County Durham (UK Parliament constituency)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Durham County constituency |
|
|---|---|
| Created: | 1675 |
| Abolished: | 1832 |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| Members: | two |
Durham or County Durham was a county constituency in northern England, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1675 until 1832.
Contents |
[edit] History
The constituency consisted of the whole county of Durham (including the enclaves of Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlington, all situated within the boundaries of Northumberland and now part of that county, and of Crayke, now in North Yorkshire).
Because of its semi-autonomous status as a county palatine, Durham had not been represented in Parliament during the medieval period; by the 17th century it was the only part of England which elected no MPs. In 1624, Parliament passed a bill to enfranchise the county, but James I refused it the royal assent, as he considered that the House of Commons already had too many members and that some decayed boroughs should be abolished first. During the Commonwealth, County Durham was allowed to send members to the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate, though the privilege was not maintained when Parliament reverted to its earlier electoral arrangements from 1658. After the Restoration, Durham's right to return MPs was recognised in 1661, and finally confirmed by statute which came into effect in 1675; the county was to return two members, and the same Act also established Durham City as a parliamentary borough with its own two members.
By the time of the Reform Act, the county had a population of just over 250,000, although this was slightly reduced by the boundary changes which severed the enclaves and made them part of Northumberland or the North Riding of Yorkshire for parliamentary purposes. The electorate was only a fraction of this number: at the general election of 1790, 5,578 voted, and in 1820 the number was only 3,741. Although nobody could exert the degree of control over the voters that was common in many boroughs, several of the major local landowners had significant influence, in particular the Earl of Darlington.
In 1832 the county's representation was doubled, and the constituency divided into two new two-member constituencies, North Durham and South Durham.
[edit] Members of Parliament
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1675 | John Tempest | Thomas Vane | ||||
| October 1675 | Christopher Vane | |||||
| February 1679 | Sir Robert Eden | |||||
| August 1679 | William Bowes | Thomas Fetherstonhalgh | ||||
| 1685 | Robert Byerley | William Lambton | ||||
| 1690 | Sir Robert Eden | |||||
| 1695 | Sir William Bowes | |||||
| 1698 | Lionel Vane | Sir Robert Eden | ||||
| 1701 | William Lambton | |||||
| 1702 | Sir Robert Eden | Sir William Bowes | ||||
| 1707 | John Tempest | |||||
| 1708 | William Vane | |||||
| 1710 | William Lambton | |||||
| 1713 | Sir John Eden | John Hedworth | ||||
| 1727 | George Bowes | |||||
| 1747 | Hon. Henry Vane | Whig | ||||
| 1753 | Hon. Henry Vane [1] | Whig | ||||
| 1758 | Raby Vane | |||||
| 1760 | Robert Shafto | |||||
| 1761 | Frederick Vane | |||||
| 1768 | Sir Thomas Clavering | |||||
| 1774 | Sir John Eden | |||||
| 1790 | Rowland Burdon | Sir Ralph Milbanke | ||||
| 1806 | Sir Thomas Liddell | |||||
| 1807 | Sir Henry Vane-Tempest | |||||
| 1812 | Viscount Barnard | |||||
| 1813 | John George Lambton | Radical | ||||
| 1815 | William Powlett | |||||
| 1828 | William Russell | |||||
| 1831 | Sir Hedworth Williamson | |||||
| 1832 | Constituency divided | |||||
[edit] Election results
[edit] References
- J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
- Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
- This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.
