Derbyshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Derbyshire | |
---|---|
Former County constituency for the House of Commons | |
1290–1832 | |
Seats | two |
Replaced by | North Derbyshire and South Derbyshire |
Derbyshire is a former
History
Boundaries and franchise
The constituency, which first returned members to Parliament in 1290, consisted of the historic county of Derbyshire. (This included the borough of Derby; even though Derby elected two MPs in its own right, it was not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within the borough could confer a vote at the county election.)
In medieval times, the MPs would have been elected at the county court, by the suitors to the court, which meant the tiny handful of the local nobility who were
Except briefly during the period of the
Character
From
As in most counties of any size, contested elections were avoided whenever possible because of the expense. Elections were held at a single polling place, Derby, and voters from the rest of the county had to travel to the county town to exercise their franchise; candidates were expected to meet the expenses of their supporters in travelling to the poll and to entertain them lavishly with food and drink when they got there. There were only four general elections between 1700 and 1832 when Derbyshire's seats were contested: on every other occasion the various competing interests in the county managed to reach agreement on who should represent the county without taking the matter to a poll.
In the pre-industrial era, Derbyshire was a flourishing agricultural county, but it was one of the English counties most dramatically affected by industrialisation in the 18th and early 19th centuries, becoming noted in particular for the manufacture of heavy machinery and (during the Napoleonic Wars) of armaments. Its population grew swiftly (having reached 237,170 by 1831); but the electorate has been estimated at only 3,000 or 4,000 in the second half of the 18th century, and was probably not much higher by the time of the Reform Act. The Dukes of Devonshire were able to maintain much of their traditional influence, Cavendish members occupying one of the two seats as a Whig MP; but the county itself was predominantly Tory, and usually ensured that the other MP was returned in that interest.
Few of the industrial workers, of course, had the vote since they were not property owners, and in the early 19th century political unrest was common - most notably the
But the
The members of the aristocracy have sometimes been considered in an unfavourable light by the people. For much of this they are indebted to the manner in which the present constitution of Parliament has enabled them to interfere and dictate in the representation... Let them stand on their own merits; and I have no fear that the people of England will be unjust to the aristocracy of England, united by mutual kind feelings and good offices, and not by close boroughs and mock representation.
- Speech recorded in the Duke of Devonshire's diary, quoted in Brock
This seems to have sufficiently satisfied the Derbyshire voters that they allowed the Dukes to continue to "interfere and dictate in the representation" to the extent that they continued electing Cavendishes (in the Northern division after the county was divided by the Reform Act) well into the 20th century.
Abolition
The constituency was abolished in 1832 by the
Members of Parliament
1290–1399
- Constituency created (1290)
1400–1499
1500–1640
1640–1653
Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
April 1640 | Sir John Curzon, 1st Baronet | John Manners | ||||
November 1640 | Sir John Curzon, 1st Baronet | Parliamentarian
|
Sir John Coke |
Parliamentarian
| ||
December 1648 | Curzon excluded in Pride's Purge; Coke went abroad and died in 1650 | |||||
1653
|
Gervase Bennet | Nathaniel Barton |
1654–1658
Year | First member | Second member | Third member | Fourth member |
---|---|---|---|---|
1654 | Nathaniel Barton | Thomas Sanders | Edward Gell | John Gell |
1656 | Sir Samuel Sleigh | German Pole |
1659–1832
- Representation restored to two members in the Third Protectorate Parliament
Elections
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Whig
|
Charles Cavendish | 697 | 74.1 | ||
Tory | Nathaniel Curzon | 134 | 14.2 | ||
Henry Harpur | 110 | 11.7 |
See also
References
- The history of the county of Derby By Stephen Glover
- Michael Brock, The Great Reform Act (London: Hutchinson, 1973)
- D. Brunton & D. H. Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- John Cannon, Parliamentary Reform 1640–1832 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972)
- Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [1]
- Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754–1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
- J. E. Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
- T. H. B. Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
- J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
- Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 1)