Durham, also County Durham or Durham County was a county constituency in northern England, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1675 until 1832.

History The constituency consisted of the whole county of Durham (including the enclaves of Norhamshire, Islandshire and Bedlington, all situated within the boundaries of Northumberland and now part of that county, and of Crayke, now in North Yorkshire).

Because of its semi-autonomous status as a county palatine, Durham had not been represented in Parliament during the medieval period; from 1543 it was the only part of England which elected no MPs. In 1621, Parliament passed a bill to enfranchise the county, but James I refused it the royal assent, as he considered that the House of Commons already had too many members and that some decayed boroughs should be abolished first; a similar bill in 1624 failed to pass the House of Lords. During the Commonwealth, County Durham was allowed to send members to the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate, though the privilege was not maintained when Parliament reverted to its earlier electoral arrangements from 1658. After the Restoration, Durham's right to return MPs was recognised in 1661, and finally confirmed by the Durham (Representation of) Act 1672 (25 Cha. 2. c. 9); however, it did not come into effect until 1675 when the Speaker was authorised to issue his warrant. The county returned two members, and the same act also established Durham City as a parliamentary borough with its own two members.

As in other county constituencies, until 1832 the franchise was defined by the Forty Shilling Freeholder Act 1430, which gave the right to vote to every man who possessed freehold property within the county valued at £2 or more per year for the purposes of land tax; it was not necessary for the freeholder to occupy his land, nor even in later years to be resident in the county at all.

By the time of the Reform Act 1832, the county had a population of just over 250,000, although this was slightly reduced by the boundary changes which severed the enclaves and made them part of Northumberland or the North Riding of Yorkshire for parliamentary purposes. The electorate was only a fraction of this number: at the general election of 1790, 5,578 voted, and in 1820 the number was only 3,741. Although nobody could exert the degree of control over the voters that was common in many boroughs, several of the major local landowners had significant influence, in particular the Vane Earls of Darlington.

In 1832 the county's representation was doubled, and the constituency divided into two new two-member constituencies, North Durham and South Durham.

Members of Parliament

ElectionFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party 1654 George Lilburne Robert Lilburne 1656 Thomas Lilburne James Clavering, BtJune 1675 John Tempest Royalist Thomas Vane October 1675 Christopher VaneFebruary 1679Anti-exclusionist Sir Robert Eden, Bt Anti-exclusionistAugust 1679 William Bowes Unclear Thomas Fetherstonhalgh1681 1685 Robert Byerley Tory William Lambton Tory1689 1690 Sir Robert Eden, Bt Tory 1695 Sir William Bowes Unclear 1698 Sir Robert Eden, Bt Country/Tory Lionel Vane Unclear 1701 (Jan) William Lambton Tory1701 (Nov)Whig 1702 Sir Robert Eden, Bt Tory Sir William Bowes Unclear1705 1707 John Tempest Tory 1708 William Vane, of West Auckland Whig1710William LambtonTory 1713 Sir John Eden Tory John HedworthHedworth died before the end of the Parliament but a dissolution was called before a writ for a by-election had been issued Independent Whig171517221727George BowesWhig173417411747Patriot Whig Hon. Henry Vane Whig 1753 by-election Hon. Henry VaneStyled Viscount Barnard from 1754 Whig1754 1758 by-election Captain the Hon. Raby Vane 1760 by-election Robert Shafto Tory (probable)1761 Hon. Frederick Vane 1768 Sir Thomas Clavering, Bt Whig1774 Sir John Eden, Bt Whig178017841790 Rowland Burdon Tory Captain Ralph MilbankeSir Ralph Milbanke from 1793 Whig179618021806 Sir Thomas Liddell, Bt Tory1807 Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, Bt Tory1812 Viscount Barnard Whig 1813 by-election John George Lambton Radical 1815 by-election Hon. William Powlett Whig181818201826 1828 by-election William Russell Whig18301831 Sir Hedworth Williamson, Bt Whig1832 Constituency divided. See North Durham and South Durham

Notes

Election results

See also

History of parliamentary constituencies and boundaries in Durham

References Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) T. H. B. Oldfield The Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Baldwin, Cradock & Joy, 1816) J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965) Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903)