1885 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

Main article: 1885 United Kingdom general election

1885 United Kingdom general election

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All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
First party Second party Third party   Leader William Ewart Gladstone Marquess of Salisbury Gavin Brown Clark Party Liberal Conservative Crofters Party Leader since April 1880 April 1881 Leader's seat Midlothian House of Lords Caithness Seats before 53 [a] 7 [a] 0 [a] Seats won 51 [a] 10 [a] 4 [a] Seat change 2 3 4 Popular vote 238,627 [b] 151,137 [b] 16,551 [b] Percentage 53.3% [b] 34.3% [b] 3.7% [b] Swing 16.8% [b] 4.4% [b] 3.7% [b]
Results of the 1885 election in Scotland   Liberal   Conservative   Independent Liberal   Crofters

A general election was held in the United Kingdom between 24 November and 18 December 1885 and members were returned for all 72 seats in Scotland. Scotland was allocated 70 territorial seats, comprising 32 burgh constituencies and 37 county constituencies, ^[c] and two university constituencies, Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities and Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities. As voters in university constituencies voted in addition to their territorial vote, the results are compiled separately. Scotland had gained 12 seats since the previous election as a result of the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, and the electorate had increased from 293,581 to 560,580 (out of 3,735,573 people registered as living in Scotland in the 1881 census) ^[1] as a result of the Representation of the People Act 1884 .

Of particular note was the splintering of the Liberal representation in Scotland. Some 7 MPs were returned as Independent Liberals, with Edinburgh in particular seeing 3 of its 4 constituencies return Independent Liberals.

In the western Highlands the Crofters Party emerged as the dominant force, taking four constituencies. The Independent Liberal MP elected for the Wick Burghs also aligned with the group. The emergence of the group was owed to the Representation of the People Act 1884, which had reduced the property qualifications for voters. As a result many crofters were able to vote for the first time in 1885. The Crofting Party worked in close collaboration with the Highland Land League, and opposed the lack of secure and tenure and the severely reduced access to land for crofters. ^[2]

Results

Seats Summary

Party		Seats	Last Election	Seats change
	Liberal	51	53	2
	Conservative	10	7	3
	Independent Liberal	7	0	7
	Independent Liberal & Crofters Party	4	0	4
Total		72	60	12

Burgh & County constituencies

Party		Seats [3]	Seats change	Votes [3]	%	% Change
	Liberal	51	2	238,627	53.3	16.8
	Conservative	8	2	151,137	34.3	4.4
	Independent Liberal & Crofters Party	4	4	16,551	3.7	3.7
	Independent Liberal	7	7	38,214	8.6	8.6
	Other	0
	Scottish Land Restoration League	0		2,359	0.5	0.5
Total		70	12	446,888	100

University constituencies

General election 1885: Edinburgh & St Andrews Universities

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Macdonald CB QC LLD	2,840	53.7%
	Liberal	John Eric Erichsen	2,453	46.3%
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing

General election 1885: Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Alexander Campbell	unopposed	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

Votes summary

Popular vote [b] Liberal   53.3% Conservative   34.3% Independents & Other   8.6% Crofters Party   3.7% Scottish Land Restoration League   0.5%

Parliamentary seats [a] Liberal   70.83% Conservative   13.89% Independents Liberals   9.72% Crofters Party   5.56%

See also

• History of Scotland § 19th century

Notes

1. Combined results for burgh, county and university seats
2. Total and percentage votes given here are for territorial constituencies only
3. One burgh seat, Dundee, was represented by two members of parliament.

References

1. "Population of Scotland". GENUKI. 8 March 2025. Retrieved 14 October 2025.
2. Chris Cook; Brendan Keith (1975). British Historical Facts, 1830–1900. Springer Verlag. pp. 96–97. ISBN   9781349013487.
3. Colin Rallings; Micheal Thrasher (2006). British Electoral Facts. Total Politics. p. 12. ISBN   978-1-907278-03-7.