Portsmouth (UK Parliament constituency)

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Portsmouth Borough constituency
Created:	1295
Abolished:	1918
Type:	House of Commons
Members:	two

Portsmouth was a parliamentary constituency in Portsmouth. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Contents 1 History 2 Boundaries 3 Members of Parliament 4 Election results 4.1 Elections in the 1750s 4.2 Elections in the 1760s 4.3 Elections in the 1770s 4.4 Elections in the 1780s 5 References

[edit] History

The constituency first elected MPs in 1295. It was abolished at the 1918 general election, when the Representation of the People Act 1918 divided it into three new constituencies; Portsmouth North, Portsmouth South and Portsmouth Central.

According to Namier and Brooke in The House of Commons 1754-1790, the right of election was in the freemen of the borough who numbered about 100. The town was known as an Admiralty borough and at least one MP was usually an Admiral.

The Earl of Sandwich was First Lord of the Admiralty from 1771 to 1782. He imposed tighter Admiralty control over the borough. This change of policy led to an independent element of the local Council supporting challengers to the Admiralty candidates between 1774 and 1780.

[edit] Boundaries

The parliamentary borough of Portsmouth, was (as Portsmouth remains in the 21st century), a major seaport and naval base on the south coast of England. It is situated in the county of Hampshire.

[edit] Members of Parliament

Election	Member	Party		Member	Party
1747	Edward Legge			Edward Hawke
1754	William Rowley
1761	Matthew Fetherstonhaugh
1774	Peter Taylor
1776				Maurice Suckling
1777	William Gordon
1778				Robert Monckton
1782				Henry Fetherstonhaugh
1783	Thomas Erskine		Whig
1784	William Cornwallis
1790	Thomas Erskine		Whig
1796				Hugh Seymour-Conway
1801				John Markham
1806	David Montague Erskine
1806	Thomas Miller
1816	John Bonham Carter
1818				George Cockburn		Tory
1820				John Markham
1826				Francis Thornhill Baring		Whig
1838	George Thomas Staunton
1852	Charles Stanley Monck		Whig
1857	James Dalrymple-Horn-Elphinstone
1865	William Henry Stone			Stephen Gaselee
1868				James Dalrymple-Horn-Elphinstone
1874	Thomas Charles Bruce
1880				Henry Drummond Wolff		Conservative
1885	William Crossman			Philip Vanderbyl
1886				Samuel Wilson
1892	Walter Owen Clough		Liberal	John Baker		Liberal
1900	Thomas Arthur Bramsdon		Liberal
1900	James Henry Alexander Majendie			Reginald Jaffray Lucas
1906	Thomas Arthur Bramsdon		Liberal	John Baker		Liberal
January 1910	Charles William de la Poer			Bertram Godfrey Falle
1916				Hedworth Meux

[edit] Election results

The bloc vote electoral system was used in two seat elections and first past the post for single member by-elections. Each voter had up to as many votes as there were seats to be filled. Votes had to be cast by a spoken declaration, in public, at the hustings (until the secret ballot was introduced in 1872).

Note on percentage change calculations: Where there was only one candidate of a party in successive elections, for the same number of seats, change is calculated on the party percentage vote. Where there was more than one candidate, in one or both successive elections for the same number of seats, then change is calculated on the individual percentage vote.

Note on sources: The information for the election results given below is taken from Namier and Brooke 1754-1790, Stooks Smith 1790-1832 general election and from Craig thereafter. Where Stooks Smith gives additional information or differs from the other sources this is indicated in a note after the result.

1750s – 1760s – 1770s – 1780s

[edit] Elections in the 1750s

General Election 18 April 1754: Portsmouth (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir William Rowley	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan	Sir Edward Hawke	Unopposed	N/A	N/A

• Seat vacated when Rowley was appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty

By-Election 25 April 1757: Portsmouth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir William Rowley	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan hold		Swing	N/A

[edit] Elections in the 1760s

General Election 31 March 1761: Portsmouth (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir Edward Hawke	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan	Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh	Unopposed	N/A	N/A

• Seat vacated when Hawke was appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty

By-Election 10 December 1766: Portsmouth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir Edward Hawke	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 22 March 1768: Portsmouth (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir Edward Hawke	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan	Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh	Unopposed	N/A	N/A

• Death of Fetherstonhaugh

[edit] Elections in the 1770s

By-Election 29 March 1774: Portsmouth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Peter Taylor	39	61.90	N/A
	Non Partisan	Joshua Iremonger	24	38.10	N/A
Majority			15	23.81	N/A
	Non Partisan hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 10 October 1774: Portsmouth (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir Edward Hawke	65	47.79	N/A
	Non Partisan	Peter Taylor	37	27.21	N/A
	Non Partisan	Joshua Iremonger	34	25.00	N/A

• Creation of Hawke as a peer

By-Election 18 May 1776: Portsmouth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Maurice Suckling	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan hold		Swing	N/A

• Death of Taylor

By-Election 26 November 1777: Portsmouth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir William Gordon	23		N/A
	Non Partisan	Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh Bt	12		N/A
Majority			9		N/A
	Non Partisan hold		Swing	N/A

• Death of Suckling

By-Election 10 August 1778: Portsmouth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Robert Monckton	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan hold		Swing	N/A

[edit] Elections in the 1780s

General Election 9 September 1780: Portsmouth (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Robert Monckton	34	52.31	N/A
	Non Partisan	Sir William Gordon	20	30.77	N/A
	Non Partisan	Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh Bt	11	16.92	N/A

• Death of Monckton

By-Election 5 June 1782: Portsmouth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh Bt	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan hold		Swing	N/A

• Seat vacated on the grant of a pension, at the pleasure of the Crown, to Gordon

By-Election 28 July 1783: Portsmouth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Hon. Thomas Erskine	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Whig gain from Non Partisan		Swing	N/A

General Election 1 April 1784: Portsmouth (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	Sir Henry Fetherstonhaugh Bt	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Non Partisan	William Cornwallis	Unopposed	N/A	N/A

[edit] References

• The House of Commons 1754-1790, by Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke (HMSO 1964)
• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.