Whitby (UK Parliament constituency)

Whitby
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
18321885
Number of members One
Replaced by Whitby
Created from Yorkshire
18851918
Number of members One
Type of constituency County constituency
Replaced by Scarborough and Whitby
Created from North Riding of Yorkshire and Whitby

Whitby was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Whitby in North Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, MP elected by the first past the post system.

History

The constituency was created by the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election as a parliamentary borough, Whitby being at that point one of the most prosperous towns in England which had not previously been represented. (Whitby had been summoned to send members to the Protectorate Parliaments during the Civil War period, but never at any other time.) It consisted of Whitby itself and the adjoining townships of Ruswarp, Hawsker and Stainsacre, and had a population of just over 10,000.

Whitby's shipbuilding industry had been in decline even before the new borough was established, and by 1885 a separate MP for the town could no longer be justified. However, when the borough was abolished the county constituency which absorbed it was also named Whitby (strictly, the Whitby Division of the North Riding of Yorkshire): it contained all the easternmost part of the Riding apart from Scarborough (which remained a separate borough), stretching south-west to Pickering which was the only other town in the constituency.

The Whitby division was abolished for the 1918 general election, when it was partially replaced by the new Scarborough & Whitby constituency.

Members of Parliament

ElectionMemberParty
1832 Aaron Chapman Conservative
1847 Robert Stephenson Conservative
1859 by-election Harry Stephen Thompson Liberal
1865 Charles Bagnall Conservative
1868 William Henry Gladstone Liberal
1880 Arthur Pease Liberal
1885 Ernest Beckett Conservative
1905 by-election Noel Buxton Liberal
1906 Gervase Beckett Conservative
1918 constituency abolished: see Scarborough and Whitby

Election results

Elections in the 1900s

General Election January 1900[1] Electorate 10,740
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Ernest William Beckett unopposed n/a n/a
Conservative hold Swing n/a
Whitby by-election, 1905[2] Electorate 10,857
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Liberal Noel Edward Buxton 4,547 52.6 n/a
Conservative Hon. William Gervase Beckett 4,102 47.4 n/a
Majority 445 5.2 n/a
Turnout 79.7 n/a
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing n/a
General Election January 1906[3] Electorate 11,263
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Hon. William Gervase Beckett 4,780 50.4 +3.0
Liberal Noel Edward Buxton 4,709 49.6 -3.0
Majority 71 0.8 -4.4
Turnout 84.2 +4.5
Conservative gain from Liberal Swing +3.0

Elections in the 1900s

Jardine
General Election January 1910[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Hon. William Gervase Beckett 5,161 52.9 +2.5
Liberal James Willoughby Jardine 4,602 47.1 -2.5
Majority 559 5.8 +5.0
Turnout 9,763
Conservative hold Swing +2.5

References

  1. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918
  2. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918
  3. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918
  4. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916


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