Page 97
A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 9, Burton-Upon-Trent. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 2003.
This free content was digitised by double rekeying. All rights reserved.
Parliamentary representation
Although the abbot of Burton was summoned to parliament as a baron between 1295 and 1322, and again in 1532, (fn. 7) there was no representative burgess from the borough in the Middle Ages.
A parliamentary division covering east Stafford-shire, created in 1885 as one of seven new divisions for the county, was named Burton. (fn. 8) The first M.P. was a Liberal, Sir Michael Arthur Bass, the brewer. Returned again in 1886, he was succeeded later the same year at a bye-election following his elevation to the peerage as Lord Burton by a fellow Liberal and brewer, Sydney Evershed of Albury House, in Stapen-hill. (fn. 9) Evershed was returned unopposed in 1892 and 1895. Another brewer, R. F. Ratcliff, won as a Liberal Unionist in 1900, and thereafter Unionists or Con-servatives held the seat, except for a Labour victory in 1945, until 1997 when the seat was again won by Labour. After Ratcliff the following were M.P.s: John Gretton, a brewer (1918); his son, also John (1943); A. W. Lyne (1945); Arthur (from 1955 Sir Arthur) Colegate (1950); John Jennings, a schoolmaster (1955); Ivan (from 1992 Sir Ivan) Lawrence, a barrister (1974); Janet Dean, mayor of East Stafford-shire Borough Council (1997).