Portarlington was a rotten borough and was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency in Ireland, returning one MP from 1801 to 1885. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801.
Boundaries This constituency was the parliamentary borough of Portarlington in Queen's County (renamed County Laois in 1920).
A report into the boundaries was undertaken in 1831. The Parliamentary Boundaries (Ireland) Act 1832 defined the boundaries of the parliamentary borough as:
Members of Parliament Notable MPs included Hon. William Lamb, who, as Viscount Melbourne, served as prime minister briefly in 1834 and again from 1835 to 1841.
ElectionMemberParty 1801 Frederick TrenchTrench was created a peer in 1800, and so did not take up his seat at Westminster March 1801 William Elliot July 1802 Henry Parnell Whig December 1802 Thomas Tyrwhitt March 1806 John Langston November 1806 Sir Oswald Mosley, Bt 1807 Hon. William Lamb Whig 1812 Arthur Shakespeare 1816 Richard Sharp Whig 1819 David Ricardo Whig 1824 James Farquhar Tory 1830 Sir Charles Ogle, Bt Tory 1831 Sir William Rae, Bt Tory 1832 Thomas Gladstone Tory 1834 Conservative 1835 George Dawson-Damer Conservative 1846 Peelite 1847 Francis Plunkett Dunne Whig 1852 Conservative 1857 Lionel Dawson-Damer Conservative 1865 James Anthony Lawson Liberal 1868 Lionel Dawson-Damer Conservative 1880 Bernard FitzPatrick Conservative 1883 Robert French-Brewster Conservative 1885 constituency abolished
Elections Elections in the 1830s
Elections in the 1840s
Dawson-Damer was appointed Comptroller of the Household, requiring a by-election.
Elections in the 1850s Dunne was appointed Clerk of the Ordnance, requiring a by-election.
Elections in the 1860s
Elections in the 1870s
Elections in the 1880s
FitzPatrick succeeded to the peerage, becoming Lord Castletown, causing a by-election.
See also Portarlington (Parliament of Ireland constituency)
References
The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), 2nd edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)