East Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)

East Cumberland
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1832–1885
Number of members	two
Replaced by	Cockermouth, Eskdale and Penrith
Created from	Cumberland

East Cumberland is a former county constituency in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) by the bloc vote system of election.

Boundaries

In 1832 the historic county of Cumberland, in north west England, was split for parliamentary purposes into two county divisions. These were the East division (with a place of election at Carlisle) and West Cumberland (where voting took place at Cockermouth). Each division returned two members to Parliament.

The only parliamentary borough included in the East division, between 1832-1885, (whose non-resident 40 shilling freeholders voted in the county constituency) was Carlisle. (Source: Stooks Smith).

History

The first two Members of Parliament for this division were the last pair of representatives for the undivided county before the 1832 general election.

On the formation of Earl Grey's administration in 1830 Sir James Graham had received the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, with a seat in the cabinet. He resigned over the Irish Church question in 1834, and eventually joined the Conservatives in 1837. His former constituents did not re-elect Sir James when he sought election as a Tory at the 1837 general election.

The division proved to be favourable to the Liberal Party as no Conservative was elected until after the Reform Act 1867 and the party never held both seats simultaneously. In 1868 and again in 1880 a Conservative MP was returned.

The Howard family (whose head was the Earl of Carlisle) seem to have had influence in the constituency. The sixth son of the 6th Earl of Carlisle, the Honourable Charles Howard, represented the division from 1840 until his death in 1879. He was joined by Edward Howard in the representation of the constituency in 1876. Charles Howard's son George was the third Howard to sit for the constituency.

In 1885 this division was abolished, when the East and West Cumberland county divisions were replaced by four new single-member county constituencies. These were Cockermouth, Egremont (the Western division), Eskdale (Northern division) and Penrith (Mid division). In addition there were two remaining Cumberland borough constituencies; Carlisle and Whitehaven.

Members of Parliament

Constituency created (1832)

	First member	First party	Second member	Second party
1832	William Blamire	Liberal	Sir James Graham, Bt ^a	Liberal
1836 by-election	William James	Liberal	Sir James Graham, Bt ^a	Liberal
1837			Francis Aglionby	Liberal
1840 by-election			Hon. Charles Howard	Liberal
1847	William Marshall	Liberal
1868	William Nicholson Hodgson	Conservative
1876 by-election	Stafford Howard	Liberal
1879 by-election			George Howard	Liberal
1880			Sir Richard Musgrave, Bt	Conservative
1881 by-election			George Howard	Liberal
1885	Constituency abolished

Notes:-

^a Graham contested the United Kingdom general election, 1837 as a Conservative candidate, although he lost.

Election results

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

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 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)
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)
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 6)

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