East Gloucestershire, formally the Eastern division of Gloucestershire and often referred to as Gloucestershire Eastern, was a parliamentary constituency in Gloucestershire, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) using the bloc vote system.
The constituency was created when the Great Reform Act split Gloucestershire into eastern and western divisions, with effect from the 1832 general election.
Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, East Gloucestershire was abolished from the 1885 election, when the former eastern and western divisions were replaced by five new single-seat county constituencies: Cirencester, Forest of Dean, Stroud, Tewkesbury, and Thornbury.
Boundaries 1832–1885: The Hundreds of Crowthorne and Minety, Brightwell's Barrow, Bradley, Rapsgate, Bisley, Longtree, Whitstone, Kiftsgate, Westminster, Deerhurst, Slaughter, Cheltenham, Cleeve, Tibaldston, Tewkesbury, and Dudstone and King's Barton, and also the City and County of Gloucester and the Borough of Cirencester.
The constituency was the eastern division of the historic county of Gloucestershire, in South West England.
The place of election was at Gloucester. This was where the hustings were situated and electors voted by spoken declaration in public, before the secret ballot was introduced in 1872.
The qualification to vote in county elections, in the period when this constituency operated, was to be a 40 shilling freeholder.
The parliamentary borough constituencies of Cheltenham, Cirencester, Gloucester, Stroud, and Tewkesbury were all located in East Gloucestershire. Qualified freeholders from those boroughs could vote in the county division. Bristol was a "county of itself", so its freeholders qualified to vote in the borough, not in any county division.
Members of Parliament Election1st member1st party2nd member2nd party 1832, 21 December Sir Berkeley Guise, BtDied 23 July 1834. Whig Hon. Henry Reynolds-Moreton Whig 1834, 7 August Sir Christopher William CodringtonDied 24 June 1864. Tory 1835, 10 January Conservative Hon. Augustus Moreton Whig 1841, 5 July Hon. Francis Charteris Conservative 1846, 27 February Henry SomersetSucceeded as the 8th Duke of Beaufort, 17 November 1853. Conservative 1854, 9 January Sir Michael Hicks Beach, BtDied 29 November 1854. Conservative 1854, 19 December Robert Stayner HolfordVacated seat 1872. Conservative 1864, 12 July Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt Conservative 1872, 11 March John Yorke Conservative1885 constituency abolished
Election results Elections in the 1880s
Caused by Hicks Beach's appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Elections in the 1870s
Caused by Hicks-Beach's appointment as Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
Caused by Holford's resignation.
Elections in the 1860s
Caused by Codrington's death.
Elections in the 1850s
Caused by Hicks-Beach's death.
Caused by Henry Somerset's succession to the Peerage as 8th Duke of Beaufort
Elections in the 1840s
Resignation of Charteris
Elections in the 1830s
Death of Guise
References
British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F. W. S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977) The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F. W. S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)) Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume I 1832-1885, edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)