| West Kent | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1832 |
| Abolished: | 1885 |
| Type: | County |
| Region: | England |
| County: | Kent |
| Elects Howmany: | 2 |
West Kent (formally known as "Kent, Western") was a county constituency in Kent in South East England. It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.
The constituency was created by the Reform Act 1832 for the 1832 general election, and abolished by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 for the 1885 general election.
All three two-member constituencies in Kent were abolished in 1885: East Kent, Mid Kent and West Kent. They were replaced by eight new single-member constituencies: Ashford, Dartford, Faversham, Isle of Thanet, Medway, St Augustine's, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge.
1832–1868: The Lathes of Sutton-at-Hone and Aylesford, and the Lower Division of the Lathe of Scray.[1]
1868–1885: The Lathe of Sutton-at-Hone.[2]
| Election | 1st Member | 1st Party | 2nd Member | 2nd Party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | Thomas Law Hodges | Whig | Thomas Rider | Whig | |||
| 1835 | Sir William Geary, Bt | Conservative | |||||
| 1838 by-election | Sir Edmund Filmer, Bt | Conservative | |||||
| 1841 | Viscount Marsham | Conservative | |||||
| 1845 by-election | Thomas Austen | Conservative | |||||
| 1847 | Thomas Law Hodges | Whig[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] | |||||
| 1852 | William Masters Smith | Conservative | |||||
| Feb 1857 by-election | Charles Wykeham Martin | Peelite[8] [9] | |||||
| Apr 1857 | James Whatman | Radical[10] [11] [12] | |||||
| 1859 | Viscount Holmesdale | Conservative | Sir Edmund Filmer, Bt | Conservative | |||
| 1865 | William Hart Dyke | Conservative | |||||
| 1868 | Sir Charles Mills, Bt | Conservative | John Gilbert Talbot | Conservative | |||
| 1878 by-election | Viscount Lewisham | Conservative | |||||
| 1885 | constituency abolished | ||||||
Geary resigned, causing a by-election.
Marsham succeeded to the peerage, becoming 3rd Earl of Romney and causing a by-election.
Filmer's death caused a by-election.
Talbot resigned in order to contest the 1878 Oxford University by-election.
Legge was appointed Vice-Chamberlain of the Household, requiring a by-election.