Cockermouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Cockermouth division of Cumberland
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1918
Replaced by	Workington and Penrith and Cockermouth
Created from	West Cumberland and Cockermouth
1641–1885
Replaced by	Cockermouth
Created from	Cumberland
1295–1295
Replaced by	Cumberland
Created from	Cumberland

Cockermouth was the name of a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England in 1295, and again from 1641, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. It was a parliamentary borough represented by two Members of Parliament until 1868, and by one member from 1868 to 1885. The name was then transferred to a county constituency electing one MP from 1885 until 1918.

Notable MPs have included the regicide, Francis Allen.

The borough constituency (until 1885)

Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo

Until the Great Reform Act of 1832, the constituency consisted solely of the market town of Cockermouth in Cumberland. It first returned members to the Model Parliament of 1295, but its franchise then seems to have lapsed until 1641, when the Long Parliament passed a resolution (15 February 1641) to restore its ancient privileges.

The right of election in Cockermouth was vested in the burgage tenants of the borough, of whom there were about 300 in 1832. Cockermouth was considered a pocket borough, with the vast majority of the voters being under the influence of the Lowther family.

At the time of the 1831 census, the borough included just over 1,000 houses and had a population of 4,536. The Reform Act expanded the boundaries to bring in the neighbouring parishes of Eaglesfield, Brigham, Papcastle and Bridekirk, and part of Dovenby, increasing the population to 6,022 and encompassing 1,325 houses. This made the borough big enough to retain both its members. However, in the next wave of reform, introduced at the 1868 general election, one of Cockermouth's two seats was withdrawn, and in 1885 the borough was abolished altogether, although the name was transferred to the surrounding county constituency.

The county constituency (1885-1918)

The Cockermouth constituency created in 1885, strictly speaking The Cockermouth Division of Cumberland, was a compact division stretching westwards from Cockermouth to the sea, and including the much larger town of Workington. There was a significant Irish vote, and the Conservative victory in 1885 and subsequent Liberal gain of the seat in 1886 have been attributed to Parnell's shift of support from the one party to the other.

The constituency was divided between the new Workington and Penrith and Cockermouth divisions of Cumberland from 1918.

Members of Parliament

Cockermouth re-enfranchised by Parliament in Nov 1640

MPs 1641–1868

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1641	Sir John Fenwick, Bt [1]	Parliamentarian	Sir John Hippisley	Parliamentarian
		1642	Seat vacant through double return [2]
		1645	Francis Allen
		1653	Cockermouth was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
		January 1659	John Stapleton		Wilfrid Lawson
		May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
		1660	Richard Tolson		Sir Wilfrid Lawson
		1661	Hugh Potter
		1662	Robert Scawen
		1670	John Clarke
		1675	Sir Richard Grahme
		1679			Sir Orlando Gee
		1685	Sir Daniel Fleming
		1689	Sir Henry Capell		Henry Fletcher
		1690	Sir Orlando Gee		Sir Wilfrid Lawson
		1695	Sir Charles Gerard		Goodwin Wharton	Whig
		1698	George Fletcher	Whig	William Seymour
		1701	Goodwin Wharton	Whig
		February 1702	Thomas Lamplugh
		July 1702			James Stanhope	Whig
		1708	Albemarle Bertie
		1710	Nicholas Lechmere
		1713			Joseph Musgrave
		1715			James Stanhope	Whig
		April 1717			Sir Thomas Pengelly
		July 1717	Lord Percy Seymour [3]
		1721	Anthony Lowther
		1722	Sir Wilfrid Lawson
		1727			William Finch
		1738	Eldred Curwen
		1741	Sir John Mordaunt
		July 1747			Sir Charles Wyndham [4]
		December 1747			William Finch
		1754			Percy Wyndham-O'Brien [5]
		1761			Charles Jenkinson
		1767			Captain John Elliot, RN
		March 1768	Charles Jenkinson		Sir George Macartney
		May 1768	Captain George Johnstone, RN [6]	Independent
		1769			Sir James Lowther
		1774			Fletcher Norton[7]
		1775	Ralph Gowland		James Adair
		1780	John Baynes Garforth	Tory	John Lowther	Tory
		1784	James Clarke Satterthwaite	Tory
		1786			Humphrey Senhouse	Tory
		1790	John Baynes Garforth	Tory	Sir John Anstruther, 1st and 4th Baronet	Tory
		1796			Edward Burrow	Tory
		1800			Walter Spencer Stanhope	Tory
		1802	James Graham	Tory	Robert Plumer Ward	Tory
		1805	Viscount Garlies	Tory
		1806	John Lowther	Tory	James Graham	Tory
		January 1807	Lord Binning	Tory
		May 1807	John Lowther	Tory
		July 1807	John Osborn	Tory
		1808	Viscount Lowther	Tory
		October 1812			John Lowther	Tory
		December 1812			Augustus John Foster	Tory
		1813			Thomas Wallace	Tory
		1816	John Henry Lowther	Tory
		1818			Sir John Beckett	Tory
		1821			William Wilson Carus Wilson	Tory
		1826	Viscount Garlies	Tory
		1827			Laurence Peel	Tory
		1830			Philip Pleydell-Bouverie	Tory
		1831	John Henry Lowther	Tory	Sir James Scarlett	Tory
		1832	Henry Aglionby Aglionby	Whig	Fretchville Lawson Ballantine Dykes	Whig
		1836			Edward Horsman	Whig
		1852			Henry Wyndham	Conservative
		1854	John Steel	Liberal
		1857			Lord Naas	Conservative
		April 1868	Green Thompson	Conservative
1868			Representation reduced to one member

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MPs 1868–1885

Election		Member	Party
	1868	Isaac Fletcher	Liberal
	1879 by-election	William Fletcher	Liberal
	1880	Edward Waugh	Liberal
	1885	Borough abolished; name transferred to county division

MPs 1885–1918

Cockermouth Division of Cumberland

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Charles James Valentine	Conservative
	1886	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	Liberal
	1900	Sir John Scurrah Randles	Conservative
	January 1906	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	Liberal
	August 1906 by-election	Sir John Scurrah Randles	Conservative
	December 1910	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	Liberal
	1916 by-election	Joseph Bliss	Liberal
	1918	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1906 Cockermouth[8] Electorate 11,700
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	5,349	52.8	+4.1
	Conservative	Sir John Scurrah Randles	4,786	47.2	-4.1
Majority			563	5.6	8.2
Turnout				86.6	+10.0
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+4.1

Cockermouth by-election, 1906[9] Electorate 11,700
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Scurrah Randles	4,593	46.2	-1.0
	Liberal	Frederick Edward Guest	3,903	39.3	-13.5
	Ind. Labour Party	Robert Smillie	1,436	14.5	n/a
Majority			690	6.9	12.5
Turnout			9,932	84.9	-1.7
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+6.2

Elections in the 1910s

General Election January 1910 Cockermouth[10] Electorate 11,328
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Scurrah Randles	4,579	45.2	-1.0
	Liberal	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	3,638	35.9	-3.4
	Labour	J.P. Whitehead	1,909	18.9	+4.4
Majority			941	9.3	+2.4
Turnout				89.4	+4.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.2

General Election December 1910 Cockermouth[11] Electorate 11,328
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	5,003	52.7	+16.8
	Conservative	Sir John Scurrah Randles	4,492	47.3	+2.1
Majority			511	5.4	14.7
Turnout				83.8	-5.6
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+7.4

References

1. Fenwick was later elected for Northumberland, which he chose to represent, and ceased to sit for Cockermouth
2. The election to replace Fenwick was disputed, and the Returning Officer made a double return, i.e. reported both candidates - Sir Thomas Sandford, Bt and Francis Allen - as elected, leaving Parliament to decide. The dispute was still unresolved when Sandford was declared disabled from sitting because of his Royalist sympathies in January 1644; Allen was admitted to sit in 1645.
3. In a by-election in 1717, Seymour was defeated by Sir Wilfrid Lawson by 90 votes to 84, but Lawson was underage, and on petition Seymour was declared elected
4. Wyndham was also elected for Taunton, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Cockermouth
5. Created Earl of Thomond (in the peerage of Ireland), 1756
6. Johnstone was re-elected at the general election of 1774, but was also elected for Appleby, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Cockermouth in this parliament
7. Norton was also elected for Carlisle, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Cockermouth
8. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
9. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
10. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
11. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)

• 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)
• F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885" (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Michael Kinnear, "The British Voter" (London: Batsford, 1968)
• J Holladay Philbin, "Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
• Henry Stooks Smith, "The Parliaments of England from 1715 to 1847" (2nd edition, edited by FWS Craig - Chichester: Parliamentary Reference Publications, 1973)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
• "The Constitutional Yearbook, 1913" (London: National Unionist Association, 1913)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)