Westmorland (UK Parliament constituency) explained

Westmorland
Type:	County
Parliament:	uk
Year:	1918
Abolished:	1983
Elects Howmany:	one
Previous:	Appleby and Kendal
Next:	Penrith & The Border and Westmorland & Lonsdale
Year2:	1290
Abolished2:	1885
Elects Howmany2:	two
Next2:	Appleby and Kendal

Westmorland was a constituency covering the county of Westmorland in the North of England, which returned Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency had two separate periods of existence.

Until 1885

It returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. For the string of elections from 1885 general election it split in two: Appleby and Kendal, both of which had been parliamentary boroughs but were reconstituted as county constituencies.

1918–1983

The constituency was recreated as a single-seater for the 1918 general election and abolished for the 1983 general election.

In the boundary changes in 1983 the southern part of the constituency became part of the new seat of Westmorland and Lonsdale and the northern area was transferred to Penrith and The Border

Boundaries

The 1918 – 1983 seat corresponded to the county of Westmorland even after the abolition of the administrative county in 1974.

Members of Parliament

Constituency created (1290)

MPs 1290–1640

Parliament	First member	Second member
1290		Sir Williemus de Stirkland
1302	Thomas de Betham
1305		Nicholas de Leyburne
1308–1309	Thomas de Betham
1309	Robert L'Angleys
1311–1312	Thomas de Betham
1311–1312	Robert L'Angleys
1313	Sir Matthew de Redman
1324	Sir Robertus de Sandeford
1328	Sir Nicholas de Preston
1331–1332	Sir Walter de Strickland
1341–1342	Sir Thomas de Musgrave
1343		Sir Thomas de Musgrave
1344–1345	Sir Thomas de Musgrave
1353	Sir Richard de Preston (Jnr)
1355	William de Windesere
1357	Sir Matthew de Redman
1362	Sir John Preston
1363	James Pickering
1366		James Pickering
1368	Sir John Preston
1371	Sir John Preston
1377–c1400	Hugh Salkeld I
1382	Sir John Preston
1384	John de Mansergh
1386	Sir John Derwentwater	Robert Clibern^[1]
1388 (Feb)	Sir Thomas Blenkinsop	Thomas Strickland
1388 (Sep)	Robert de Sandford	Hugh Salkeld I
1390 (Jan)	John Crackenthorpe	Hugh Salkeld I
1390 (Nov)	Sir Christopher Moresby	Hugh Salkeld I
1391	Sir William Curwen	William Thornburgh
1393	John Crackenthorpe	Hugh Salkeld I
1394	Sir William Curwen	William Thornburgh
1395	Sir Walter Strickland	William Crackenthorpe I
1397 (Jan)	John Lancaster	Hugh Salkeld I
1397 (Sep)	Sir William Curwen	William Crackenthorpe I
1399	Sir Thomas de Musgrave	John Crackenthorpe
1401	William Thornburgh	Hugh Salkeld II
1402	Sir William Threlkeld	(Sir) William Crackenthorpe I
1404 (Jan)	Roland Thornburgh	Sir Richard Duckett
1404 (Oct)	Sir Robert Leybourne	Thomas Strickland II
1406	Sir John Beetham	(Sir) John Lancaster I
1407	Sir Alan Pennington	Thomas Warcop
1410
1411	Sir Robert Leybourne	Christopher Moresby
1413 (Feb)
1413 (May)	Robert Crackenthorpe	John Hutton
1414 (Apr)	Robert Mauchell	Richard Wharton
1414 (Nov)	Thomas Warcop	William Thornburgh
1415	Robert Warcop	Thomas Warcop
1416 (Mar)	Roland Thornburgh	Robert Crackenthorpe
1416 (Oct)
1417
1419	Roland Thornburgh	Robert Crackenthorpe
1420	William Beauchamp	Thomas Greem II
1421 (May)	Robert Warcop	Robert Preston
1421 (Dec)	(Sir) John Lancaster I	William Blenkinsop
1429	Thomas Strickland II
1431	Thomas Strickland II
1435
1449
1450
1455
1459
1467	William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal
1473	William Parr, 1st Baron Parr of Kendal
1510–1523	No Names Known^[2]
1529	Sir William Musgrave	Thomas Blenkinsop
1536
1539
1542	Sir James Leyburn
1545	Sir Ingram Clifford
1547	Sir Charles Brandon, died and replaced in January 1552 by Sir Robert Bowes
1553 (Mar)
1553 (Oct)	Thomas Fallowfield
1554 (Apr)	Thomas Fallowfield
1554 (Nov)	Thomas Percy
1555
1558	Anthony Kempe	Thomas Sackville
1559 (Jan)	Lancelot Lancaster	Thomas Warcop^[3]
1562–1563	Walter Strickland	Gerard Lowther
1571	Alan Bellingham	Thomas Warcop
1572	Thomas Knyvet
1584	Francis Clifford
1586	Francis Clifford
1588 (Oct)	Francis Dacre
1593	Sir William Bowes
1597 (Sep)	(Sir) Walter Harcourt
1601 (Oct)	George Wharton
1604–1611	Sir Richard Musgrave	Sir Thomas Strickland
1614	Lord Clifford	Sir Thomas Wharton
1621	Lord Clifford	Sir Thomas Wharton
1624		Robert Strickland
1625		Sir Henry Bellingham
1626		Sir Henry Bellingham
1628		John Lowther
1629–1640	No Parliament summoned

MPs 1640–1885

	First member	First party	Second member	Second party
April 1640	Sir Philip Musgrave	Royalist	Sir Henry Bellingham	Royalist
November 1640	Sir Philip Musgrave	Royalist
March 1643	Musgrave disabled to sit – seat vacant
October 1645	Musgrave disabled to sit – seat vacant		Bellingham disabled to sit – seat vacant
1646	Henry Lawrence		James Bellingham
December 1648	Lawrence excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant		Bellingham not recorded as sitting after Pride's Purge
1653	Westmorland was not separately represented in the Barebones Parliament. The following were nominated for The Four Northern Counties collectively: Major-General Charles Howard, Robert Fenwick, Henry Dawson, Henry Ogle
1654	Jeremy Baynes		Christopher Lister	<	-- party -->
1656	Thomas Burton		Christopher Lister	<
January 1659	Thomas Burton
May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660
1661
1677
1678
1679
1681
January 1689
December 1689				Whig
1690
1695
1696
January 1701
December 1701
1702
1704
1705
1707
1708
1722
1727
1741
1747
1754
1759
1761
1763
1764
1768
1774	Sir James Lowther^[4]	Tory		Tory
1775		Tory^[5]		Tory
1806		Tory^[5]		Tory
1812		Tory		Tory
1813				Tory
1831				Whig
1832				Tory
1834		Conservative		Conservative
1841				Conservative
1854				Conservative
1868		Conservative		Conservative
1871		Conservative		Conservative

Notes

MPs 1918–1983

Election		Member	Party
	1918	John Weston	Coalition Conservative
	1924	Oliver Stanley	Conservative
	1945	William Fletcher-Vane	Conservative
	1964	Michael Jopling	Conservative
1983		constituency abolished: see Westmorland and Lonsdale

Election results 1290–1885

Election results taken from the History of Parliament Trust series.

Elections in the 18th century

Lowther appointed a Commissioner of the Revenue in Ireland

Elections in the 1840s

William Lowther was appointed Postmaster General of the United Kingdom and called to the House of Lords as Baron Lowther, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1850s

Thompson's death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1860s

Lowther's death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1870s

Taylour succeeded to the peerage, becoming Marquess of Headfort and causing a by-election at which his son was elected unopposed.

Elections in the 1880s

Election results 1918–1983

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1939/40

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

Conservative: Oliver Stanley
Labour: R S Armstrong
Liberal: Geoffrey Acland^[6]

Elections in the 1970s

Sources

D. Brunton & D. H. Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) http://www2.odl.ox.ac.uk/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=p-000-00---0modhis06--00-0-0-0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-about---00001-001-1-1isoZz-8859Zz-1-0&a=d&cl=CL1
F. W. S. Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949 (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847 (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig – Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)

Notes and References

Web site: History of Parliament. 2 September 2011.
Web site: History of Parliament. 2 September 2011.
Web site: History of Parliament. 2 September 2011.
Sir James Lowther was also elected for Cumberland, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Westmorland in this Parliament
Book: Stooks Smith . Henry . The Parliaments of England, from 1st George I., to the Present Time. Vol II: Oxfordshire to Wales Inclusive . 1845 . Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. . London . 102–104 . . 3 June 2019.
North Devon Journal, 16 Jun 1938