Tower Hamlets (UK Parliament constituency)

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Tower Hamlets
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
CountyMiddlesex
18321885
SeatsTwo
Created fromMiddlesex
Replaced byBow and Bromley, Limehouse, Mile End, Poplar, St George, Stepney and Whitechapel

Tower Hamlets was a parliamentary borough constituency in, Middlesex, England from 1832 to 1885. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency was one of five new parliamentary boroughs in the metropolitan area of London enfranchised by the Reform Act 1832.

The constituency consisted of a number of communities in the East End of London, between the City of London and the eastern boundary of Middlesex.

Boundaries

Boundaries 1832–1868

The boundaries of the parliamentary borough were defined by the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 as "The several Divisions of the Liberty of the Tower, and the Tower Division of Ossulston Hundred".[1]

It comprised the following civil parishes and places:[2]

Boundaries 1868–1885

Tower Hamlets in the Metropolitan area, showing boundaries used from 1868 to 1885.

The Representation of the People Act 1867 widened the parliamentary franchise and also effected a redistribution of seats. This, along with a rapidly increasing population in the East End, resulted in the existing parliamentary borough of Tower Hamlets being reduced in size, with the parishes of Bethnal Green, Hackney and Shoreditch forming a separate Hackney constituency. The reformed Tower Hamlets was defined as comprising:[3]

  • The Parish of St. George's-in-the-East
  • The Hamlet of Mile End Old Town
  • The Poplar Union (Bow, Bromley and Poplar)
  • The Stepney Union (Limehouse, Ratcliffe, Shadwell and Wapping)
  • The Whitechapel Union (Holy Trinity Minories, Mile End New Town, Norton Folgate, Old Artillery Ground, St Botolph Without Aldgate, St Katherine by the Tower, Spitalfields, Whitechapel.)
  • The Tower of London.[2]

Redistribution

In 1885 the parliamentary borough was split into seven single-member divisions. These were Bow and Bromley, Limehouse, Mile End, Poplar, St George, Stepney and Whitechapel.

Members of Parliament

Election First member [4] First party Second member Second party
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" | style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" rowspan="4"| 1832 Stephen Lushington Liberal Sir William Clay, Bt Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" | 1841 Charles Richard Fox Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" | 1847 George Thompson Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" rowspan="2"| 1852 Charles Salisbury Butler Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" rowspan="2"| 1857 Rt Hon. Acton Smee Ayrton Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" rowspan="2"| 1868 Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" rowspan="2"| 1874 Charles Thomson Ritchie Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" | 1880 James Bryce Liberal
1885 Constituency abolished

Elections

Turnout, in multi-member elections, is estimated by dividing the number of votes by two. To the extent that electors did not use both their votes, the figure given will be an underestimate.

Change is calculated for individual candidates, when a party had more than one candidate in an election or the previous one. When a party had only one candidate in an election and the previous one change is calculated for the party vote.

References

  1. ^ Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will.4 c.64), Schedule O
  2. ^ a b Youngs, Frederic A, Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. p. 749. ISBN 0-901050-67-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ Representation of the People Act 1867 c.102, Schedule C
  4. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "T" (part 2)

Sources

  • 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)
  • 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)