Sheffield (UK Parliament constituency)

Sheffield
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
240px Sheffield borough constituency in 1832
County	West Riding of Yorkshire
1832–1885
Number of members	Two
Replaced by	Sheffield Attercliffe, Sheffield Brightside, Sheffield Ecclesall, Sheffield Hallam, and Sheffield Central
Created from	Yorkshire

Sheffield was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom 1832 to 1885. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) by the bloc vote system of elections.

The constituency encompassed the urban part of the town and parish (now city) of Sheffield, England, but not the western, rural, parts of Upper Hallam and Ecclesall Bierlow, which were incorporated into Sheffield Town Borough in 1843.

History

Before 1832 Sheffield had been represented by the Yorkshire constituency. The Sheffield Borough constituency was created by the Reform Act of 1832, and was given two MPs, the first time that the town had been represented in the House of Commons. Four candidates stood at the first election contesting these two seats. Voting took place on 13 and 14 December 1832, with the results declared on 15 December (see below). The election sparked a riot on 14 December, which resulted in the military being called out. The soldiers fired on the crowd, killing six people and injuring several others. Following the Redistribution of Seats Act in 1885, which sought to eliminate constituencies with more than one MP and give greater representation to urban areas, the Borough of Sheffield was sub-divided. The five new divisions—Attercliffe, Brightside, Ecclesall, Hallam, and Sheffield Central—each returned a single MP.

Members of Parliament

Two MPs were elected at each general election. The table below shows the election years in which one or both of the MPs changed.

Election	Member 1		Party	Member 2		Party
1832		John Parker	Whig		James Silk Buckingham	Radical
1837					Henry George Ward	Liberal
1849 by-election					John Arthur Roebuck	Non Partisan
1852		George Hadfield	Liberal
1868					A. J. Mundella	Liberal
1874		John Arthur Roebuck	Non Partisan
1879 by-election		Samuel Danks Waddy	Liberal
1880		Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley	Conservative
1885	constituency divided

The constituency was sub-divided in 1885. The sitting MPs, A. J. Mundella and Charles Stuart-Wortley subsequently stood for and won seats in one of the new constituencies (Sheffield Brightside and Sheffield Hallam respectively).

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

1880 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	A. J. Mundella	17,217	-	-
	Conservative	Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley	16,546	-
	Liberal	Samuel Danks Waddy	16,506	-
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

Elections in the 1870s

Sheffield by-election, 1879

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Samuel Danks Waddy	14,062
	Conservative	Charles Beilby Stuart-Wortley	13,584
Majority			478
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

1874 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	John Arthur Roebuck	14,193
	Liberal	A. J. Mundella	12,858
	Liberal	Joseph Chamberlain	11,053
	Liberal	Alfred Allott	621
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1860s

1868 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Hadfield	14,793
	Liberal	A. J. Mundella	12,212
	Non Partisan	John Arthur Roebuck	9,571
	Conservative	E. P. Price	5,272
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

1865 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	John Arthur Roebuck	3,410
	Liberal	George Hadfield	3,348
	Conservative	James Stuart-Wortley	2,626
	Liberal	T. C. Foster	1,576
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1850s

At the Sheffield by-election, 1859, John Arthur Roebuck was elected unopposed.

1857 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	John Arthur Roebuck	3,200
	Liberal	George Hadfield	2,871
	Conservative	Wilson Overend	2,095
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

1852 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Non Partisan	John Arthur Roebuck	2,092
	Liberal	George Hadfield	1,853
	Liberal	John Parker	1,580
	Conservative	Wilson Overend	1,180
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1840s

At the Sheffield by-election, 1849, John Arthur Roebuck was elected unopposed.

1847 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Parker	1,125
	Liberal	Henry George Ward	1,110
	Chartist	Thomas Clark	326
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

1841 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Parker	1,849
	Liberal	Henry George Ward	1,805
	Conservative	David Urquhart	503
	Conservative	W. Sheppard	457
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

Elections in the 1830s

1837 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Parker	2,186
	Liberal	Henry George Ward	1,976
	Conservative	John Thorneley	655		N/A
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Liberal hold		Swing

Sheffield by-election, 1836

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Parker	414	100.0	N/A
	Liberal	John Bell	0	0.0	N/A
Turnout			414	10.6
	Liberal hold		Swing

1835 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	John Parker	1,607
	Radical	James Silk Buckingham	1,554
	Whig	Samuel Bailey	1,434
Turnout				N/A	N/A
	Whig hold		Swing
	Radical hold		Swing

1832 General Election: Sheffield

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	John Parker	1,515	30.1	N/A
	Radical	James Silk Buckingham	1,498	29.7	N/A
	Radical	Thomas Asline Ward	1,210	24.0	N/A
	Whig	Samuel Bailey	813	16.1	N/A
Turnout			5036	N/A	N/A
	Whig hold		Swing	N/A
	Radical hold		Swing	N/A

External links

• Wikisource: Report on the Town of Sheffield; with a Description of the Proposed Boundary