East Gloucestershire (UK Parliament constituency)

East Gloucestershire
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
County Gloucestershire
1832–1885
Number of members Two
Created from Gloucestershire

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 several new single-seat county divisions: Cirencester, Forest of Dean, Stroud, Thornbury and Tewkesbury.

Boundaries

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

Election1st Member1st Party2nd Member2nd Party
1832, 21 December Sir Berkeley Guise, Bt [1] Whig Hon. Henry Reynolds-Moreton Whig
1834, 7 August Sir Christopher William Codrington [2] Tory
1835, 10 January Conservative Hon. Augustus Moreton Whig
1841, 5 July Hon. Francis Charteris Conservative
1847, 27 February The Marquess of Worcester [3] Conservative
1854, 9 January Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt [4] Conservative
1854, 19 December Robert Stayner Holford [5] Conservative
1864, 12 July Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt Conservative
1872, 11 March John Reginald Yorke Conservative
1885 constituency abolished
  1. ↑ Died 23 July 1834.
  2. ↑ Died 24 June 1864.
  3. ↑ Succeeded as the 8th Duke of Beaufort, 17 November 1853.
  4. ↑ Died 29 November 1854.
  5. ↑ Vacated seat 1872.

Election results

Elections off the 1830s

General Election 21 December 1832: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Whig Sir Berkeley Guise 3,311 N/A
Whig Henry Reynolds-Moreton 3,184 N/A
Tory Christopher William Codrington 2,672 N/A
Turnout 9,167 (5,753 voted) N/A
Registered electors 6,437
By-Election 7 August 1834: East Gloucestershire
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Tory Christopher William Codrington 2,779 N/A
Whig C.H.T. Leigh 2,709 N/A
Turnout 5,488 N/A
Majority 70 N/A
Tory gain from Whig Swing N/A
Registered electors 6,569

Election of 10 January 1835

Election of 5 July 1841

Election of 27 February 1847

Election of 1852

By-election of 9 January 1854

By-election of 19 December 1854

Election of 1857

Election of 1859

By-election of 12 July 1864

Election of 1865

By-election of 11 March 1872

Election of 1874

Election of 1880

References