Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency)
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Cambridge University was a university constituency electing two members to the British House of Commons, from 1603 to 1950.

Boundaries, Electorate and Election Systems

This university constituency was created by a Royal Charter of 1603. It was abolished in 1950 by the Representation of the People Act 1948.

The constituency was not a physical area. Its electorate consisted of the graduates of the University. Before 1918 the franchise was restricted to male graduates with a Doctorate or MA degree. Sedgwick records that the electors numbered 377, in 1727. For the 1754-1790 period Namier and Brooke estimated the electorate at about 500.

The constituency returned two Members of Parliament. Before 1918 they were elected using the bloc vote. From 1918, the MPs were elected by the Single Transferable Vote method of Proportional Representation.

History

In the early eighteenth century the University electorate were mostly Tory. However the Whig ministers of King George I were able to persuade the King to use the royal prerogative power to confer doctorates, so from 1727 the University returned Whig representatives. Oxford University, where the King did not have the same prerogative power, remained safely Tory (indeed often Jacobite) in sympathies.

The leading mid-eighteenth century Whig politician, the Duke of Newcastle, was for many years (1748-1768) Chancellor of the University. He "recommended" suitable candidates to represent the institution in Parliament. This practise continued under his successor, another Whig Duke and Prime Minister (1768-1770), the Duke of Grafton (Chancellor 1768-1811). However Grafton was less prominent as a politician than Newcastle had been and less attentive to the University. As a result some of Grafton's choices were criticised, notably that of the Duke's friend Richard Croftes.

Croftes lacked the sort of characteristics a University MP usually had. He was neither the son of a peer (like the Hon. John Townshend, the Marquess of Granby or Grafton's own son the Earl of Euston), a distinguished lawyer-politician (such as William de Grey, James Mansfield or Sir Vicary Gibbs) nor a prominent political figure (like William Pitt or Lord Henry Petty).

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Pittite/Tory candidates began to be elected. At the start of this political development some of the Pittite MPs, like William Pitt himself (MP for the University 1784-1806), called themselves Whigs. As time passed the division between the nineteenth century Tory and Whig parties became clearer.

The future Prime Minister, the Viscount Palmerston, retained his seat as a Whig after he left the Tory ranks. However by 1831 he was defeated. After the Viscount ceased to represent the University he was elected by a territorial constituency. No further non Tory/Conservative MP was to represent the University until the 1920s.

Even after the introduction of the single transferable vote in 1918, most Cambridge University MPs continued to be Conservatives.

Members of Parliament

This is a list of people who have been elected to represent this University in the Parliament of the United Kingdom,

1660 to 1784

1784 to 1950

Notes:-

• ¹ Pitt called himself a Whig, but is usually retrospectively regarded as a Tory since most of his followers (whether their background was in the Whig or Tory tradition) came to call themselves the Tory Party in the decade after Pitt's death.
• ² Jebb died on 10 December 1905 - seat vacant at dissolution.
• ³ Co. is an abbreviation for Coalition.
• ⁴ Ind. is an abbreviation for Independent.
• ⁵ Butler died on 2 May 1929 - seat vacant at dissolution.

Elections before 1715

Election by Block Vote 1715-1918

Elections in the 1710s

Elections in the 1720s

• Death of Paske

• Note (1722): Stooks Smith gives Willoughby 319 votes.

• Note (1727): Unusually, for a pre-1832 election, Stooks Smith records the total number of electors for the constituency as well as the number who voted; so a turnout figure can be calculated.

Elections in the 1730s

• Note (1734): Goodrick was an Opposition Whig

Elections in the 1740s

• Seat vacated when Finch was appointed a Groom of the Bedchamber

Elections in the 1750s

• Seat vacated when Finch was appointed to an office

Elections in the 1760s

• Seat vacated when Finch was appointed to an office

Elections in the 1770s

• Seat vacated on the appointment of Yorke as Lord Chancellor

• Seat vacated on the appointment of de Grey as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas

• Succession of Granby as the 4th Duke of Rutland

Elections in the 1780s

• Note (1780): Stooks Smith records Townshend as getting 237 votes.
• Seat vacated on Townshend being appointed to an office

• Seat vacated on Townshend being appointed to an office

• Seat vacated on Mansfield being appointed as Solicitor General for England and Wales

• Note The 1784 election was broadly fought as a contest between the new government of Pitt and the ousted Fox-North Coalition, in which boh Townshend and Mansfield had held office.

Elections in the 1790s

• Note (1790): Pary labels in the 1790-1832 period follow Stooks Smith, who classifies Pitt and his Pittite supporters as Tories without regard to what they would have actually called themselves.
• Seat vacated on Pitt being appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports

• Seat vacated on Euston being appointed to an office

Elections in the 1800s

• Seat vacated on Pitt being appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer

• Death of Pitt

• Palmerston was a Peer of Ireland

Elections in the 1810s

• Succession of Euston as the 4th Duke of Grafton

• Seat vacated on Gibbs being appointed a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas

Elections in the 1820s

• Death of Smyth