Number of members two | ||
Bristol was a two-member constituency, used to elect members to the House of Commons in the Parliaments of England (to 1707), Great Britain (1707–1800) and the United Kingdom (from 1801). The constituency existed until Bristol was divided into single member constituencies in 1885.
Contents
- Boundaries
- Members of Parliament
- Elections
- Elections in the 1710s
- Elections in the 1720s
- Elections in the 1730s
- Elections in the 1740s
- Elections in the 1750s
- Elections in the 1760s
- Elections in the 1770s
- Elections in the 1780s
- Elections in the 1790s
- Elections in the 1800s
- Elections in the 1810s
- Elections in the 1830s
- Elections in the 1840s
- Elections in the 1850s
- Elections in the 1860s
- Elections in the 1870s
- Elections in the 1880s
- References
Boundaries
The historic port city of Bristol, is located in what is now the South West Region of England. It straddles the border between the historic geographical counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset. It was usually accounted as a Gloucestershire borough in the later part of the 19th and the 20th centuries.
The parliamentary borough of Bristol was represented in Parliament from the 13th century, as one of the most important population centres in the Kingdom. Namier and Brooke comment that in 1754 the city was the second largest in the Kingdom and had the third largest electorate for an urban seat.
From the United Kingdom general election, 1885 the city was divided into four single member seats. These were Bristol East, Bristol North, Bristol South and Bristol West.
Members of Parliament
The use of Roman numerals in the list below denotes different politicians of the same name, not that the individuals concerned would have used the Roman numerals as part of their name.
Non Partisan denotes that the politician concerned is not known to have been associated with a party (not necessarily that he was not). It should be noted that whilst Whig and Tory societies in the city continued to nominate candidates in the last half of the 18th century, the electoral labels used in Bristol had very little to do with what the MPs did in national politics.
Notes:-
Elections
During the existence of this constituency, Bristol was a city with the status of being a county of itself. That meant that the city was not subject to the administration of the officials of the geographic counties in which it was situated. In electoral terms it meant that the voters for the parliamentary borough included those qualified on the same 40 shilling freeholder franchise as that for a county constituency. Other electors qualified as freemen of the borough. These were the ancient right franchises, applicable to Bristol, preserved by the Reform Act 1832, which also introduced a broader occupation franchise for all borough constituencies.
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).
Namier and Brooke, in The House of Commons 1754-1790, estimated the electorate of Bristol to number about 5,000. When registration of electors was introduced in 1832 the city had 10,315 names on the electoral register.
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 Sedgwick 1715-1754, Namier and Brooke 1754-1790, Stooks Smith 1790-1832 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.