The constituency elected a borough representative for over 300 years, until it was disenfranchised as a result of an electoral corruption in 1852. The constituency was re-established in 1885.
Prior to 1997 the St Albans parliamentary constituency included the town of Harpenden, and was historically held by the Conservative Party. Peter Lilley was a notable recent Conservative MP for the constituency. Following boundary changes in 1997, he moved to contest the newly created neighbouring constituency of Hitchin and Harpenden.
Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [2]
F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
