Dorset was a county constituency covering Dorset in southern England , which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs), traditionally known as knights of the shire , to the House of Commons of England from 1290 until 1707, to the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until 1832.
The Great Reform Act increased its representation to three MPs with effect from the 1832 general election , and under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 the constituency was abolished for the 1885 election , and replaced by four single-member divisions: North Dorset , South Dorset , East Dorset and West Dorset .
When elections were contested, the bloc vote system was used, but contests were rare. Even after the 1832 Reforms, only three of the nineteen elections before 1885 were contested; in the others, the nominated candidates were returned without a vote.[1]
Members of Parliament [ edit ] Before 1640 [ edit ] MPs 1640–1832 [ edit ] Year First member First party Second member Second party April 1640 Lord Digby Royalist Richard Rogers Royalist November 1640 1641 John Browne Parliamentarian September 1642 Rogers disabled from sitting - seat vacant 1645 Sir Thomas Trenchard December 1648 Trenchard did not sit after Pride's Purge - seat vacant 1653 William Sydenham John Bingham Dorset had six seats in the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate 1654 William Sydenham , John Bingham , Sir Walter Earle , John Fitzjames , John Trenchard , Henry Henley 1656 William Sydenham , John Bingham , Robert Coker , John Fitzjames , John Trenchard , James Dewey Dorset reverted to two seats in the Third Protectorate Parliament January 1659 Sir Walter Earle John Bingham May 1659 Not represented in the restored Rump April 1660 John Fitzjames Robert Coker Apr 1661 John Strode Giles Strangways 1675 Lord Digby 1677 Thomas Browne 1679 Thomas Strangways I Thomas Freke 1701 Thomas Trenchard 1702 Thomas Chafin 1711 Richard Bingham 1713 George Chafin Thomas Strangways II Jan 1727 George Pitt Sep 1727 Edmund Morton Pleydell 1747 George Pitt Tory later Independent 1754 Humphrey Sturt 1774 Hon. George Pitt 1784 Francis John Browne 1790 William Morton Pitt Tory [6] 1806 Edward Berkeley Portman I Whig [6] 1823 Edward Portman II Whig [6] 1826 Henry Bankes Tory [6] May. 1831 John Calcraft Whig [6] Sep. 1831 Lord Ashley Tory [6] 1832 Representation increased to 3 members
MPs 1832–1885 [ edit ] Election results [ edit ] Elections in the 1830s [ edit ] Calcraft's death caused a by-election.
Elections in the 1840s [ edit ] Ashley-Cooper and Sturt both resigned by accepting the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds causing a by-election.
Elections in the 1850s [ edit ] Bankes was appointed Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces , requiring a by-election.
Bankes' death caused a by-election.
Elections in the 1860s [ edit ] Seymer resigned, causing a by-election.
Elections in the 1870s [ edit ] Sturt was elevated to the peerage, becoming Lord Alington.
Elections in the 1880s [ edit ] ^ a b c d Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 376–377. ISBN 0-900178-26-4 . ^ a b c "HAMELY (HAMYLYN), Sir John (aft.1324-1399), of Wimborne St. Giles, Dorset" . History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 30 May 2013 . ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa "History of Parliament" . Retrieved 9 September 2011 . ^ a b "CARENT, William (d.1476), of Toomer in Henstridge, Som" . History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 28 May 2013 . ^ a b c "BROWNING, John (C.1369-1416), of Melbury Sampford, Dorset and Leigh near Deerhurst, Glos. | History of Parliament Online" . ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Stooks Smith, Henry. (1973) [1844-1850]. Craig, F. W. S. (ed.). The Parliaments of England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. pp. 81–82 . ISBN 0-900178-13-2 . ^ Churton, Edward (1836). The Assembled Commons or Parliamentary Biographer: 1836 . p. 144. ^ Mosse, Richard Bartholomew (1838). The Parliamentary Guide: a concise history of the Members of both Houses, etc . pp. 222, 228. Retrieved 21 April 2018 . ^ Mosse, Richard Bartholomew (1837). The parliamentary guide, a concise biography of the members of both houses of parliament . p. 220 . Retrieved 21 April 2018 . ^ Crosby, George (1838). Crosby's General Political Reference Book: containing the historical origin of the British parliament; an authentic result of all the contested elections in Great Britain and Ireland, for nearly a century ... and an alphabetical list of the representatives for each party in the House of Commons, etc . George Crosby. p. 112. Retrieved 21 April 2018 . ^ "Dorset Chronicle" . 19 March 1857. p. 9. Retrieved 8 July 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive . ^ a b c Farrell, Stephen. "Dorset" . The History of Parliament . Retrieved 1 May 2020 . ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Craig, F. W. S. , ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. pp. 380–381. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3 . ^ "Representation of the County" . Western Gazette . 21 January 1876. pp. 6–8. Retrieved 29 December 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive . References [ edit ] 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) [1] F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989) Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988) J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949) J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965) Heywood Townshend, Historical Collections:: or, An exact Account of the Proceedings of the Four last Parliaments of Q. Elizabeth (1680) [2] British History Online - 'List of members nominated for Parliament of 1653', Diary of Thomas Burton esq, volume 4: March - April 1659 (1828) , Willis, Browne (1750). Notitia Parliamentaria, Part II: A Series or Lists of the Representatives in the several Parliaments held from the Reformation 1541, to the Restoration 1660 ... London. p. 1 . Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 2)