Whitby (UK Parliament constituency)

This article is about the abolished British parliamentary constituency. For the Canadian riding of the same name, see Whitby (federal electoral district).

Whitby
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Whitby in Yorkshire, 1885-1918
1832–1885
Seats	One
Created from	Yorkshire
Replaced by	Whitby
1885–1918
Seats	One
Type of constituency	County constituency
Created from	North Riding of Yorkshire and Whitby
Replaced by	Scarborough and Whitby and Thirsk and Malton

Whitby was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Whitby in North Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

History

The constituency was created by the Great Reform Act for the 1832 general election as a parliamentary borough, Whitby being at that point one of the most prosperous towns in England which had not previously been represented. (Whitby had been summoned to send members to the Protectorate Parliaments during the Civil War period, but never at any other time.) It consisted of Whitby itself and the adjoining townships of Ruswarp, Hawsker and Stainsacre, and had a population of just over 10,000.

Whitby's shipbuilding industry had been in decline even before the new borough was established, and by 1885 a separate MP for the town could no longer be justified. However, when the borough was abolished the county constituency which absorbed it was also named Whitby (strictly, the Whitby Division of the North Riding of Yorkshire): it contained all the easternmost part of the Riding apart from Scarborough (which remained a separate borough), stretching south-west to Pickering which was the only other town in the constituency.

The Whitby division was abolished for the 1918 general election, when it was partially replaced by the new Scarborough & Whitby constituency.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1832	Aaron Chapman	Tory [1]
	1834		Conservative [1]
	1847	Robert Stephenson	Conservative
	1859 by-election	Harry Thompson	Liberal
	1865	Charles Bagnall	Conservative
	1868	William Henry Gladstone	Liberal
	1880	Arthur Pease	Liberal
	1885	Ernest Beckett	Conservative
	1905 by-election	Noel Buxton	Liberal
	1906	Gervase Beckett	Conservative
	1918	constituency abolished: see Scarborough and Whitby

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

General election 1832: Whitby ^{[2] [1]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Tory	Aaron Chapman	217	61.0
	Whig	Richard Moorson [3]	139	39.0
Majority			78	22.0
Turnout			356	84.4
Registered electors			422
	Tory win (new seat)

General election 1835: Whitby ^{[2] [1]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Aaron Chapman	Unopposed
Registered electors			432
	Conservative hold

General election 1837: Whitby ^{[2] [1]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Aaron Chapman	Unopposed
Registered electors			458
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1840s

General election 1841: Whitby ^{[2] [1]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Aaron Chapman	Unopposed
Registered electors			424
	Conservative hold

General election 1847: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Stephenson	Unopposed
Registered electors			403
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1850s

General election 1852: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Stephenson	218	66.7	N/A
	Whig	Edmund Phipps [4]	109	33.3	New
Majority			109	33.4	N/A
Turnout			327	72.0	N/A
Registered electors			454
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1857: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Stephenson	Unopposed
Registered electors			532
	Conservative hold

General election 1859: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Robert Stephenson	Unopposed
Registered electors			647
	Conservative hold

Stephenson's death caused a by-election.

By-election, 23 November 1859: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Harry Thompson	229	54.7	New
	Conservative	Thomas Chapman [5]	190	45.3	N/A
Majority			39	9.4	N/A
Turnout			419	64.8	N/A
Registered electors			647
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1865: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Bagnall	305	52.0	N/A
	Liberal	Harry Thompson	282	48.0	N/A
Majority			23	4.0	N/A
Turnout			587	83.5	N/A
Registered electors			703
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1868: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Henry Gladstone	894	63.3	+15.3
	Conservative	Sir William Cayley Worsley, 2nd Baronet	518	36.7	−15.3
Majority			376	26.6	N/A
Turnout			1,412	68.6	−14.9
Registered electors			2,058
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+15.3

Gladstone was appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, requiring a by-election.

By-election, 18 November 1869: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Henry Gladstone	779	56.7	−6.6
	Conservative	Sir William Cayley Worsley, 2nd Baronet	596	43.3	+6.6
Majority			183	13.4	−13.2
Turnout			1,375	66.8	−1.8
Registered electors			2,058
	Liberal hold		Swing	−6.6

Elections in the 1870s

General election 1874: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Henry Gladstone	873	53.7	−9.6
	Conservative	Charles Bagnall	754	46.3	+9.6
Majority			119	7.4	−19.2
Turnout			1,627	78.6	+10.0
Registered electors			2,069
	Liberal hold		Swing	−9.6

Elections in the 1880s

Pease

General election 1880: Whitby ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Pease	1,072	60.5	+6.8
	Conservative	Robert Mowbray [6]	699	39.5	−6.8
Majority			373	21.0	+13.6
Turnout			1,771	81.9	+3.3
Registered electors			2,163
	Liberal hold		Swing	+6.8

At the 1885 election the constituency was redrawn to include Pickering and the hinterlands of Scarborough.

General election 1885: Whitby ^{[7] [8] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Beckett-Denison	5,049	51.7	+12.2
	Liberal	Arthur Pease	4,709	48.3	−12.2
Majority			340	3.4	N/A
Turnout			9,758	86.0	+4.1
Registered electors			11,350
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+12.2

General election 1886: Whitby ^{[7] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Beckett	5,078	56.3	+4.6
	Liberal	James Menzies Clayhills [10]	3,940	43.7	−4.6
Majority			1,138	12.6	+9.2
Turnout			9,018	79.5	−6.5
Registered electors			11,350
	Conservative hold		Swing	+4.6

Elections in the 1890s

General election 1892: Whitby ^{[7] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Beckett	4,909	56.2	−0.1
	Liberal	H Frank Pyman	3,826	43.8	+0.1
Majority			1,083	12.4	−0.2
Turnout			8,735	80.8	+1.3
Registered electors			10,804
	Conservative hold		Swing	−0.1

General election 1895: Whitby ^{[7] [11] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Beckett	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Whitby ^{[7] [11] [12]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Beckett	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Buxton

1905 Whitby by-election ^{[12] [7]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Noel Buxton	4,547	52.6	New
	Conservative	Gervase Beckett	4,102	47.4	N/A
Majority			445	5.2	N/A
Turnout			8,649	79.7	N/A
Registered electors			10,857
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	N/A

Beckett

General election 1906: Whitby ^{[12] [7]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gervase Beckett	4,780	50.4	N/A
	Liberal	Noel Buxton	4,709	49.6	N/A
Majority			71	0.8	N/A
Turnout			9,489	84.2	N/A
Registered electors			11,263
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1910s

Jardine

General election January 1910: Whitby ^{[12] [13]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gervase Beckett	5,161	52.9	+2.5
	Liberal	James Jardine	4,602	47.1	−2.5
Majority			559	5.8	+5.0
Turnout			9,763	87.2	+3.0
Registered electors			11,200
	Conservative hold		Swing	+2.5

General election December 1910: Whitby ^{[13] [9]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gervase Beckett	4,960	52.4	−0.5
	Liberal	Walter Herbert Septimus Pyman	4,508	47.6	+0.5
Majority			452	4.8	−1.0
Turnout			9,468	84.5	−2.7
Registered electors			11,200
	Conservative hold		Swing	−0.5

General Election 1914–15:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: Gervase Beckett
• Liberal:

References

1. Stooks Smith, Henry (1845). The Parliaments of England, from 1st George I., to the Present Time. Vol II: Oxfordshire to Wales Inclusive. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co. p.  172 . Retrieved 23 December 2018– via Internet Archive.
2. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. ISBN   978-1-349-02349-3.
3. The Tourist: A Literary and Anti-slavery Journal, Volume 1. London: John Crisp. 1833. p.  16 . Retrieved 30 April 2020– via Internet Archive.
4. "Whitby Election" . Hull Packet. 9 July 1852. p. 8. Retrieved 22 July 2018– via British Newspaper Archive.
5. "To the Free and Electors of the Borough of Whitby" . Whitby Gazette. 5 November 1859. p. 4. Retrieved 22 July 2018– via British Newspaper Archive.
6. "Whitby Borough Election" . Whitby Gazette . 5 June 1880. p. 4. Retrieved 14 December 2017– via British Newspaper Archive.
7. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
8. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
9. Craig, FWS, ed. (1974). British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN   9781349022984.
10. "The General Election" . Bristol Mercury . 8 July 1886. p. 8. Retrieved 14 December 2017– via British Newspaper Archive.
11. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
12. British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
13. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 3)