Bradford (UK Parliament constituency)

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Bradford was a parliamentary constituency in Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 until it was abolished for the 1885 general election.

It was then split into three new constituencies: Bradford Central, Bradford East, and Bradford West.

[edit] Boundaries

The constituency was based upon the town of Bradford, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It was enfranchised as a two member parliamentary borough from 1832. Before 1832 the area was only represented as part of the county constituency of Yorkshire. After 1832 the non-resident Forty Shilling Freeholders of the area continued to qualify for a county vote (initially in the West Riding of Yorkshire seat, and from 1865 in a division of the West Riding).

Bradford, as a new parliamentary borough, had no voters enfranchised under the ancient rights preserved by the Reform Act 1832. All voters qualified under the new uniform, borough householder franchise.

The area was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1847, covering the parishes of Bradford, Horton and Manningham. Bradford was expanded in 1882 to include Allerton, Bolton, Bowling, Heaton, Thornbury and Tyersall. However the parliamentary boundaries were not affected until the redistribution of 1885.

After the expanded borough was divided into three single member seats in 1885, Bradford became a county borough with the passing of the Local Government Act 1888. The county borough was granted city status by Letters Patent in 1897.

[edit] Members of Parliament

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1832	Ellis Cunliffe Lister	Liberal 1	John Hardy	Liberal 1
		1835				Conservative
		1837			William Busfield	Liberal 1
		1841	John Hardy	Conservative	William Cunliffe Lister	Liberal 1
		1841			William Busfield	Liberal 1
		1847	Thomas Perronet Thompson	Liberal 1
		1851			Robert Milligan	Liberal 1 [1]
		1852	Henry Wickham Wickham	Conservative
		1857			Thomas Perronet Thompson	Liberal 1 [2]
		1859			Titus Salt	Liberal 1
		1861			William Edward Forster	Liberal
		1867	Matthew William Thompson	Liberal
		1868	Henry William Ripley	Liberal
		1869	Edward Miall	Liberal
		1874	Henry William Ripley	Conservative
		1880	Alfred Illingworth	Liberal
		1885	constituency divided: see Bradford Central, Bradford East, and Bradford West

Note

• ¹ F. W. S. Craig classified Whig, Radical and similar candidates, as Liberals from 1832. Other sources may classify all these groups as Whigs. Use of the term Liberal gradually developed, as a description for the Whigs and allies, until the formal creation of the Liberal Party shortly after the United Kingdom general election, 1859.

[edit] References

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1977)
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page