Surrey (UK Parliament constituency)

Surrey was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Members of Parliament until 1832.

The constituency was split into two two-member divisions, for Parliamentary purposes, in 1832. The county was then represented by the East Surrey and West Surrey constituencies.

Boundaries

Surrey is one of the historic counties of England, located south of the River Thames, in south east England. The constituency comprised the whole county. (Although Surrey contained eight towns which were boroughs for at least part of the time the county was a constituency - Bletchingley, Farnham, Gatton, Guildford, Haslemere, Kingston upon Thames, Reigate and Southwark - each of which elected two MPs in their own right, these were not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within the boroughs could confer a vote at the county election.)

Members of Parliament

Elections

The county franchise, from 1430, was held by the owners of freehold land valued at 40 shillings or more. Each voter had as many votes as there were seats to be filled. Votes had to be cast by a spoken declaration, in public, at the hustings, which took place in the county town of Guildford. The expense and difficulty of voting at only one location in the county, together with the lack of a secret ballot contributed to the corruption and intimidation of voters, which was widespread in the unreformed British political system.

The expense, to candidates, of contested elections encouraged the leading families of the county to agree on the candidates to be returned unopposed whenever possible. Contested county elections were therefore unusual.

Where there was only one candidate of a party in successive elections, for the same number of seats, change is calculated on the party vote. Where there was more than one candidate, in one or both successive elections for the same number of seats, then change is calculated on the individual percentage vote.

See also

• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies
• Unreformed House of Commons

References

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
• Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England, 1st edition published in three volumes (1844–50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973) out of copyright
• 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 "S" (part 6)