Tower Hamlets (UK Parliament constituency)
| Tower Hamlets | |
|---|---|
|
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons | |
| County | Middlesex |
| 1832–1885 | |
| Number of members | Two |
| Replaced by | Bow and Bromley, Limehouse, Mile End, Poplar, St George, Stepney and Whitechapel |
| Created from | Middlesex |
Tower Hamlets was a parliamentary borough constituency in Middlesex, England from 1832 to 1885. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency was one of five new parliamentary boroughs in the metropolitan area of London enfranchised by the Reform Act 1832.
The constituency consisted of a number of communities in the East End of London, between the City of London and the eastern boundary of Middlesex.
Boundaries
Boundaries 1832–1868
The boundaries of the parliamentary borough were defined by the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 as "The several Divisions of the Liberty of the Tower, and the Tower Division of Ossulston Hundred".[1]
It comprised the following civil parishes and places:[2]
Boundaries 1868–1885
The Representation of the People Act 1867 widened the parliamentary franchise and also effected a redistribution of seats. This, along with a rapidly increasing population in the East End, resulted in the existing parliamentary borough of Tower Hamlets being reduced in size, with the parishes of Bethnal Green, Hackney and Shoreditch forming a separate Hackney constituency. The reformed Tower Hamlets was defined as comprising:[3]
- The Parish of St. George's-in-the-East
- The Hamlet of Mile End Old Town
- The Poplar Union (Bow, Bromley and Poplar)
- The Stepney Union (Limehouse, Ratcliffe, Shadwell and Wapping)
- The Whitechapel Union (Holy Trinity Minories, Mile End New Town, Norton Folgate, Old Artillery Ground, St Botolph Without Aldgate, St Katherine by the Tower, Spitalfields, Whitechapel.)
- The Tower of London.[2]
Redistribution
In 1885 the parliamentary borough was split into seven single-member divisions. These were Bow and Bromley, Limehouse, Mile End, Poplar, St George, Stepney and Whitechapel.
Members of Parliament
| Election | First member [4] | First party | Second member | Second party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | Stephen Lushington | Liberal | Sir William Clay, Bt | Liberal | ||
| 1841 | Charles Richard Fox | Liberal | ||||
| 1847 | George Thompson | Liberal | ||||
| 1852 | Charles Salisbury Butler | Liberal | ||||
| 1857 | Rt Hon. Acton Smee Ayrton | Liberal | ||||
| 1868 | Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda | Liberal | ||||
| 1874 | Charles Thomson Ritchie | Conservative | ||||
| 1880 | James Bryce | Liberal | ||||
| 1885 | Constituency abolished | |||||
Elections
Turnout, in multi-member elections, is estimated by dividing the number of votes by two. To the extent that electors did not use both their votes, the figure given will be an underestimate.
Change is calculated for individual candidates, when a party had more than one candidate in an election or the previous one. When a party had only one candidate in an election and the previous one change is calculated for the party vote.
References
- ↑ Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will.4 c.64), Schedule O
- 1 2 Youngs, Frederic A, Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. p. 749. ISBN 0-901050-67-9.
- ↑ Representation of the People Act 1867 c.102, Schedule C
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "T" (part 2)
Sources
- Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
- British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977)
- Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume I 1832-1885, edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
- Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume II 1886-1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1978)