King's Lynn (UK Parliament constituency)

King's Lynn was a constituency in Norfolk, known as Lynn or Bishop's Lynn prior to 1537, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1885, and one member thereafter. Until 1918 it was a parliamentary borough, after which the name was transferred to a county constituency. It was abolished for the February 1974 general election.

Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister, was an MP for the constituency for almost the entirety of his parliamentary career, from 1702 to 1742.

Members of Parliament

MPs before 1640

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MPs 1640–1885

MPs 1885–1974

Notes

1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 "History of Parliament". History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 2011-11-19. 
2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-10-11. 
3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "History of Parliament". Retrieved 2011-10-11. 
4. ↑ Salisbury had been a peer, sitting in the House of Lords, since 1612, but became eligible to sit in the Commons after the House of Lords was abolished
5. ↑ Desborough was also elected for Somerset
6. ↑ Walpole was expelled from the House of Commons in January 1712 for "a high Breach of trust and notorious corruption". He was re-elected at the ensuing by-election, but the Commons resolved that having been expelled he was not capable of being re-elected to the House in the same session. Rather than awarding the election to his opponent, the election was declared void and a new writ was issued.
7. ↑ Styled Lord Walpole from 1806
8. ↑ Styled Lord Stanley from 1851

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

• representation reduced to one member

Sir William ffolkes

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

C.W. Bellairs

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 from 1914 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: Holcombe Ingleby
• Liberal:

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939/40:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Conservative: Somerset Arthur Maxwell
• Labour: Frederick Wise
• Liberal: R H Kerkham
• British Union: A E Ilett

References

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 
• The Constitutional Year Book for 1913 (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 2)