Downpatrick (UK Parliament constituency)

Downpatrick
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
1801 (1801)–1885 (1885)
Replaced by	East Down

Downpatrick was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency, in Ireland, returning one MP. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801.

Boundaries

This constituency was the Parliamentary borough of Downpatrick in County Down.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Note
	1801, January 1	Clotworthy Rowley		1801: Co-opted. Appointed Commissioner of Compensation.
	1801, March 10	Samuel Campbell Rowley
	1802, July 17	Charles Stewart Hawthorne
	1806, November 18	Edward Southwell Ruthven	Whig	1
	1807, May 22	John Wilson Croker	Tory	1
	1812, October 20	Charles Stewart Hawthorne	Whig	Appointed a Commissioner of Excise in Ireland
	1815, March 9	Viscount Glerawley	Tory
	1820, March 28	John Waring Maxwell	Tory
	1830, August 7	Edward Southwell Ruthven	Whig
	1832, December 13	John Waring Maxwell	Conservative 2
	1835, January 9	David Ker	Conservative
	1841, July 2	David Stewart Ker	Conservative
	1847, August 4	Richard Ker	Peelite	Resigned
	1851, August 8	Hon. Charles Stewart Hardinge	Conservative	Became the 2nd Viscount Hardinge, 24 September 1856
	1857, February 12	Richard Ker	Liberal 3
	1859, May 3	David Stewart Ker	Conservative	Resigned
	1867, August 5	William Keown	Conservative
	1874, February 2	John Mulholland	Conservative	Last MP for the constituency
1885		Constituency abolished

Supplemental Notes:-

• ¹ Stooks Smith suggests that after the 1806 election there was a petition, which led to Edward Southwell Ruthven (Whig) being unseated and John Wilson Croker {Tory} being declared duly elected. Walker does not make any reference to such a petition.
• ² Walker (like F. W. S. Craig in his compilations of election results for Great Britain) classifies Tory candidates as Conservatives from 1832. The name Conservative was gradually adopted as a description for the Tories. The party is deemed to be named Conservative from the 1835 general election.
• ³ Walker (like F. W. S. Craig in his compilations of election results for Great Britain) classifies Whig, Radical and similar candidates as Liberals from 1832. The name Liberal was gradually adopted as a description for the Whigs and politicians allied with them, before the formal creation of the Liberal Party shortly after the 1859 general election.

Elections

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

References

• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844-50), 2nd edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 3)