Subdivisions of Scotland Wigtownshire Created from Wigtownshire | Number of members One Replaced by Wigtownshire, Galloway | |
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Wigtownshire, was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. It was represented by one Member of Parliament.
Contents
The first British general election in Wigtownshire was in 1708. In 1707–08, members of the 1702–1707 Parliament of Scotland were co-opted to serve in the 1st Parliament of Great Britain. See Scottish representatives to the 1st Parliament of Great Britain, for further details.
In 1918 the Wigtownshire area was combined with Kirkcudbrightshire to form the Galloway constituency.
Boundaries
Wigtownshire was a Scottish shire (later known as a county), which had previously been represented by two commissioners in the former Parliament of Scotland. The constituenency included the whole shire, except that between 1708-1885 the burghs of Stranraer, New Galloway, Whithorn and Wigtown, formed part of the Wigtown Burghs constituency.
Elections in the 1870s
In the 1874 general election, Robert Vans-Agnew (Conservative) was returned unopposed.
Elections in the 1880s
In July 1886 Sir Herbert Maxwell accepted office as a Junior Lord of the Treasury and on a new election on 12 August 1886 was returned unopposed.
Elections in the 1910s
General Election 1914/15:
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
At the Wigtownshire by-election, 1915, Hon. Hew Hamilton Dalrymple (Conservative) was returned unopposed on 12 February 1915.