Abingdon (UK Parliament constituency)

Abingdon was one of three English parliamentary boroughs enfranchised by Queen Mary I as anomalous single-member constituencies, and held its first Parliamentary election in 1558. The borough consisted of part of two parishes in the market town of Abingdon, then the county town of Berkshire. The right to vote was exercised by all inhabitant householders paying scot and lot and not receiving alms; the highest recorded number of votes to be cast before 1832 was 253, at the general election of 1806.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Abingdon's voters seem always to have maintained their independence, and the constituency never came under the influence of a "patron" who assumed the right to choose the MP. Nevertheless, this did not always guarantee a pure election, and Porritt records that Abingdon offers the earliest case he was able to trace of a candidate trying to bribe voters with the promise of official office, later one of the most widespread abuses in English elections. In 1698, the defeated candidate, William Hucks, petitioned against the election of Sir Simon Harcourt, but during the hearing of the case it emerged that Hucks had promised that should he be elected an MP he would be made a Commissioner of the Excise, in which case he would use that power to appoint several of the voters to well-paid excise posts. The petition was dismissed and Hucks was committed to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms. (But ten years later, defeated again by Harcourt at the election of 1708, Hucks petitioned once more, on grounds of intimidation and other illegal practices, and this time Harcourt was ejected from his seat and Hucks declared to have been duly elected. Harcourt complained that the decision was a partisan one – which would have been by no means unusual at the period – "insisting to the last that he was the legal member, by a clear majority, by the most fair estimation".)[5]

In 1831, the population of the borough was approximately 5,300, and contained 1,192 houses. This was sufficient for Abingdon to retain its MP under the Great Reform Act. (Indeed, it would have been big enough to retain two MPs had it had them, but there was no question of its representation being increased.) Its boundaries were unaltered, and under the reformed franchise 300 of the residents were qualified to vote.

In 1885 the borough constituency was abolished and the town was moved into a new county, The Northern or Abingdon Division of Berkshire. This constituency consisted of the northern part of the historic county, and as well as Abingdon included the towns of Wantage and Wallingford; it was predominantly agricultural at first, although its character changed during the 20th century with the growth of light industry round Abingdon, and it was generally a safe Conservative seat. This constituency survived essentially intact, with only minor boundary changes, until the 1983 general election, by which time it was simply called Abingdon County Constituency.

Changes in administrative boundaries during the 1970s moved most of the northern part of the historic county of Berkshire, including Abingdon, into the county of Oxfordshire. These changes were reflected in the constituency boundary changes introduced in 1983, and the Abingdon constituency was divided; most of its electors were placed in the new Wantage constituency and a significant minority including electors in the town of Abingdon were placed in the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency. A small part to the south of the constituency had been retained within Berkshire and this area was transferred to Newbury.

Sources 1754–1784: Namier and Brooke; (parties) Stooks Smith. Positive swing is from Whig to Tory. Sources 1885–1900: House of Commons 1901.

• Seat vacated on appointment of Morton as Chief Justice of Chester

• On petition Nathaniel Bayly seated in place of John Morton, 8 February 1770

• Tory hold from previous general election; Tory gain from Whig, from change on petition.
• Election declared void, 6 March 1775

• Change is calculated from the previous general election.
• Resignation of Mayor.

• Death of Howorth

Elections in the 1880s

1880 general election: Abingdon[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Creemer Clarke	428	52.6	−4.3
	Conservative	Alban Gibbs	386	47.4	+4.3
Majority			42	5.2	−8.6
Turnout			814	91.5	+1.7
Registered electors			890
	Liberal hold		Swing	−4.3

Purvis

1885 general election: Abingdon[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Philip Wroughton	4,245	58.7	+11.3
	Liberal	Robert Purvis	2,986	41.3	−11.3
Majority			1,259	17.4	N/A
Turnout			7,231	82.3	−9.2
Registered electors			8,791
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+11.3

1886 general election: Abingdon[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Philip Wroughton	3,899	67.1	+8.4
	Liberal	Edward Colston Keevil	1,910	32.9	−8.4
Majority			1,989	34.2	+16.8
Turnout			5,809	66.1	−16.2
Registered electors			8,791
	Conservative hold		Swing	+8.4

Elections in the 1900s

1900 general election: Abingdon[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Archie Loyd	Unopposed
Registered electors			8,698
	Conservative hold

Edward Strauss

1906 general election: Abingdon[22]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Edward Strauss	3,943	51.1	New
	Conservative	Harold Henderson	3,767	48.9	N/A
Majority			176	2.2	N/A
Turnout			7,710	86.9	N/A
Registered electors			8,875
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	N/A

• List of UK Parliamentary constituencies 1955-1974 by region

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972, compiled and edited by F. W. S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1977)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1974)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1977)
• D. Brunton & D. H. Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The House of Commons 1754–1790 (London: HMSO 1964)
• J. E. Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• Robert H O'Byrne, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland, Part II – Berkshire (London: John Ollivier, 1848)
• T. H. B. Oldfield, The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816)
• Henry Pelling, Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 (London: Macmillan, 1967)
• J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 – England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)
• Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50; 2nd edition edited in one volume by F.W.S. Craig, Political Reference Publications, 1973)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol I" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 1)