East Gloucestershire (UK Parliament constituency)

East Gloucestershire
East Gloucestershire
Former county constituency; for the House of Commons
	Context: 1832-1868. Extract from 1837 result: the central, striped area.
County	Gloucestershire
1832–1885
Seats	Two
Created from	Gloucestershire
Replaced by	Tewkesbury; Cirencester; Stroud; Thornbury

East Gloucestershire, formally the Eastern division of Gloucestershire and often referred to as Gloucestershire Eastern, was a parliamentary constituency in Gloucestershire, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) using the bloc vote system.

The constituency was created when the Great Reform Act split Gloucestershire into eastern and western divisions, with effect from the 1832 general election.

Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, East Gloucestershire was abolished from the 1885 election, when the former eastern and western divisions were replaced by five new single-seat county constituencies: Cirencester, Forest of Dean, Stroud, Tewkesbury, and Thornbury.

Boundaries

1832–1885: The Hundreds of Crowthorne and Minety, Brightwell's Barrow, Bradley, Rapsgate, Bisley, Longtree, Whitstone, Kiftsgate, Westminster, Deerhurst, Slaughter, Cheltenham, Cleeve, Tibaldston, Tewkesbury, and Dudstone and King's Barton, and also the City and County of Gloucester and the Borough of Cirencester.^[1]

The constituency was the eastern division of the historic county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.

The place of election was at Gloucester. This was where the hustings were situated and electors voted by spoken declaration in public, before the secret ballot was introduced in 1872.

The qualification to vote in county elections, in the period when this constituency operated, was to be a 40 shilling freeholder.

The parliamentary borough constituencies of Cheltenham, Cirencester, Gloucester, Stroud, and Tewkesbury were all located in East Gloucestershire. Qualified freeholders from those boroughs could vote in the county division. Bristol was a "county of itself", so its freeholders qualified to vote in the borough, not in any county division.

Members of Parliament

Election	1st member		1st party		2nd party
1832, 21 December		Sir Berkeley Guise, Bt^[2]	Whig^[3]	Hon. Henry Reynolds-Moreton	Whig^[3]
1834, 7 August		Sir Christopher William Codrington^[4]	Tory^[3]	Hon. Henry Reynolds-Moreton	Whig^[3]
1835, 10 January			Conservative^[3]	Hon. Augustus Moreton	Whig^[3]^[5]
1841, 5 July				Hon. Francis Charteris	Conservative^[3]
1846, 27 February				Henry Somerset^[6]	Conservative
1854, 9 January				Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt^[7]	Conservative
1854, 19 December				Robert Stayner Holford^[8]	Conservative
1864, 12 July		Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt	Conservative	Robert Stayner Holford^[8]	Conservative
1872, 11 March		Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt	Conservative	John Yorke	Conservative
1885	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

By-election, 1 Jul 1885: East Gloucestershire^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Hicks Beach	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Caused by Hicks Beach's appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

General election 1880: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Michael Hicks Beach	Unopposed
	Conservative	John Yorke	Unopposed
Registered electors			8,579
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1870s

By-election, 17 Mar 1874: East Gloucestershire^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Hicks-Beach	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Caused by Hicks-Beach's appointment as Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

General election 1874: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Michael Hicks-Beach	Unopposed
	Conservative	John Yorke	Unopposed
Registered electors			9,157
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

By-election, 11 Mar 1872: East Gloucestershire^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Yorke	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Caused by Holford's resignation.

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1868: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Michael Hicks-Beach	Unopposed
	Conservative	Robert Stayner Holford	Unopposed
Registered electors			8,858
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

General election 1865: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Michael Hicks-Beach	Unopposed
	Conservative	Robert Stayner Holford	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,515
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

By-election, 12 July 1864: East Gloucestershire^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Hicks-Beach	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Caused by Codrington's death.

Elections in the 1850s

General election 1859: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Christopher William Codrington	Unopposed
	Conservative	Robert Stayner Holford	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,816
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

General election 1857: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Christopher William Codrington	Unopposed
	Conservative	Robert Stayner Holford	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,891
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

By-election, 19 December 1854: East Gloucestershire^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Stayner Holford	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Caused by Hicks-Beach's death.

By-election, 9 January 1854: East Gloucestershire^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Michael Hicks-Beach	3,363	58.9	*N/A*
	Whig	Edward Holland^[10]	2,344	41.1	New
Majority			1,019	17.8	N/A
Turnout			5,707	72.2	N/A
Registered electors			7,906
	Conservative hold

Caused by Henry Somerset's succession to the Peerage as 8th Duke of Beaufort

General election 1852: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Christopher William Codrington	Unopposed
	Conservative	Henry Somerset	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,986
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1840s

General election 1847: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	±%
	Conservative	Christopher William Codrington	Unopposed
	Conservative	Henry Somerset	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,803	−2.1
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

East Gloucestershire by-election, 27 February 1846
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Somerset	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Resignation of Charteris

General election 1841: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	±%
	Conservative	Francis Charteris	Unopposed
	Conservative	Christopher William Codrington	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,971	+4.9
	Conservative hold
	Conservative gain from Whig

Elections in the 1830s

General election 1837: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[3]^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	±%
	Conservative	Christopher William Codrington	Unopposed
	Whig	Augustus Morton	Unopposed
Registered electors			7,598	+16.5
	Conservative hold
	Whig hold

General election 1835: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[3]^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	±%
	Conservative	Christopher William Codrington	Unopposed
	Whig	Augustus Morton	Unopposed
Registered electors			6,521	−0.7
	Conservative gain from Whig
	Whig hold

By-election, 14 August 1834: East Gloucestershire^[3]^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Tory	Christopher William Codrington	2,779	50.6	+21.5
	Whig	Thomas Leigh^[11]	2,709	49.4	−21.4
Majority			70	1.2	N/A
Turnout			5,488	83.5	−5.9
Registered electors			6,569		+2.1
	Tory gain from Whig

Death of Guise

General election 1832: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)^[3]^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Whig	Berkeley Guise	3,311	36.1
	Whig	Henry Reynolds-Moreton	3,184	34.7
	Tory	Christopher William Codrington	2,672	29.1
Majority			512	5.6
Turnout			5,753	89.4
Registered electors			6,437
	Whig win (new seat)
	Whig win (new seat)

References

^ "The statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 2 & 3 William IV. Cap. LXIV. An Act to settle and describe the Divisions of Counties, and the Limits of Cities and Boroughs, in England and Wales, in so far as respects the Election of Members to serve in Parliament". London: His Majesty's statute and law printers. 1832. pp. 300–383. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
^ Died 23 July 1834.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Stooks Smith, Henry. (1973) [1844-1850]. Craig, F. W. S. (ed.). The Parliaments of England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 114. ISBN 0-900178-13-2.
^ Died 24 June 1864.
^ Churton, Edward (1838). The Assembled Commons or Parliamentary Biographer: 1838. p. 161. Retrieved 18 April 2019 – via Google Books.
^ Succeeded as the 8th Duke of Beaufort, 17 November 1853.
^ Died 29 November 1854.
^ Vacated seat 1872.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. pp. 389–390. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
^ "East Gloucestershire Election". Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser. 14 January 1854. p. 5. Retrieved 3 August 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "Gloucester Election". Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. 14 August 1834. p. 4. Retrieved 1 May 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.

British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F. W. S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977)
The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F. W. S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973))
Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume I 1832-1885, edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "G" (part 1)

[1] "The statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 2 & 3 William IV. Cap. LXIV. An Act to settle and describe the Divisions of Counties, and the Limits of Cities and Boroughs, in England and Wales, in so far as respects the Election of Members to serve in Parliament". London: His Majesty's statute and law printers. 1832. pp. 300–383. Retrieved 22 May 2020.

[2] Died 23 July 1834.

[stooks-smith-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Stooks Smith, Henry. (1973) [1844-1850]. Craig, F. W. S. (ed.). The Parliaments of England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 114. ISBN 0-900178-13-2.

[4] Died 24 June 1864.

[5] Churton, Edward (1838). The Assembled Commons or Parliamentary Biographer: 1838. p. 161. Retrieved 18 April 2019 – via Google Books.

[6] Succeeded as the 8th Duke of Beaufort, 17 November 1853.

[7] Died 29 November 1854.

[8] Vacated seat 1872.

[craig1832-9] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. pp. 389–390. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.

[10] "East Gloucestershire Election". Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser. 14 January 1854. p. 5. Retrieved 3 August 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.

[11] "Gloucester Election". Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette. 14 August 1834. p. 4. Retrieved 1 May 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.

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