Westminster was a parliamentary constituency in the Parliament of England to 1707, the Parliament of Great Britain 1707–1800 and the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801. It returned two members to 1885 and one thereafter.

The constituency was first known to have been represented in Parliament in 1545 and continued to exist until the redistribution of seats in 1918. The constituency's most famous former representatives are John Stuart Mill and Charles James Fox. The most analogous contemporary constituency is Cities of London and Westminster.

Boundaries and boundary changes 1885-1918: The Westminster district, and Close of Collegiate Church of St. Peter.

The constituency was formed in 1545 from part of the county constituency of Middlesex and returned two members of parliament until 1885.

The City of Westminster is a district of Inner London. Its southern boundary is on the north bank of the River Thames. It is today combined with Marylebone to the north. It is west of the diminutive City of London, fixed with four MPs in 1298, and the north part of Lambeth, created a broad constituency in 1832. It is south-west of Holborn and St. Pancras which in 1832 were both placed in a wider seat named Finsbury and to the east of Kensington and Chelsea which were dealt with similarly in a seat named Chelsea.

In the 1885 redistribution of seats the constituency (virtually identical to the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster which was created in 1900) was divided into three single-member seats. The south-eastern part, including the traditional heart of Westminster and such important centres of power as the Houses of Parliament and the seat of government in Whitehall, continued to be a constituency called Westminster. By official definition the areas retained were "the Westminster district and Close of the Collegiate Church of St Peter"; a seat named Strand was created in the north-east and a seat, St George's, Hanover Square, in the west.

In the 1918 redistribution the three seats were cut to two: Westminster St George's in the west and Westminster Abbey in the east, the latter wholly containing and slightly larger than the 1885–1918 Westminster seat (except for its Knightsbridge exclave which lay some way off in the west).

History The Westminster constituency represented the centre of British government and had a large electorate so that it was independent of the control of a patron. Before the Reform Act 1832 the right to vote was held by the male inhabitants paying scot and lot (a kind of local property tax). The franchise was the largest of any borough in the kingdom, and only the county constituency of Yorkshire had more voters. Sedgwick estimated the electorate at about 8,000 in the first half of the eighteenth century. Namier and Brooke estimated that there were about 12,000 voters later in the century. The large size of the electorate made contested elections immensely expensive.

In the sixteenth century the Church officials associated with Westminster Abbey had a large influence in the area, but as the community became bigger that became less important. The Court (or His Majesty's Treasury) had some legitimate influence (by the standards of the age), because of the royal residences and government offices in the borough. The use of public funds to bribe the electorate was not unknown, during close elections (see the comments about the cost of the 1780 and 1784 contests below). Local landowners who were prepared to stir up ill-will by threatening to evict or raise the rents of tenants voting the wrong way, could also affect the result.

Unlawful means were sometimes used to make sure that the right candidates were elected. In 1722 the election of two Tories was declared void because of rioting which prevented some Whigs voting. In 1741 a Whig returning officer called upon the assistance of some troops to close the poll before the Tory candidates could catch up to the Whig votes.

The House of Commons declared the 1741 election void with the ringing resolution that "the presence of a regular body of armed soldiers at an election of members to sit in Parliament, is a high infringement of the liberties of the subject, a manifest violation of the freedom of election and an open defiance of the laws and constitution of this kingdom".

In 1749–50, the constituency saw the highly contested 1750 Westminster by-election, during which anti-ministerial factions attempted to unseat the incumbent, Viscount Trentham.

By the eighteenth century it was normal for the members to be Irish peers, the sons of peers or baronets, as it was thought appropriate for them to be of high social standing so as to be worthy to represent the seat.

The Treasury spent the enormous sums of more than £8,000 in 1780 and £9,000 in 1784, in unsuccessful attempts to defeat the opposition Whig leader Charles James Fox. So expensive were these contests that for the next general election in 1790, the government and opposition leaders reached a formal agreement for each to have one member returned unopposed. However, in the event a second Whig candidate did appear, but the Tory (the famous Admiral Lord Hood) and Fox were re-elected without too much difficulty.

The last MP for this constituency, William Burdett-Coutts, was connected with a family prominent in City of Westminster politics since the eighteenth century. He himself was born in the United States in 1851, his grandparents on both sides having been British subjects. After he married Baroness Burdett-Coutts in 1881 he changed his surname from Bartlett to Burdett-Coutts. He represented the area from 1885 until 1918 and continued to sit for the Abbey division until his death in 1921.

Lists of Members of Parliament The English civil year started on 25 March until 1752 (Scotland having changed to 1 January in 1600). The years used in this article have been converted to the new style where necessary. Old style dates would be a year earlier than the new style for days between 1 January and 24 March. No attempt has been made to compensate for the eleven days which did not occur in September 1752 in both England and Scotland as well as other British controlled territories (when the day after 2 September was 14 September), so as to bring the British Empire fully in line with the Gregorian calendar.

Members of Parliament 1545–1660 Some of the members elected during this period have been identified. The year first given is for the initial meeting of the Parliament, with the month added where there was more than one Parliament in the year. If a second year is given this is a date of dissolution. Early Parliaments sometimes only existed for a few days or weeks, so dissolutions in the same year as the first meeting are not recorded in this list If a specific date of election is known this is recorded in italic brackets. The Roman numerals in brackets, following some names, are those used to distinguish different politicians of the same name in 'The House of Commons' 1509–1558 and 1558–1603.

YearFirst memberSecond member 1545–1547 Robert Smallwood John Russell (II) 1547–1552 (Sir) George Blagge, died and repl.Jan 1552 by Robert Nowell John Rede (I) 1553 (Mar) (Sir) Robert Southwell Arthur Stourton 1553 (Oct) (Sir) Robert Southwell William Gyes 1554 (April) William Gyes Richard Hodges 1554 (Nov)-1555 William Jennings William Gyes 1555 Arthur Stourton Richard Hodges 1558 Nicholas Newdigate John Best 1559 (elected 7 January 1559) Richard Hodges John Best 1563–1567 (elected 1562/3) Robert Nowell William Bowyer (II) 1571 Sir William Cordell William Staunton 1572–1583 Thomas Wilbraham, died and repl. 1576 by John Osborne John Dodington 1584–1585 Hon. Robert Cecil Thomas Knyvett 1586–1587 Hon. Robert Cecil Thomas Knyvett 1589 (elected 20 December 1588) Thomas Knyvett Peter Osborne 1593 Richard Cecil Thomas Cole 1597–1598 (elected 27 September 1597) Thomas Knyvett Thomas Cole died and repl. January 1598 by Anthony Mildmay 1601 (elected 26 September 1601) Thomas Knyvett William Cooke (II)1604 Sir Thomas Knyvett Sir Walter Cope1614 Sir Humphrey May Edmund Doubleday1621 Sir Edward Villiers Edmund Doubleday (died before taking his seat and replaced by William Mann)1624 Sir Edward Villiers William Mann1625 Sir Edward Villiers William Mann1626 Sir Robert Pye Peter Heywood1628 Joseph Bradshaw Thomas MoriceApr 1640 Sir John Glynne William BellNov 1640 Sir John Glynne William BellGlynne disabled 7 September 1647 but restored 7 June 1648 Glynne and Bell both possibly secluded in Pride's PurgeWestminster unrepresented in the Rump and Barebones Parliament1654 Thomas Latham Thomas Falconbridge1656 Colonel Edward Grosvenor Edward Cary1659 Edward Grosvenor Richard Sherwyn

Members of Parliament 1660–1918

ElectionFirst MemberFirst PartySecond MemberSecond Party 1660 Gilbert Gerard Non-partisan Thomas Clarges Non-partisan 1661 Philip Warwick Non-partisan Richard Everard Non-partisan Feb. 1679 Stephen Fox Non-partisan William Pulteney Non-partisan Sep. 1679 Francis Wythens Non-partisan 1680 William Waller Non-partisan Mar. 1685 Charles Bonython Tory Michael Arnold Tory Nov. 1685 Parliament prorogued 1689 William Pulteney Whig Philip Howard Whig 1690 Walter Clarges Tory 1691 Stephen Fox Non-partisan 1695 Charles Montagu Non-partisan 1698 James Vernon Non-partisan Jan. 1701 Thomas Crosse Tory Dec. 1701 Henry Colt Non-partisan 1702 Walter Clarges Tory Thomas Crosse Tory 1702 Henry Boyle Non-partisan Henry Colt Non-partisan 1708 Thomas Medlycott Non-partisan 1710 Thomas Crosse Tory 1715 Edward Wortley Montagu Whig Mar. 1722 Archibald Hutcheson Tory John Cotton Tory Dec. 1722 Charles Montagu Whig George Carpenter Whig 1727 Charles Cavendish Whig William Clayton Whig 1734 Charles Wager Whig 1741 John Perceval Tory Charles Edwin Tory 1747 Granville Leveson-Gower Whig Peter Warren Whig 1752 Seat vacant 1753 Edward Cornwallis Whig 1754 John Crosse Non-partisan 1761 William Pulteney Non-partisan 1762 Edwin Sandys Non-partisan 1763 Hugh Percy Non-partisan 1770 Robert Bernard Non-partisan 1774 Thomas Pelham-Clinton Non-partisan 1776 Charles Stanhope Non-partisan 1779 George Capel-Coningsby Non-partisan 1780 George Brydges Rodney Whig Charles James Fox Whig 1782 Cecil Wray Whig 1784 Samuel Hood Tory 1788 John Townshend Whig 1790 Samuel Hood Tory 1796 Alan Gardner Tory Oct. 1806 Hugh Percy Whig Nov. 1806 Samuel Hood Tory Richard Brinsley Sheridan Whig 1807 Francis Burdett Radical Thomas Cochrane Whig Jul. 1818 Samuel Romilly Whig Nov. 1818 Seat vacant 1819 George Lamb Tory 1820 John Hobhouse Radical 1833 De Lacy Evans Radical May. 1837 Conservative Jul. 1837 John Temple Leader Radical 1841 Henry John Rous Conservative 1846 De Lacy Evans Radical 1847 Charles Lushington Whig 1852 John Shelley Whig 1859 Liberal Liberal 1865 Robert Grosvenor Liberal John Stuart Mill Liberal 1868 William Henry Smith Conservative 1874 Charles Russell Conservative 1882 Algernon Percy Conservative 1885 William Burdett-Coutts Conservative Seat reduced to one member 1918 Seat abolished

Fictional Member of Parliament

Westminster was the constituency of fraudulent businessman Augustus Melmotte, who gained election as a Conservative, in Anthony Trollope's satirical novel, The Way We Live Now (published 1875).

Elections

General notes In multi-member elections the bloc voting system was used. Voters could cast a vote for one or two candidates, as they chose. The leading candidates with the largest number of votes were elected.

In by-elections and all elections after 1885, to fill a single seat, the first past the post system applied.

After 1832, when registration of voters was introduced, a turnout figure is given for contested elections. In two-member elections, when the exact number of participating voters is unknown, this is calculated by dividing the number of votes by two. To the extent that electors did not use both their votes this will be an underestimate of turnout.