Buckinghamshire (UK Parliament constituency)


Buckinghamshire is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885.
Its most prominent member was Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Boundaries and boundary changes

This county constituency consisted of the historic county of Buckinghamshire, in south-eastern England to the north-west of the modern Greater London region. Its southern boundary was the River Thames. See History of Buckinghamshire for maps of the historic county and details about it.
The county returned two knights of the shire until 1832 and three 1832-1885. The place of election for the county was at the county town of Aylesbury. Aylesbury replaced Buckingham as the county town in 1529.
The county, up to 1885, also contained the borough constituencies of Amersham, Aylesbury, Buckingham, Chipping Wycombe, Great Marlow and Wendover.
In 1885 the county was split into three single-member county divisions. These were Aylesbury, Buckingham and Wycombe.
Aylesbury, Buckingham, Chipping Wycombe and Great Marlow were disenfranchised as borough constituencies. There were no remaining Parliamentary boroughs in the county from 1885.

Members of Parliament

Preliminary note: The English civil year started on 25 March until 1752. The year used in the lists of Parliaments in this article have been converted to the new style where necessary. Old style dates would be a year earlier than the new style for days between 1 January and 24 March. No attempt has been made to compensate for the eleven days which did not occur in September 1752 in both England and Scotland as well as other British controlled territories, so as to bring the British Empire fully in line with the Gregorian calendar.
Constituency created'' : See Simon de Montfort's Parliament for further details. Knights of the shire are known to have been summoned to most Parliaments from 1290 and to every one from 1320.

Knights of the shire 1290–1660

Knights of the shire 1660–1832

Knights of the shire 1832–1885

Elections

In multi-member elections the bloc voting system was used. Voters could cast a vote for one or two candidates, as they chose. The leading candidates with the largest number of votes were elected. In 1868 the limited vote was introduced, which restricted an individual elector to using one or two votes, in elections to fill three seats.
In by-elections, to fill a single seat, the first past the post system applied.
After 1832, when registration of voters was introduced, a turnout figure is given for contested elections. In three-member elections, when the exact number of participating voters is unknown, this is calculated by dividing the number of votes by three and two thereafter. To the extent that electors did not use all their votes this will be an underestimate of turnout.
Where a party had more than one candidate in one or both of a pair of successive elections change is calculated for each individual candidate, otherwise change is based on the party vote.
Candidates for whom no party has been identified are classified as Non Partisan. The candidate might have been associated with a party or faction in Parliament or consider himself to belong to a particular political tradition. Political parties before the 19th century were not as cohesive or organised as they later became. Contemporary commentators in the 18th century did not necessarily agree who the party supporters were. The traditional parties, which had arisen in the late 17th century, became increasingly irrelevant to politics in the 18th century, although for some contests in some constituencies party labels were still used. It was only towards the end of the century that party labels began to acquire some meaning again, although this process was by no means complete for several more generations.'
Sources: The results for elections 1660-1790 were taken from the History of Parliament Trust publications. The results are based on Stooks Smith from 1790 until the 1832 United Kingdom general election and Craig from 1832. Where Stooks Smith gives additional information after 1832 this is indicated in a note.
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Elections in the 1660-70s