely Hutchinson Administration Sir John Freke, 3rd Bt 1764 William Brabazon Ponsonby 1776 Richard Longfield 1783 Augustus Louis Carre Warren 1790 Hon. John Hely Hutchinson Richard Longfield 1796 William Hare 1797 Mountifort Longfield 1801 Succeeded by the Westminster constituency Cork City