Western Division of Suffolk

West Suffolk
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
County Suffolk
18321885
Number of members Two
Replaced by Bury St Edmunds Stowmarket and Sudbury
Created from Suffolk

The Western Division of Suffolk was a two-member constituency to the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in the 1832 Reform Act and disestablished in 1885.

History

The seat saw a relatively long first existence under the Reform Act 1832 merely as a more representative division (with a total of four MPs) instead of two for the former entire county at large, which still allowed for double voting (or more) of those Forty Shilling Freeholders who also were householders or landlords of any particular boroughs within the county. This Act retained the four largest boroughs of the seven before 1832.

With two heirs to their title serving the seat were the Marquesses of Bristol, the Hervey family, major landowners in the county and the modern seat, at Ickworth, part of its grand house now being a luxury hotel.

Equally sweeping changes took place at the end of this period with the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 which here saw the establishment of three single-member constituencies covering much of the former half-county by widening the narrow and underpopulated dual-member seat of Bury St Edmunds: the other two seats being named the North-Western or 'Stowmarket' Division and the South or 'Sudbury' Division.

MPs

ElectionMember[1] PartyMemberParty [2]
1832 Charles Tyrrell Tory Sir Hyde Parker, Bt Tory
1835 Henry Wilson Liberal Robert Rushbrooke Conservative
1837 Robert Hart Logan Conservative
1838 by-election Harry Spencer Waddington Conservative
1845 by-election Philip Bennet Conservative
1859 The Earl Jermyn[n 1] Conservative William Parker Conservative
1864 by-election Lord Augustus Henry Charles Hervey Conservative
June 1875 by-election Fuller Maitland Wilson Conservative
October 1875 by-election Thomas Thornhill Conservative
1880 William Biddell Conservative
1885 constituency abolished

References

  1. This is the courtesy title given to the eldest son of the Marquess of Bristol as his main subsidiary title.
  1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 6)
  2. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 464–364. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
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