Buteshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Buteshire
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1708–1918
Replaced by	Bute and Northern Ayrshire
Created from	Buteshire

Buteshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918.

From 1708 to 1832 Buteshire and Caithness were paired as alternating constituencies: one of the constituencies elected a Member of Parliament (MP) to one parliament, the other to the next. The areas which were covered by the two constituencies are quite remote from each other, Caithness in the northeast of Scotland and Buteshire in the southwest.

From 1832 to 1918, Buteshire was represented continuously by its own MP.

Boundaries

From 1708 to 1832, the Buteshire constituency covered the county of Bute minus the parliamentary burgh of Rothesay, which was a component of the Ayr Burghs constituency. In 1832, Rothesay was merged into the Buteshire constituency.

By 1892, Bute had become a local government county and, throughout Scotland, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, county boundaries had been redefined for all purposes except parliamentary representation. 26 years were to elapse before constituency boundaries were redrawn, by the Representation of the People Act 1918, to take account of new local government boundaries.

In 1918, the Bute and Northern Ayrshire county constituency was created, to cover the county of Bute and a northern portion of the county of Ayr. The rest of the county of Ayr was divided between three other constituencies, all entirely within the county: the county constituencies of South Ayrshire and Kilmarnock, and a remodelled Ayr Burghs.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1708 to 1832

Election	Member	Party
1708	Dugald Stewart
1710	John Montgomerie
1710	none
1713	John Campbell, later Duke of Argyll	Whig
1715	none
1722	Patrick Campbell
1727	none
1734	Patrick Campbell
1741	none
1747	James Stuart-Mackenzie
1754	none
1761	James Stuart I
1762	Henry Wauchope
1768	none
1774	James Stuart II (later Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie)
1780	none
1784	James Stuart II
1790	none
1796	Frederick Stuart
1802	none
1806	James Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie
1807	none
1812	John Marjoribanks[1]
1818	none
1820	Lord Patrick Crichton-Stuart
1826	none
1830	Sir William Rae, 3rd Baronet
1831	none

MPs 1832 to 1918

Election		Member	Party
	1832	Charles Stuart	Conservative
	1833 by-election	Sir William Rae	Conservative
	1842 by-election	James Archibald Stuart-Wortley	Conservative
	1857		Liberal
	1859	David Mure	Conservative
	1865 by-election	George Boyle	Conservative
	1865	James Lamont	Liberal
	1868	Charles Dalrymple	Conservative
	1880	Thomas Russell	Liberal
	1880 by-election	Charles Dalrymple	Conservative
	1885	James Robertson	Conservative
	1891 by-election	Andrew Murray	Conservative
	1905	Norman Lamont	Liberal
	January 1910	Sir Harry Hope	Conservative
1918		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1860s

General Election 1868: Buteshire[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Dalrymple	527
		___ Burns	362

Elections in the 1880s

General Election 1885: Buteshire[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Patrick Bannerman Robertson	1,374
	Liberal	Robert A Maclean	1,090
Majority			284
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1886: Buteshire[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Patrick Bannerman Robertson	1,364
	Liberal	Rev. Nigel MacNeill	819
Majority			545
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

After James Robertson accepted office as Solicitor General for Scotland in July 1886, he was returned unopposed at a by-election on 12 August.^[3]

Elections in the 1890s

Buteshire by-election, 1891[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Andrew Graham Murray	1,335		n/a
	Liberal	J McCulloch	990		n/a
Majority			345		n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1892: Buteshire[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Andrew Graham Murray	1,466
	Liberal	Robert Earle M Smith	1,013
Majority			453
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1895: Buteshire[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Andrew Graham Murray	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1900: Buteshire[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Andrew Graham Murray	1,241		n/a
	Liberal	Norman Lamont	1,046		n/a
Majority			195		n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Buteshire by-election, 1905[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Norman Lamont	1,460	50.6
	Conservative	Edward Theodore Salvesen	1,426	49.4
Majority			34	1.2
Turnout
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

Norman Lamont

General Election 1906: Buteshire[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Norman Lamont	1,637	51.9
	Conservative	Guy Thomas Speir	1,517	48.1
Majority			120
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

General Election Jan 1910: Buteshire[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harry Hope	1,531
	Liberal	Norman Lamont	1,372
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

Rosslyn Mitchell

General Election Dec 1910: Buteshire[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harry Hope	1,569
	Liberal	Edward Rosslyn Mitchell	1,316
Majority
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. Marjoribanks,Roger (2014) "Edinburgh Portrait, Sir John Marjoribanks , Bart, MP (1763–1833)" The Book of the Edinburgh Club, Volume 10, Pp 151-156, ISBN 0-9517284-9-0
2. Debrett's House of Commons, 1870
3. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1889
4. The Liberal Year Book, 1908
5. Whitaker's Almanack, 1893
6. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
7. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
8. Whitaker's Almanack, 1907
9. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916

Sources

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 6)