Cockermouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Cockermouth division of Cumberland
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1918
Replaced by	Workington and Penrith and Cockermouth
Created from	West Cumberland and Cockermouth
1641–1885
Replaced by	Cockermouth
Created from	Cumberland
1295–1295
Replaced by	Cumberland
Created from	Cumberland

Cockermouth was the name of a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England in 1295, and again from 1641, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. It was a parliamentary borough represented by two Members of Parliament until 1868, and by one member from 1868 to 1885. The name was then transferred to a county constituency electing one MP from 1885 until 1918.

Notable MPs have included the regicide, Francis Allen.

The borough constituency (until 1885) 1
The county constituency (1885-1918) 2
Members of Parliament 3
- MPs 1641–1868 3.1
- MPs 1868–1885 3.2
- MPs 1885–1918 3.3
Elections 4
- Elections in the 1900s 4.1
- Elections in the 1910s 4.2
References 5

The borough constituency (until 1885)

Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo

Until the Great Reform Act of 1832, the constituency consisted solely of the market town of Cockermouth in Cumberland. It first returned members to the Model Parliament of 1295, but its franchise then seems to have lapsed until 1641, when the Long Parliament passed a resolution (15 February 1641) to restore its ancient privileges.

The right of election in Cockermouth was vested in the burgage tenants of the borough, of whom there were about 300 in 1832. Cockermouth was considered a pocket borough, with the vast majority of the voters being under the influence of the Lowther family.

At the time of the 1831 census, the borough included just over 1,000 houses and had a population of 4,536. The Reform Act expanded the boundaries to bring in the neighbouring parishes of Eaglesfield, Brigham, Papcastle and Bridekirk, and part of Dovenby, increasing the population to 6,022 and encompassing 1,325 houses. This made the borough big enough to retain both its members. However, in the next wave of reform, introduced at the 1868 general election, one of Cockermouth's two seats was withdrawn, and in 1885 the borough was abolished altogether, although the name was transferred to the surrounding county constituency.

The county constituency (1885-1918)

The Cockermouth constituency created in 1885, strictly speaking The Cockermouth Division of Cumberland, was a compact division stretching westwards from Cockermouth to the sea, and including the much larger town of Workington. There was a significant Irish vote, and the Conservative victory in 1885 and subsequent Liberal gain of the seat in 1886 have been attributed to Parnell's shift of support from the one party to the other.

The constituency was divided between the new Workington and Penrith and Cockermouth divisions of Cumberland from 1918.

Members of Parliament

Cockermouth re-enfranchised by Parliament in Nov 1640

MPs 1641–1868

Year		First member	First party	Second member	Second party
	1641	Sir John Fenwick, Bt ^[1]	Parliamentarian	Sir John Hippisley	Parliamentarian
	1642	Seat vacant through double return ^[2]
	1645	Francis Allen
	1653	Cockermouth was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
	January 1659	John Stapleton		Wilfrid Lawson
	May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
	1660	Richard Tolson		Sir Wilfrid Lawson
	1661	Hugh Potter
	1662	Robert Scawen
	1670	John Clarke
	1675	Sir Richard Grahme
	1679	Sir Richard Grahme		Sir Orlando Gee
	1685	Sir Daniel Fleming		Sir Orlando Gee
	1689	Sir Henry Capell		Henry Fletcher
	1690	Sir Orlando Gee		Sir Wilfrid Lawson
	1695	Sir Charles Gerard		Goodwin Wharton	Whig
	1698	George Fletcher	Whig	William Seymour
	1701	Goodwin Wharton	Whig
	February 1702	Thomas Lamplugh
	July 1702	Thomas Lamplugh		James Stanhope	Whig
	1708	Albemarle Bertie
	1710	Nicholas Lechmere
	1713			Joseph Musgrave
	1715			James Stanhope	Whig
	April 1717			Sir Thomas Pengelly
	July 1717	Lord Percy Seymour ^[3]
	1721	Anthony Lowther
	1722	Sir Wilfrid Lawson
	1727	Sir Wilfrid Lawson		William Finch
	1738	Eldred Curwen
	1741	Sir John Mordaunt
	July 1747			Sir Charles Wyndham ^[4]
	December 1747			William Finch
	1754			Percy Wyndham-O'Brien ^[5]
	1761			Charles Jenkinson
	1767			Captain John Elliot, RN
	March 1768	Charles Jenkinson		Sir George Macartney
	May 1768	[6]	Independent	Sir George Macartney
	1769			Sir James Lowther
	1774			Fletcher Norton^[7]
	1775	Ralph Gowland		James Adair
	1780	John Baynes Garforth	Tory	John Lowther	Tory
	1784	James Clarke Satterthwaite	Tory	John Lowther	Tory
	1786	James Clarke Satterthwaite	Tory	Humphrey Senhouse	Tory
	1790	John Baynes Garforth	Tory	Sir John Anstruther, 1st and 4th Baronet	Tory
	1796			Edward Burrow	Tory
	1800			Walter Spencer Stanhope	Tory
	1802	James Graham	Tory	Robert Plumer Ward	Tory
	1805	Viscount Garlies	Tory	Robert Plumer Ward	Tory
	1806	John Lowther	Tory	James Graham	Tory
	January 1807	Lord Binning	Tory
	May 1807	John Lowther	Tory
	July 1807	John Osborn	Tory
	1808	Viscount Lowther	Tory
	October 1812			John Lowther	Tory
	December 1812			Augustus John Foster	Tory
	1813			Thomas Wallace	Tory
	1816	John Henry Lowther	Tory	Thomas Wallace	Tory
	1818			Sir John Beckett	Tory
	1821			William Wilson Carus Wilson	Tory
	1826	Viscount Garlies	Tory	William Wilson Carus Wilson	Tory
	1827			Lawrence Peel	Tory
	1830			Philip Pleydell-Bouverie	Tory
	1831	John Henry Lowther	Tory	Sir James Scarlett	Tory
	1832	Henry Aglionby Aglionby	Whig	Fretchville Lawson Ballantine Dykes	Whig
	1836			Edward Horsman	Whig
	1852			Henry Wyndham	Conservative
	1854	John Steel	Liberal	Henry Wyndham	Conservative
	1857	John Steel	Liberal	Lord Naas	Conservative
	April 1868	Green Thompson	Conservative	Lord Naas	Conservative
1868		Representation reduced to one member

Notes

^ Fenwick was later elected for Northumberland, which he chose to represent, and ceased to sit for Cockermouth
^ The election to replace Fenwick was disputed, and the Returning Officer made a double return, i.e. reported both candidates - Sir Thomas Sandford, Bt and Francis Allen - as elected, leaving Parliament to decide. The dispute was still unresolved when Sandford was declared disabled from sitting because of his Royalist sympathies in January 1644; Allen was admitted to sit in 1645.
^ In a by-election in 1717, Seymour was defeated by Sir Wilfrid Lawson by 90 votes to 84, but Lawson was underage, and on petition Seymour was declared elected
^ Wyndham was also elected for Taunton, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Cockermouth
^ Created Earl of Thomond (in the peerage of Ireland), 1756
^ Johnstone was re-elected at the general election of 1774, but was also elected for Appleby, which he chose to represent, and did not sit for Cockermouth in this parliament
^ Norton was also elected for Carlisle, which he chose to represent, and never sat for Cockermouth

MPs 1868–1885

	Member	Party
1868	Isaac Fletcher	Liberal
1879 by-election	William Fletcher	Liberal
1880	Edward Waugh	Liberal
1885	Borough abolished; name transferred to county division

MPs 1885–1918

Cockermouth Division of Cumberland

	Member	Party
1885	Charles James Valentine	Conservative
1886	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	Liberal
1900	Sir John Scurrah Randles	Conservative
January 1906	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	Liberal
August 1906 by-election	Sir John Scurrah Randles	Conservative
December 1910	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	Liberal
1916 by-election	Joseph Bliss	Liberal
1918	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1906 Cockermouth^[1] Electorate 11,700
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Wilfrid Lawson	5,349	52.8	+4.1
	Conservative	Sir John Scurrah Randles	4,786	47.2	-4.1
Majority			563	5.6	8.2
Turnout				86.6	+10.0
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+4.1

Cockermouth by-election, 1906^[2] Electorate 11,700
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir John Scurrah Randles	4,593	46.2	-1.0
	Liberal	Frederick Edward Guest	3,903	39.3	-13.5
Majority			690	6.9	12.5
Turnout			9,932	84.9	-1.7
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+6.2

Elections in the 1910s

General Election January 1910 Cockermouth^[3] Electorate 11,328
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Majority			941	9.3	+2.4
Turnout				89.4	+4.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.2

General Election December 1910 Cockermouth^[4] Electorate 11,328
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
Majority			511	5.4	14.7
Turnout				83.8	-5.6
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+7.4

References

-- Module:Hatnote -- -- -- -- This module produces hatnote links and links to related articles. It -- -- implements the and meta-templates and includes -- -- helper functions for other Lua hatnote modules. --

local libraryUtil = require('libraryUtil') local checkType = libraryUtil.checkType local mArguments -- lazily initialise Module:Arguments local yesno -- lazily initialise Module:Yesno

local p = {}

-- Helper functions

local function getArgs(frame) -- Fetches the arguments from the parent frame. Whitespace is trimmed and -- blanks are removed. mArguments = require('Module:Arguments') return mArguments.getArgs(frame, {parentOnly = true}) end

local function removeInitialColon(s) -- Removes the initial colon from a string, if present. return s:match('^:?(.*)') end

function p.findNamespaceId(link, removeColon) -- Finds the namespace id (namespace number) of a link or a pagename. This -- function will not work if the link is enclosed in double brackets. Colons -- are trimmed from the start of the link by default. To skip colon -- trimming, set the removeColon parameter to true. checkType('findNamespaceId', 1, link, 'string') checkType('findNamespaceId', 2, removeColon, 'boolean', true) if removeColon ~= false then link = removeInitialColon(link) end local namespace = link:match('^(.-):') if namespace then local nsTable = mw.site.namespaces[namespace] if nsTable then return nsTable.id end end return 0 end

function p.formatPages(...) -- Formats a list of pages using formatLink and returns it as an array. Nil -- values are not allowed. local pages = {...} local ret = {} for i, page in ipairs(pages) do ret[i] = p._formatLink(page) end return ret end

function p.formatPageTables(...) -- Takes a list of page/display tables and returns it as a list of -- formatted links. Nil values are not allowed. local pages = {...} local links = {} for i, t in ipairs(pages) do checkType('formatPageTables', i, t, 'table') local link = t[1] local display = t[2] links[i] = p._formatLink(link, display) end return links end

function p.makeWikitextError(msg, helpLink, addTrackingCategory) -- Formats an error message to be returned to wikitext. If -- addTrackingCategory is not false after being returned from -- Module:Yesno, and if we are not on a talk page, a tracking category -- is added. checkType('makeWikitextError', 1, msg, 'string') checkType('makeWikitextError', 2, helpLink, 'string', true) yesno = require('Module:Yesno') local title = mw.title.getCurrentTitle() -- Make the help link text. local helpText if helpLink then helpText = ' (help)' else helpText = end -- Make the category text. local category if not title.isTalkPage and yesno(addTrackingCategory) ~= false then category = 'Hatnote templates with errors' category = string.format( '%s:%s', mw.site.namespaces[14].name, category ) else category = end return string.format( '%s', msg, helpText, category ) end

-- Format link -- -- Makes a wikilink from the given link and display values. Links are escaped -- with colons if necessary, and links to sections are detected and displayed -- with " § " as a separator rather than the standard MediaWiki "#". Used in -- the template.

function p.formatLink(frame) local args = getArgs(frame) local link = args[1] local display = args[2] if not link then return p.makeWikitextError( 'no link specified', 'Template:Format hatnote link#Errors', args.category ) end return p._formatLink(link, display) end

function p._formatLink(link, display) -- Find whether we need to use the colon trick or not. We need to use the -- colon trick for categories and files, as otherwise category links -- categorise the page and file links display the file. checkType('_formatLink', 1, link, 'string') checkType('_formatLink', 2, display, 'string', true) link = removeInitialColon(link) local namespace = p.findNamespaceId(link, false) local colon if namespace == 6 or namespace == 14 then colon = ':' else colon = end -- Find whether a faux display value has been added with the | magic -- word. if not display then local prePipe, postPipe = link:match('^(.-)|(.*)$') link = prePipe or link display = postPipe end -- Find the display value. if not display then local page, section = link:match('^(.-)#(.*)$') if page then display = page .. ' § ' .. section end end -- Assemble the link. if display then return string.format('%s', colon, link, display) else return string.format('%s%s', colon, link) end end

-- Hatnote -- -- Produces standard hatnote text. Implements the template.

function p.hatnote(frame) local args = getArgs(frame) local s = args[1] local options = {} if not s then return p.makeWikitextError( 'no text specified', 'Template:Hatnote#Errors', args.category ) end options.extraclasses = args.extraclasses options.selfref = args.selfref return p._hatnote(s, options) end

function p._hatnote(s, options) checkType('_hatnote', 1, s, 'string') checkType('_hatnote', 2, options, 'table', true) local classes = {'hatnote'} local extraclasses = options.extraclasses local selfref = options.selfref if type(extraclasses) == 'string' then classes[#classes + 1] = extraclasses end if selfref then classes[#classes + 1] = 'selfref' end return string.format( '

', table.concat(classes, ' '), s )

end

return p-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Module:Hatnote -- -- -- -- This module produces hatnote links and links to related articles. It -- -- implements the and meta-templates and includes -- -- helper functions for other Lua hatnote modules. --