South Lancashire (UK Parliament constituency)

South Lancashire
South Lancashire
Former County constituency; for the House of Commons
	Context: 1832-1868. Extract from 1837 result: the southern 'doubly' blue area for this election.
County	Lancashire
1832–1868
Seats	Two until 1861, then three
Created from	Lancashire
Replaced by	South East Lancashire; South West Lancashire; Stalybridge

South Lancashire, formally called the Southern Division of Lancashire or Lancashire Southern, is a former county constituency of the South Lancashire area in England. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the British House of Commons from 1832 to 1861, and then from a very narrow reform of that year, three until it was further split in 1868.

The constituency was created by the Great Reform Act of 1832 by the splitting of Lancashire constituency into Northern and Southern divisions. It was abolished by the Second Reform Act of 1867.

Boundaries

1832–1868: The Hundreds of Salford, and West Derby.^[1]

Salford went to form the new South East Lancashire constituency, and West Derby the new South West Lancashire constituency.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1832–1861

Constituency created (1832)

Election	1st Member		1st Party		2nd Party
1832		George William Wood	Whig^[2]^[3]	Viscount Molyneux	Whig^[2]^[3]
1835		Lord Francis Egerton	Conservative^[2]	Richard Bootle Wilbraham	Conservative^[2]
1837
1841
1844 by-election				William Entwisle	Conservative
1846 by-election		William Brown	Radical^[4]^[5]^[6]	William Entwisle	Conservative
1847				Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers	Radical^[7]^[8]^[9]
1847 by-election				Alexander Henry	Radical^[10]^[11]
1852				John Cheetham	Radical^[12]^[13]
1859		Hon. Algernon Egerton	Conservative	William Legh	Conservative
1861 by-election	representation increased to three members

MPs 1861–1868

Election	1st Member		1st Party		2nd Party		3rd Party
1861 by-election		Hon. Algernon Egerton	Conservative	William Legh	Conservative	Charles Turner	Conservative
1865		Hon. Algernon Egerton	Conservative	William Ewart Gladstone	Liberal	Charles Turner	Conservative
1868	Reform Act 1867: constituency abolished

Elections

General election 1832: South Lancashire (2 seats)^[14]^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Whig	George Wood	5,694	39.7
	Whig	Charles Molyneux	5,575	38.8
	Tory	Sir Thomas Dalrymple Hesketh, 3rd Baronet	3,082	21.5
Majority			2,493	17.3
Turnout			8,453	84.2
Registered electors			10,039
	Whig win (new seat)
	Whig win (new seat)

General election 1835: South Lancashire (2 seats)^[14]^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Francis Egerton	5,620	29.0	+18.3
	Conservative	Richard Bootle-Wilbraham	4,729	24.4	+13.7
	Whig	Charles Molyneux	4,629	23.9	−14.9
	Whig	George Wood	4,394	22.7	−17.0
Majority			5,226	6.3	N/A
Majority			100	0.5	N/A
Turnout			9,850	85.5	+1.3
Registered electors			11,519
	Conservative gain from Whig		Swing	+17.1
	Conservative gain from Whig		Swing	+14.8

General election 1837: South Lancashire (2 seats)^[14]^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Francis Egerton	7,822	27.8	−1.2
	Conservative	Richard Bootle-Wilbraham	7,645	27.2	+2.8
	Whig	Edward Stanley	6,576	23.4	−0.5
	Whig	Charles Towneley	6,047	21.5	−1.2
Majority			1,069	3.8	+3.3
Turnout			13,967	78.7	−6.8
Registered electors			17,754
	Conservative hold		Swing	−0.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.8

General election 1841: South Lancashire (2 seats)^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Conservative	Francis Egerton	Unopposed
	Conservative	Richard Bootle-Wilbraham	Unopposed
Registered electors			18,178
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

Wilbraham's death caused a by-election.

By-election, 24 May 1844: South Lancashire^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Entwisle	7,571	52.1	*N/A*
	Radical	William Brown	6,973	47.9	New
Majority			598	4.2	N/A
Majority			14,544	78.5	N/A
Registered electors			18,521
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

Egerton was elevated to the peerage, becoming 1st Earl of Ellesmere and causing a by-election.

By-election, 21 July 1846: South Lancashire^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radical	William Brown	Unopposed
	Radical gain from Conservative

General election 1847: South Lancashire (2 seats)^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Radical	William Brown	Unopposed
	Radical	Charles Pelham Villiers	Unopposed
Registered electors			23,630
	Radical gain from Conservative
	Radical gain from Conservative

Pelham-Villiers was also elected MP for Wolverhampton and opted to sit there, causing a by-election.

By-election, 20 December 1847: South Lancashire^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radical	Alexander Henry	Unopposed
	Radical hold

General election 1852: South Lancashire (2 seats)^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Radical	William Brown	Unopposed
	Radical	John Cheetham	Unopposed
Registered electors			21,196
	Radical hold
	Radical hold

General election 1857: South Lancashire (2 seats)^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes
	Radical	William Brown	Unopposed
	Radical	John Cheetham	Unopposed
Registered electors			20,460
	Radical hold
	Radical hold

General election 1859: South Lancashire (2 seats)^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Algernon Egerton	7,470	26.6	*New*
	Conservative	William Legh	6,983	24.9	*New*
	Liberal	John Cheetham	6,835	24.4	N/A
	Liberal	John Pemberton Heywood^[15]	6,763	24.1	N/A
Majority			707	2.5	N/A
Majority			148	0.5	N/A
Turnout			14,026 (est)	72.2 (est)	N/A
Registered electors			19,433
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

Third seat created.

By-election, 19 August 1861: South Lancashire^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Charles Turner	9,714	52.2
	Liberal	John Cheetham	8,898	47.8
Majority			816	4.4
Turnout			18,612	95.8
Registered electors			19,433
	Conservative win (new seat)

General election 1865: South Lancashire (3 seats)^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Algernon Egerton	9,171	18.1	−8.5
	Conservative	Charles Turner	8,806	17.4	*N/A*
	Liberal	William Ewart Gladstone	8,786	17.4	−7.0
	Conservative	William Legh	8,476	16.8	−8.1
	Liberal	Henry Yates Thompson	7,703	15.2	N/A
	Liberal	John Pemberton Heywood^[16]	7,653	15.1	−9.0
Turnout			16,865 (est)	78.2 (est)	+6.0
Registered electors			21,555
Majority			20	0.0	−0.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	−0.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A
Majority			310	0.6
	Liberal win (new seat)

Third seat treated as new for 1865 election.

References

Sources

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

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