Oxford University was a university constituency electing two members to the English House of Commons from 1603 and from 1707 British House of Commons to 1950. The last two members to represent Oxford University when it was abolished were A. P. Herbert and Arthur Salter.
Boundaries, electorate and electoral system This university constituency was created by a Royal Charter of 1603. It was abolished in 1950 by the Representation of the People Act 1948.
The constituency was not a physical area. Its electorate consisted of the graduates of the University of Oxford. Before 1918 the franchise was restricted to male graduates with a Doctorate or MA degree. Namier and Brooke estimated the number of electors as about 500 in the 1754–1790 period; by 1910, it had risen to 6,500. Following the reforms of 1918, the franchise encompassed all graduates who paid a fee of £1 to join the register. This included around 400 women who had passed examinations which would have entitled them to a degree if they were male."The Universities and Labour", Manchester Guardian, 6 December 1918
The constituency returned two Members of Parliament. From 1918, the MPs were elected by the single transferable vote method of proportional representation.
History The university strongly supported the old Tory cause in the 18th century. The original party system endured long after it had become meaningless in almost every other constituency.
After the Hanoverian succession to the British throne the Whigs became dominant in the politics of Cambridge University, the other university represented in Parliament, by using a royal prerogative power to confer doctorates. That power did not exist at Oxford, so the major part of the university electorate remained Tory (and in the first half of the 18th century sometimes Jacobite) in sympathy.
The university also valued its independence from government. In a rare contested general election in 1768 the two candidates with administration ties were defeated.
In the 19th century the university continued to support the right, almost always returning Tory, Conservative or Liberal Unionist candidates. The only exception was William Ewart Gladstone, formerly "the rising hope of the stern unbending Tories". He first represented the university as a Peelite, supporting a former member for the constituency – the sometime Conservative Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel. Gladstone retained his seat as a Liberal, for a time after 1859. Following Gladstone's defeat, in 1865, subsequent Liberal candidates were rare and they were never successful in winning a seat.
Even after the introduction of proportional representation, in 1918, both members continued to be Conservatives until 1935. Independent members were elected in the last phase of university elections to Parliament, before the constituency was abolished in 1950.
Members of Parliament Sir William Whitelock is named by Rayment as "Sir William Whitelocke" and by Sedgwick as "Sir William Whitlock".
The Roman numerals in brackets after the names of the two members called William Bromley (who were father and son) are included to distinguish them. It is not a method which would have been used by the men themselves.
Constituency created (1603)
Parliament of England 1604–1707 As there were sometimes significant gaps between Parliaments held in this period, the dates of first assembly and dissolution are given. Where the name of the member has not yet been ascertained, the entry unknown is entered in the table.
Elected Assembled Dissolved First Member Second Member 1604 19 March 1604 9 February 1611 Sir Thomas Crompton Sir Daniel Donne or DunOxford Dictionary of National Biography 1614 5 April 1614 7 June 1614 Sir John Bennet 1620 or 1621 16 January 1621 8 February 1622 Sir Clement Edmondes 1623 or 1624 12 February 1624 27 March 1625 Sir Isaac Wake Sir George Calvert 1625 17 May 1625 12 August 1625 Sir Thomas Edmonds Sir John Danvers 1626 6 February 1626 15 June 1626 Sir Thomas EdmondsJ. Palmer, A Biographical History of England (1824), 86. 1628 17 March 1628 10 March 1629 Sir Henry Marten 1640 13 April 1640 5 May 1640 Sir Francis Windebanke Sir John Danvers 1640 3 November 1640 5 December 1648 John Selden Sir Thomas Roe 6 December 1648 a 20 April 1653 b unknown 1653 c 4 July 1653 12 December 1653 unrepresented in Barebones Parliament 1654 d 3 September 1654 22 January 1655 Dr John Owen 1656 e 17 September 1656 4 February 1658 Nathaniel Fiennes 1658 or 1659 27 January 1659 22 April 1659 Matthew Hale John Mylles N/A f 7 May 1659 20 February 1660 unknown unknown 21 February 1660 16 March 1660 12 April 1660 25 April 1660 29 December 1660 Thomas Clayton John Mylles 1 April 1661 8 May 1661 24 January 1679 Laurence Hyde Sir Heneage Finch, Bt 16 January 1674 Thomas Thynne 27 February 1679 6 March 1679 12 July 1679 Heneage Finch John Eddisbury 19 August 1679 21 October 1680 18 January 1681 Sir Leoline Jenkins Charles Perrot 1681 21 March 1681 28 March 1681 1685 19 May 1685 2 June 1687 23 November 1685 George Clarke 7 January 1689 22 January 1689 6 February 1690 Heneage Finch Sir Thomas Clargesg 1690 20 March 1690 11 October 1695 21 October 1695 22 November 1695 6 July 1698 Sir William Trumbull 23 July 1698 24 August 1698 19 December 1700 Sir Christopher Musgrave, Bt Sir William Glynne, Bt 3 January 1701 6 February 1701 11 November 1701 Heneage Finch 21 March 1701 William Bromley (I) 1701 30 December 1701 2 July 1702 1702 20 August 1702 5 April 1705 22 November 1703 Sir William Whitelock 1705 14 June 1705 1707 h
Notes:- a Date of Pride's Purge, which converted the Long Parliament into the Rump Parliament. b Date when Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament by force. c Date when the members of the nominated or Barebones Parliament were selected. The university was not represented in this body. d Date when the members of the First Protectorate Parliament were elected. The university was represented by one member in this body. e Date when the members of the Second Protectorate Parliament were elected. The university was represented by one member in this body. f The Rump Parliament was recalled and subsequently Pride's Purge was reversed, allowing the full Long Parliament to meet until it agreed to dissolve itself. g Clarges died on 4 October 1695, so the seat was vacant at the dissolution of 11 October 1695. h The MPs of the last Parliament of England and 45 members co-opted from the former Parliament of Scotland, became the House of Commons of the 1st Parliament of Great Britain which assembled on 23 October 1707 (see below for the members in that Parliament).
Parliaments of Great Britain 1707–1800 and of the United Kingdom 1801–1950 YearFirst memberFirst partySecond memberSecond party 1707 Sir William Whitelock Tory William Bromley 1 Tory 1717 George Clarke Tory 1732 Viscount Cornbury Tory 1737 William Bromley (II) Tory 1737 Edward Butler Tory 1745 Peregrine Palmer Tory 1751 Sir Roger Newdigate, Bt Tory 1762 Sir Walter Bagot, Bt Tory 1768 Sir William Dolben, Bt Tory 1768 Francis Page Tory 1780 Sir William Dolben, Bt Tory 1801 Sir William Scott Tory 1806 Charles Abbot 2 Tory 1817 Robert Peel Tory 1821 Richard Heber Tory 1826 Thomas Grimston Estcourt 3 Tory 1829 Sir Robert Inglis, Bt 3 Tory 1834 Conservative Conservative 1847 William Ewart Gladstone 4 Peelite 1854 Sir William Heathcote, Bt Conservative 1859 Liberal 1865 Gathorne Hardy Conservative 1868 Sir John Mowbray, Bt Conservative 1878 John Gilbert Talbot Conservative 1899 Sir William Anson 5 Liberal Unionist 1910 Lord Hugh Cecil 6 Conservative 1912 Conservative 1914 Rowland Prothero Conservative 1918 Coalition Conservative Coalition Conservative 1919 Sir Charles Oman Coalition Conservative 1922 Conservative Conservative 1935 Sir A. P. Herbert Independent 1937 Sir Arthur Salter Independent Constituency abolished (1950)
Notes:- 1 Bromley had represented the university since a by-election in March 1701. He was Speaker of the House of Commons 1710–1713. 2 Abbot was Speaker of the House of Commons 1802–1817. 3 Estcourt and Inglis are regarded as Conservative MPs from 1835, as this was the approximate date when the Tory Party became known as the Conservative Party. 4 Gladstone accepted office in a Liberal ministry in 1859, thus vacating the seat he had held (as a Peelite MP – more formally a Liberal Conservative). He was re-elected as a Liberal candidate. 5 Anson became a Conservative MP when the Liberal Unionists formally merged with the Conservatives in 1912. 6 Cecil joined the non-Coalition wing of his party at some point during the 1918–1922 Parliament.
Elections
1710s – 1720s – 1730s – 1740s – 1750s – 1760s – 1770s – 1780s – 1790s – 1800s – 1810s – 1820s – 1830s – 1840s – 1850s – 1860s – 1870s – 1880s – 1890s – 1900s – 1910s – 1920s – 1930s – 1940s
Elections in the 1710s
Note (1715): Bromley had been Speaker of the House of Commons 1710-1713. Death of Whitelock
Elections in the 1720s
Note (1722): Stooks Smith records the votes as Bromley 278, Clarke 213 and King 142.
Elections in the 1730s Death of Bromley
Death of Clarke
Death of Bromley
Elections in the 1740s
Death of Butler
Elections in the 1750s Summons to the House of Lords of Cornbury, by writ in acceleration for his father's subsidiary title of Lord Hyde
Note (1751): Stooks Smith records Turner's vote as 47.
Elections in the 1760s
Death of Palmer
Death of Bagot
Elections in the 1770s
Elections in the 1780s
Elections in the 1790s
Elections in the 1800s Resignation of Page
Elections in the 1810s
Creation of Abbot as the 1st Lord Colchester
Elections in the 1820s
Creation of Scott as the 1st Lord Stowell
Seat vacated on the appointment of Peel as Secretary of State for the Home Department
Resignation of Heber
Seat vacated on the appointment of Peel as Secretary of State for the Home Department
Resignation of Peel
Note (1829): Stooks Smith records that the polls were open for three days. Inglis was a candidate promoted by the Ultra-Tories in opposition to Catholic emancipation.
Elections in the 1830s
Elections in the 1840s
Note (1841): McCalmont classifies Inglis as a Peelite candidate, at this election.
Note (1847): Poll 5 days. (Source for this note and the number of voters: Stooks Smith). McCalmont classifies Inglis as a Peelite and Gladstone as a Liberal Conservative candidate, at this election.
Elections in the 1850s
Note (1852): Minimum possible turnout estimated by dividing votes by 2. To the extent that electors did not use both their votes, the figure will be an underestimate. McCalmont classifies Gladstone as a Liberal Conservative candidate, at this election. Seat vacated on the appointment of Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer
Resignation of Inglis.
Seat vacated on the appointment of Gladstone as Lord High Commissioner to the Ionian Islands. McCalmont classifies Gladstone as a Liberal Conservative candidate, at this election.
Seat vacated on the appointment of Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer. McCalmont classifies Gladstone as a Liberal candidate, at this election.
Elections in the 1860s
Note (1865): Turnout estimated in the same way as for the 1852 election. Seat vacated on the appointment of Hardy as President of the Poor Law Board
Seat vacated on the appointment of Hardy as Secretary of State for the Home Department
Elections in the 1870s
Seat vacated on the appointment of Hardy as Secretary of State for War
Creation of Hardy as the 1st Viscount Cranbrook
Elections in the 1880s
Elections in the 1890s
Death of Mowbray
Elections in the 1900s
Elections in the 1910s
Anson became a Conservative MP in 1912 when the Liberal Unionist Party formally merged with the Conservative Party. Death of Anson
Electorate expanded and elections using the bloc vote replaced by those using the single transferable vote, by the Representation of the People Act 1918, from the 1918 United Kingdom general election.