Western Division of Suffolk
| West Suffolk | |
|---|---|
|
Former County constituency for the House of Commons | |
| County | Suffolk |
| 1832–1885 | |
| 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
| Election | Member[1] | Party | Member | Party [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
- ↑ This is the courtesy title given to the eldest son of the Marquess of Bristol as his main subsidiary title.
- ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 6)
- ↑ 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.