Wick Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)

Wick Burghs
Former District of Burghs constituency for the House of Commons
Major settlements	Cromarty, Dingwall, Dornoch, Kirkwall, Tain and Wick
1832–1918
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Caithness and Sutherland and Ross and Cromarty
Created from	Cromartyshire and Tain Burghs

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.

Boundaries

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.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[5]	Party
1832		constituency created
	1832	James Loch	Liberal
	1852	Samuel Laing	Liberal
	1857	Lord John Hay	Liberal
	1859	Samuel Laing	Liberal
	1860 by-election	William Coutts 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 Charles Hunter Hedderwick	Liberal
	1900	Sir Arthur Bignold	Conservative
	1910	Robert Munro	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

Wick District by-election, 1913[6] Electorate 3,094
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Robert Munro	1,577	58.2	+4.5
	Unionist	A.G. Mackenzie	1,134	41.8	-4.5
Majority			443	16.4	9.0
Turnout			2,711	87.6	-5.2
	Liberal hold		Swing	+4.5

General Election December 1910: Wick Burghs[7] Electorate 3,037
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Robert Munro	1,515	53.7	-1.2
	Unionist	Sir Arthur Bignold	1,304	46.3	+1.2
Majority			211	7.4	-2.4
Turnout			2,819	92.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-1.2

General Election Jan 1910: Wick Burghs[8] Electorate 3,037
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Robert Munro	1,537	54.9
	Unionist	Sir Arthur Bignold	1,262	45.1
Majority				9.8
Turnout
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing

General Election 1906: Wick Burghs[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Arthur Bignold	1,362
	Liberal	W. Thomson	1,266

General Election 1900: Wick Burghs[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	Arthur Bignold	1,154
	Liberal	Thomas Charles Hunter Hedderwick	1,041

By-election 2 Jun 1896: Wick Burghs[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Charles Hunter Hedderwick	1,054
	Liberal Unionist	William Charles Smith	842

General Election 1895: Wick Burghs[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	Sir John Pender GCMG	913
	Liberal	Thomas Charles Hunter Hedderwick	859

General Election 1892: Wick Burghs[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	Sir John Pender GCMG	952
	Liberal	John Macdonald Cameron	825

General Election 1886: Wick Burghs[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John McDonald Cameron	910
	Liberal Unionist	John Pender	686

General Election 1885: Wick Burghs[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John McDonald Cameron	913
	Liberal	John Pender	868

General Election 1868: Wick Burghs[16]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Loch	850
	Liberal	Samuel laing	634

See also

• List of former Parliamentary constituencies in the United Kingdom

Notes and references

1. For the burghs included see Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 and 1885-1918.
2. For the burghs included in Tain Burghs (and the pre-1832 franchise) see Namier and Brooke, The House of Commons, 1754-1790.
3. For the boundary changes in 1918 see Craig, Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972.
4. Representation of the People Act 1918, Ninth Schedule - Parliamentary Counties, Scotland
5. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 3)
6. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916
7. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918, Craig, F. W. S. (1974)
8. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916
9. Whitaker's Almanack, 1907
10. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
11. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
12. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
13. Whitaker's Almanack, 1893
14. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1889
15. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1889
16. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1870

Sources

• The House of Commons 1754-1790, by Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke (HMSO 1964)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F. W. S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1997)
• Chronology of British Parliamentary By-elections 1833-1987, compiled and edited by F. W. S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1987)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 3)
• Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1889 (for 1885 and 1886 results)
• Whitaker's Almanack, 1907 (for 1906 results)