Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T13:08:26.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political Party Representation and Electoral Politics in England and Wales, 1690–1747

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2016

Dan Bogart
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Whig and Tory parties played an important role in British politics in the decades following the Glorious Revolution. This article introduces new data on the political affiliation of all Members of Parliament in England and Wales between 1690 and 1747. The data have numerous applications for research. The focus here is on majority party representation and the electoral politics of constituencies. I show that the Whigs had stronger representation in municipal boroughs with small and narrow electorates, whereas the Tories were stronger in county constituencies and in boroughs with large and more democratic electorates. The Whigs were stronger in the Southeast region and the Tories in Wales and the West Midlands. After the Whig leader, Robert Walpole, became prime minister in 1721 the Whigs lost some presence in their traditional strongholds including counties where the Dissenter population was large. Finally, I incorporate data on electoral contests and show that the majority party generally lost strength in constituencies following contests.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , Summer 2016 , pp. 271 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association, 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Black, J. (1990) Robert Walpole and the Nature of Politics in Early Eighteenth-Century Britain. London: Macmillan Education.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, I. F., Riley, P. W. J., Rowlands, E., and Rowlands, T. (1968) Political Parties in the Reigns of William III and Anne: The Evidence of Division Lists. Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, special supplement no. 7. London: University of London, Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Chandler, R. (1742–44) The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons. Vol. 14. London: Richard Chandler.Google Scholar
Clark, J. C. D. (1978) “The decline of party, 1740–1760.” English Historical Review 93 (368): 499–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cobbett, W. (1811) Parliamentary History of England 1066–1803, 36 vols. http://library.truman.edu/microforms/parliamentary_debates.asp.Google Scholar
Colley, Linda (1982) In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party 1714–1760. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, G. W. (2010) “Swing voters, core voters, and distributive politics,” in Shapiro, I. (ed.) Political Representation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 342–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary (2011) “War, moral hazard and ministerial responsibility: England after the Glorious Revolution.” Journal of Economic History 71 (1): 133–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruickshanks, Eveline (1984) “The political management of Sir Robert Walpole, 1720–1742,” in Black, Jeremy (ed.) Britain in the Age of Walpole. London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Cruickshanks, Eveline, and Hayton, D. W. (1995) “Introduction, the House of Commons, 1660–1760,” in Ditchfield, G. M., Hayton, David, and Jones, Clyve (eds.) British Parliamentary Lists, 1660–1800. London: Hambledon Press.Google Scholar
Cruickshanks, Eveline, Handley, Stuart, and Hayton, D. W., eds. (2002) The House of Commons, 1690–1715. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Great Britain Parliament, House of Commons (1730) A True List of All Such Gentlemen of the House of Commons: As Voted for and against the Question for Granting the Sum of 241,259l. 1s. 3d. for Defraying the Expence of Twelve Thousand Hessian Troops, in the Pay of Great Britain for the Year MDCCXXX. London: R. Whirlpool.Google Scholar
Hanham, Andrew (1996) “Early Whig opposition to the Walpole administration: The evidence of Francis Gwyn's division list on the Wells election case, 1723.” Parliamentary History 15 (3): 333–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, Tim (1993) Politics under the Later Stuarts: Party Conflict in a Divided Society 1660–1715. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Hayton, D. (2002) “Introductory survey and appendices,” in Cruickshanks, Eveline, Handley, Stuart, and Hayton, D. W. (eds.) The House of Commons, 1690–1715. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hill, Brian W. (1976) The Growth of Parliamentary Parties 1689–1742. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Holmes, G. (1967) British Politics in the Age of Anne. London: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Horwitz, Henry (1966) “Parties, connections and parliamentary politics, 1689–1714: Review and revision.” Journal of British Studies 6 (1): 45–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horwitz, Henry (1977) Parliament, Policy, and Politics in the Reign of William III. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Namier, Lewis Bernstein (1957) The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III. London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Newman, A. N. (1970) “Political parties in the reigns of William III and Anne: The evidence of division lists: A supplementary note.” Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 43 (108): 231–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Gorman, Frank (1989) Voters, Patrons, and Parties: The Unreformed Electoral System of Hanoverian England, 1734–1832. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Owen, J. B. (1962) The Pattern of Politics in Eighteenth Century England. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pincus, Steven (2009) 1688: The First Modern Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Plumb, J. H. (1967) The Growth of Political Stability in England 1675–1725. London: MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Nicholas (1989) Whigs and Cities: Popular Politics in the Age of Walpole and Pitt. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, Romney, ed. (1970) The House of Commons, 1715–1754. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, Henry L. (1972) “Party configurations in the early-eighteenth-century House of Commons.” Historical Research 45 (111): 35–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Speck, W. A. (1964) “The choice of a speaker in 1705.” Historical Research 37 (95): 20–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Speck, W. A. (1970) Tory and Whig: The Struggle in the Constituencies, 1701–1715. London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Stasavage, D. (2003) Public Debt and the Birth of the Democratic State: France and Great Britain, 1688–1789. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, Peter D. G. (1987) “Party politics in eighteenth-century Britain: Some myths and a touch of reality.” Journal for Eighteenth Century Studies 10 (2): 201–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trevelyan, G. M. (2013) England under the Stuarts. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walcott, Robert (1956) English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, M. R. (1978) The Dissenters. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Bogart supplementary material

Bogart supplementary material 1

Download Bogart supplementary material(File)
File 110.6 KB
Supplementary material: File

Bogart supplementary material

Bogart supplementary material 2

Download Bogart supplementary material(File)
File 211.3 KB
Supplementary material: File

Bogart supplementary material

Bogart supplementary material 3

Download Bogart supplementary material(File)
File 22.8 MB
Supplementary material: File

Bogart supplementary material

Bogart supplementary material 4

Download Bogart supplementary material(File)
File 69.3 MB