Norfolk (UK Parliament constituency)
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Norfolk_(UK_Parliament_constituency)".

Norfolk was a County 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 1832. It was represented by two Members of Parliament. In 1832 the county was divided for parliamentary purposes into two new two member divisions - East Norfolk and West Norfolk.

Boundaries

The constituency comprised the whole of the historic county of Norfolk, in East England, except for the parliamentary boroughs of Castle Rising, Great Yarmouth, King's Lynn, Norwich and Thetford.

Members of Parliament

Before 1660

• 1586: Christopher Heydon (although defeated, the Privy Council ordered a fresh poll, which Heydon won; the House of Commons then challenged the Council's right to interfere in elections, and the second poll was quashed)¹
• 1588: Christopher Heydon¹

1660-1832

• The constituency was abolished in 1832, being replaced by Norfolk East and Norfolk West Constituenceis

Elections

The county franchise, from 1430, was held by the adult male owners of freehold land valued at 40 shillings or more. The bloc vote electoral system was used in two seat elections and first past the post for single member by-elections. Each elector had as many votes as there were seats to be filled. Votes had to be cast by a spoken declaration, in public, at the hustings, which took place in Norwich. The expense and difficulty of voting at only one location in the county, together with the lack of a secret ballot contributed to the corruption and intimidation of electors, which was widespread in the unreformed British political system.

The expense, to candidates and their supporters, of contested elections encouraged the leading families of the county to agree on the candidates to be returned unopposed whenever possible. Contested county elections were therefore unusual. There was no single dominant interest or stable coalition in Norfolk, so there were more contests in the eighteenth century than in most counties. The leading Whig families, in the early eighteenth century, were those of Walpole and Townshend. The most important Tory interests were those of the Wodehouse and Astley families. However Sir Jacob Astley defected to the Whigs before the 1715 election.

Note on percentage change calculations: Where there was only one candidate of a party in successive elections, for the same number of seats, change is calculated on the party percentage vote. Where there was more than one candidate, in one or both successive elections for the same number of seats, then change is calculated on the individual percentage vote.

Note on sources: The information for the election results given below is taken from Sedgwick 1715-1754, Stooks Smith 1715-1754, Namier and Brooke 1754-1790 and Stooks Smith 1790-1832.

Election results 1710-1832

Elections in the 1710s

• Note (1710): Stooks Smith, whose compilation of results normally starts with the 1715 general election, is the source for this result. He gives no party classification for the candidates, but for three of them the position is obvious from the survey of Norfolk politics in The History of Parliament 1715-1754. Windham was probably a Whig, but this has not yet been confirmed.

• Note (1713): No source for the full result of this election has yet been located. Sir Jacob Astley was re-elected as a Tory but defected to the Whigs during the Parliament.

Elections in the 1720s

• Creation of Hobart as Lord Hobart and of Coke as Lord Lovel.

Elections in the 1730s

• Death of Wodehouse

Elections in the 1740s

Elections in the 1750s

Elections in the 1760s

• Succession of Townshend as the 4th Viscount Townshend

• Note (1768): Stooks Smith has different figures for Astley (2,977) and Coke (2,510).

Elections in the 1770s

• Death of Coke

Elections in the 1780s

Elections in the 1790s

Elections in the 1800s

• Creation of Wodehouse as 1st Baron Wodehouse

• Note (1802): Stooks Smith records that the polls were open for eight days

• Note (1806): Stooks Smith records that the polls were open for six days
• Election declared void

Elections in the 1810s

• Death of Astley

• Note (1814): Stooks Smith records that the polls were open for five days.

Elections in the 1820s

Elections in the 1830s

• Constituency divided following the Reform Act 1832, with effect from the United Kingdom general election, 1832.

See also

• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies

Sources

• Historical list of MPs

References

• 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)
• The House of Commons 1715-1754, by Romney Sedgwick (HMSO 1970)
• The House of Commons 1754-1790, by Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke (HMSO 1964)
• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844-50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)) out of copyright
• 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)