Ardee was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons from 1378 to 1801.
History Ardee in County Louth was enfranchised as a borough constituency in 1378. In 1665 the Lord Lieutenant (James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde) wrote to the Portreeve of Ardee recommending Sir Robert Byron, as Burgess in Parliament for Ardee, in the room of Captain John Chambers, "removed" and Colonel Brent Moore, in the "stead of Lieutenant John Ruxton, removed". In the Patriot Parliament of 1689 summoned by King James II, Ardee was represented by two members. It continued to send two Members of Parliament to the Irish House of Commons until the Parliament of Ireland was merged into the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 1 January 1801. The constituency was disenfranchised on 31 December 1800.
The borough was represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as part of the county constituency of Louth.
Electoral system and electorate The parliamentary representatives of the borough were elected using the bloc vote for two-member elections and first past the post for single-member by-elections.
A summary of the borough electorate was included in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1837. The electorate consisted of the members of the Borough Corporation (the local Council) and the freemen. All of the classes of electors qualified because of co-option by all or part of the existing ones, so this was a constituency with an oligarchic constitution rather than a democratic one.
Members of Parliament 1559–1559: Walter Dowdall and Walter Babe 1585–1586: John Dowdall and Robert Barnewall 1613–1615: Patrick Dowdall and Barnabas Matthew 1634–1635: John Dowdall and Thomas Kippaks (Cappock) 1639–1643: Henry Moore (succeeded to peerage 1643 and replaced by Raphael Hunt) 1661–1665: John Ruxton (expelled and replaced 1665 by Erasmus Smith) and John Chambers (expelled and replaced by Sir Richard Stephens) 1665–1666: Erasmus Smith and Sir Richard Stephens
1689–1801 ElectionFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party 1689 Hugh Gernon John Babe 1692 Henry Tichborne James Tisdall 1695 Brabazon Moore 1703 Robert Chambre 1713 Michael Tisdall 1715 William Moore 1727 Robert Parkinson John Donnellan 1741 Tichborne Aston 1748 William Ruxton 1751 John Ruxton 1761 Charles Ruxton 1768 George Lowther 1776 Francis McNamara Peter Metge 1783 John Ruxton Charles Ruxton 1785 William Ruxton 1790 William Parkinson Ruxton John WolfeStyled as The Honourable from 1795 1798 Charles Ruxton William Ruxton 1799 William Parkinson Ruxton 1801 Disenfranchised
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