The parliamentary borough of Andover, in the county of Hampshire (or as it was still sometimes known before about the eighteenth centuries, Southamptonshire), sent MPs to the parliaments of 1295 and 1302–1307. It was re-enfranchised as a two-member constituency in the reign of Elizabeth I of England. It elected MPs regularly from 1586.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]
The House of Commons decided, in 1689, that the elective franchise for the seat was limited to the twenty four members of the Andover corporation and not the freemen of the borough. This ruling was confirmed after another disputed election in 1727. Matthew Skinner and Abel Kettleby received the most votes, from many householders, but James Brudenell and Charles Colyear (Viscount Milsington) were declared elected for winning the most support from corporation members. Under the Reform Act 1832 the electorate was expanded by allowing householders, whose property was valued at £10 or more, to vote. There were 246 registered electors in 1832.
From the 1868 United Kingdom general election the constituency returned one member. The electorate was further extended, in 1868, to 775 registered electors.
Apart from the period between 1653 and 1658, Andover continued to be represented as a borough constituency until that was abolished in 1885. Immediately thereafter, from the 1885 United Kingdom general election, the town of Andover was combined with surrounding rural territory to form a county division of Hampshire, known formally as the Western or Andover division. The registered electorate for the expanded seat was 9,175 in 1885, and 9,460 in 1901.[10]
The constituency was based on the northern Hampshire town of Andover.
The Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832 (2 & 3 William IV, c. 64) defined the seat as "the respective parishes of Andover and Knights Enham, and the tithing of Foxcot". The boundaries were left unaltered, until the end of the borough constituency in 1885.
Under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the county division was defined as including the Sessional Divisions of Andover, and Kingsclere; with parts of the Sessional Divisions of Winchester, Romsey, and Basingstoke, and the Municipal Boroughs of Andover and Winchester, and the parish of Coombe, Hampshire in the Hungerford Sessional Division of Berkshire.
The Roman numerals after some names are to distinguish different members for this constituency, with the same name. It is not suggested this use of Roman numerals was applied at the time.
In this section by-elections are indicated by an asterisk after the date.
As there were sometimes significant gaps between Parliaments held in this period, the dates of first assembly and dissolution are given. Where the name of the member has not yet been ascertained or (before 1558) is not recorded in a surviving document, the entry unknown is entered in the table.
In this sub-section Liberal MPs elected before the formal founding of the Liberal Party, in 1859, are indicated by a + symbol after the party name.[36]
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;
^On petition, Vernon's election was declared void. The returning officer had given his casting vote to Vernon after he tied in votes with Sir William Waller, but Waller would have won had one of his supporters not been prevented from voting (on the grounds that he had not been sworn in as a burgess). After Vernon's election was declared void without a division, the House voted 107-102 to recognise Waller as duly elected.
^Date on which the House of Commons resolved that Henry Vernon's election in 1641 was void and that Waller was duly elected
^Waller was disabled from membership in January 1648 at the instigation of the army, but this order was revoked in June 1648; he was excluded permanently in Pride's Purge, December 1648
^Date when Oliver Cromwell dissolved the Rump Parliament by force.
^Date when the members of the nominated or Barebones Parliament were selected. Andover was not represented in this body, except as part of Hampshire.
^The Rump Parliament was recalled and subsequently Pride's Purge was reversed, allowing the full Long Parliament to meet until it agreed to dissolve itself.
^Powlett died c. August 1695. Seat vacant at the dissolution.
^On petition, Shepheard was "discharged from membership" on 19 March 1701. No new writ was issued and the seat was vacant at the dissolution.
^The MPs of the last Parliament of England and 45 members co-opted from the former Parliament of Scotland, became the House of Commons of the 1st Parliament of Great Britain which assembled on 23 October 1707 (see below for the members in that Parliament).
^Co-opted, not elected, to the Parliament of Great Britain
^Styled Viscount Lymington from 11 October 1743; died 19 November 1749.
^Stooks Smith suggests that Thomas Assheton Smith I's term was interrupted by Henry Smith, in the 1812-18 Parliament. However Rayment does not mention such an additional MP. T. A. Smith resigned 1821
^F. W. S. Craig classified Whig, Radical and similar candidates, as Liberals from 1832. Other sources may classify all these groups as Whigs. The term Liberal gradually developed as a description for the Whigs and allies, until the formal creation of the Liberal Party shortly after the 1859 United Kingdom general election.
British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1977)
D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) [1]
Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988) [2]
J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965)
The House of Commons 1690-1715, by Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley and D.W. Hayton (Cambridge University Press 2002)
The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)