This is a list of the Members of Parliament appointed as Steward of the Manor of East Hendred, a notional 'office of profit under the crown' which was used to resign from the House of Commons. Appointment of an MP to the office was first made in 1763. The Manor of East Hendred was sold by the Crown in 1823, but through oversight, appointments to the post of Steward continued until 1840, after which it was discontinued for parliamentary purposes in favour of other stewardships. The last steward died in 1851.
Members of Parliament (MPs) sitting in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom are not permitted to resign their seats. To circumvent this prohibition, MPs who wish to step down were instead appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown", which disqualified them from sitting in Parliament. For this purpose, a legal fiction was maintained where two unpaid offices are considered to be offices of profit: Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, and Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. Although since the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 general "offices for profit" are no longer disqualifying, the explicit lists of hundreds of offices that are disqualifying now contains these two stewardships so this tradition can be continued. It is rare for an MP to be nominated to a legitimate office of profit; no MP lost their seat by being appointed to an actual office between 1981, when Thomas Williams became a judge, and 2022, when Rosie Cooper became the chair of an NHS foundation trust.
Northstead is an area on the North Bay of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. The area near Newlands and Barrowcliff includes Peasholm Park and Scarborough Open Air Theatre.
The Chiltern Hundreds is an ancient administrative area in Buckinghamshire, England, composed of three "hundreds" and lying partially within the Chiltern Hills. "Taking the Chiltern Hundreds" refers to one of the legal fictions used to effect resignation from the British House of Commons. Since Members of Parliament are not permitted to resign, they are instead appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown", which requires MPs to vacate their seats. The ancient office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, having been reduced to a mere sinecure by the 17th century, was first used by John Pitt in 1751 to vacate his seat in the House of Commons. Other titles were also later used for the same purpose, but only those of the Chiltern Hundreds and the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead are still in use.
Captain William Stephen Sanders was a British Labour Party politician.
The 1940 Leeds North East by-election was a parliamentary by-election in England held on 13 March 1940 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the House of Commons constituency of Leeds North East.
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