 By comparison, more than half of all MPs were returned by a total of just 154 owners of rotten or closed boroughs.In 1816, Thomas Oldfield's "The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland; being a History of the House of Commons, and of the Counties, Cities, and Boroughs of the United Kingdom from the earliest Period" claimed that of the 515 MPs for England and Wales 351 were returned by the patronage of 177 individuals and a further 16 by the direct patronage of the government