| Wick Burghs | |
| Parliament: | uk |
| Year: | 1832 |
| Abolished: | 1918 |
| Type: | District of Burghs |
| Elects Howmany: | One |
| Region: | Scotland |
| Towns: | Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch, Kirkwall, Tain and Wick |
Wick Burghs, sometimes known as Northern Burghs, was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.
A similar constituency had been known as Tain Burghs from 1708 to 1832.
The constituency was a district of burghs representing the parliamentary burghs of Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch, Kirkwall, Tain and Wick.[1] Apart from Cromarty, these burghs had been previously components of Tain Burghs.[2] In 1918 Dornoch and Wick were merged into Caithness and Sutherland, Kirkwall into Orkney and Shetland and Cromarty, Dingwall and Tain into Ross and Cromarty.[3] [4] The first election in Wick Burghs was in 1832. The franchise was extended to wider groups of the population than under the old system of burgh councillors electing a burgh commissioner to participate in the election. From 1832 the votes from each burgh were added together to establish the result.
| Election | Member | Party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1832 | constituency created | |||
| 1832 | James Loch | Whig[5] [6] [7] [8] | ||
| 1852 | Samuel Laing | Radical[9] | ||
| 1857 | Lord John Hay | Whig[10] | ||
| 1859 | Samuel Laing | Liberal | ||
| 1860 by-election | William Keppel, Viscount Bury | Liberal | ||
| 1865 | Samuel Laing | Liberal | ||
| 1868 | George Loch | Liberal | ||
| 1872 by-election | John Pender | Liberal | ||
| 1885 | John Macdonald Cameron | Liberal | ||
| 1892 | Sir John Pender | Liberal Unionist | ||
| 1896 by-election | Thomas Hedderwick | Liberal | ||
| 1900 | Sir Arthur Bignold | Liberal Unionist | ||
| 1910 | Robert Munro | Liberal | ||
| 1918 | constituency abolished | |||
Laing resigned after being appointed a member of the Council of India, causing a by-election.
Loch resigned, causing a by-election.
Pender's resignation caused a by-election.