East Gloucestershire (UK Parliament constituency)

East Gloucestershire
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
County	Gloucestershire
1832 (1832)–1885 (1885)
Number of members	Two
Created from	Gloucestershire

East Gloucestershire, formally the Eastern division of Gloucestershire and often referred to as Gloucestershire Eastern, was a parliamentary constituency in Gloucestershire, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) using the bloc vote system.

The constituency was created when the Great Reform Act split Gloucestershire into eastern and western divisions, with effect from the 1832 general election.

Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, East Gloucestershire was abolished from the 1885 election, when the former eastern and western divisions were replaced by several new single-seat county divisions: Cirencester, Forest of Dean, Stroud, Thornbury and Tewkesbury.

Boundaries

The constituency was the eastern division of the historic county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.

The place of election was at Gloucester. This was where the hustings were situated and electors voted by spoken declaration in public, before the secret ballot was introduced in 1872.

The qualification to vote in county elections, in the period when this constituency operated, was to be a 40 shilling freeholder.

The parliamentary borough constituencies of Cheltenham, Cirencester, Gloucester, Stroud, and Tewkesbury were all located in East Gloucestershire. Qualified freeholders from those boroughs could vote in the county division. Bristol was a "county of itself", so its freeholders qualified to vote in the borough, not in any county division.

Members of Parliament

Election	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
1832, 21 December		Sir Berkeley Guise, Bt [1]	Whig		Hon. Henry Reynolds-Moreton	Whig
1834, 7 August		Sir Christopher William Codrington [2]	Tory
1835, 10 January			Conservative		Hon. Augustus Moreton	Whig
1841, 5 July					Hon. Francis Charteris	Conservative
1847, 27 February					The Marquess of Worcester [3]	Conservative
1854, 9 January					Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt [4]	Conservative
1854, 19 December					Robert Stayner Holford [5]	Conservative
1864, 12 July		Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt	Conservative
1872, 11 March					John Reginald Yorke	Conservative
1885	constituency abolished

1. ^ Died 23 July 1834.
2. ^ Died 24 June 1864.
3. ^ Succeeded as the 8th Duke of Beaufort, 17 November 1853.
4. ^ Died 29 November 1854.
5. ^ Vacated seat 1872.

Election results

Elections off the 1830s

General Election 21 December 1832: East Gloucestershire (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Sir Berkeley Guise	3,311		N/A
	Whig	Henry Reynolds-Moreton	3,184		N/A
	Tory	Christopher William Codrington	2,672		N/A
Turnout			9,167 (5,753 voted)		N/A
Registered electors			6,437

• Death of Guise, on 23 July 1834

By-Election 7 August 1834: East Gloucestershire
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Tory	Christopher William Codrington	2,779		N/A
	Whig	C.H.T. Leigh	2,709		N/A
Turnout			5,488		N/A
Majority			70		N/A
	Tory gain from Whig		Swing	N/A
Registered electors			6,569

Election of 10 January 1835

• Sir Christopher William Codrington
• Augustus Henry Moreton

Election of 5 July 1841

• Sir Christopher William Codrington
• Francis Wemyss Charteris Douglas

Election of 27 February 1847

• Sir Christopher William Codrington
• Marquess of Worcester

Election of 1852

• Sir Christopher William Codrington
• Marquess of Worcester (succeeded as Duke of Beaufort 17 November 1853)

By-election of 9 January 1854

• Sir Michael Hicks Hicks Beach (died 29 November 1854)

By-election of 19 December 1854

• Robert Stayner Holford

Election of 1857

• Sir Christopher William Codrington
• Robert Stayner Holford

Election of 1859

• Sir Christopher William Codrington (died 24 June 1864)
• Robert Stayner Holford

By-election of 12 July 1864

• Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach

Election of 1865

• Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach
• Robert Stayner Holford (vacated seat 1872)

By-election of 11 March 1872

• John Reginald Yorke

Election of 1874

• Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach
• John Reginald Yorke

Election of 1880

• Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach
• John Reginald Yorke

References

• 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)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "G" (part 1)