Hebden Parliamentary Voting 1742 - 1859

Prior to the 1872 Secret Ballot Act, electors were required to mount a platform at a parliamentary election and announce their choice of candidate to the officer who then recorded it in the poll book. These poll books were then often published. The Hebden electorate details are readily available for seven of these elections. It is interesting to see how shire constituency representation was dominated by large landowners, and by the sons of the aristocracy.

Select year

• 1742
• 1807
• 1835
• 1837
• 1841
• 1848
• 1859

Hebden Voting in 1742

The death of Henry Viscount of Morpeth in 1741 necessitated a by-election in January 1742 for the Yorkshire representative in the House of Commons. The two candidates were the winning Whig candidate Cholmley Turner of Kirkleatham, and the Tory candidate George Fox of Bramham Park, later the second Lord Bingley. This was before the days of the Reform Acts, and eligible voters had to be male freeholders aged at least 21 whose lands were worth more than forty shillings. The names of those who voted together with the name of the chosen candidate was recorded in the poll book. Note that some residents of Hebden were able to vote as they held freeholdings elsewhere, and some non-residents voted because they held freeholdings in Hebden.

Hebden Voting in 1807

There were three candidates for the 1807 Parliamentary election for the County of York, of whom two were returned. The successful candidates were William Wilberforce, the great social reformist and abolitionist; and Viscount Milton, a member of the Whig aristocracy who later became the 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam. The unsuccessful candidate was Henry Lascelles, later to be the 2nd Earl of Harewood. This was before the days of the Reform Acts, and eligible voters had to be male freeholders aged at least 21 whose lands were worth more than forty shillings. The names of those who voted together with the name of the candidate they votes for was recorded. Note that some residents of Hebden were able to vote as they held freeholdings elsewhere, and some non-residents voted because they held freeholdings in Hebden. The listing is particularly interesting as the electors' occupation was also recorded.

Hebden Voting in 1835

A register of the voting electors for the West Riding Constituency of the House of Commons was published following a by-election in 1835. West Riding was a parliamentary constituency from 1832 to 1865, and returned two members. This election came after the 1832 Reform Act which extended the franchise in county boroughs to include wealthier male tenants, but this appears to have had little effect in practice in Hebden, where there were but ten voting electors, one of whom lived in Dunkeswick, near Harewood - presumably because he was a Hebden freeholder. The 1835 by-election was caused by the Liberal incumbent George Howard, Viscount of Morpeth, vacating his seat following his appointment as Chief Secretary of Ireland. He then stood for re-election. Opposing him was the Tory candidate John Stuart Wortley, later the 2nd Baron Wharncliffe, who was anti-papist, and a supporter of the corn laws. Morpeth won.

Hebden Voting in 1837

Following the death of William IV, Parliament was dissolved on 17th July 1837. This election came after the 1832 Reform Act which extended the franchise in county boroughs to include wealthier male tenants, but this appears to have had little effect in practice in Hebden, where there were but 20 voting electors. The candidates were the incumbent Viscount of Morpeth, Chief Secretary of Ireland; the Tory candidate the Honourable John Stuart Wortley, later the 2nd Baron Wharncliffe, who was anti-papist, and a supporter of the corn laws; and Sir George Strickland, an independent candidate who was in favour of the abolition of capital punishment. Morpeth won, although of the 36,208 votes cast all three candidates got over 11,500 votes. Note the number of split votes - a common practice at the time.

Hebden Voting in 1841

A register of the voting electors for the West Riding Constituency of the House of Commons was published following an election in 1841. There were four candidates for the two posts of MP. The Whig candidates were the incumbent George Howard, the Viscount of Morpeth, the well respected Chief Secretary for Ireland in Lord Melbourne's Whig government who had held the seat since 1832, and Lord Milton. Opposing them were the Tory candidates John Stuart Wortley, later the 2nd Baron Wharncliffe, who was anti-papist, and a supporter of the corn laws, and Edmund Beckett-Denison, later the 4th Baronet of Beckett. The two Tory candidates won, and nationally Sir Robert Peel's Conservatives took control of the House of Commons.

Hebden Voting in 1848

A register of the voting electors for the West Riding Constituency of the House of Commons was published following an election in 1848. The by-election was the result of George Howard, the Viscount of Morpeth, entering the House of Lords following the death of his father. Morpeth had lost the seat in 1841, but regained it in 1846. The Liberal candidate was Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, Baronet, an evangelical Christian who had been the Member of Parliament for Pontefract from 1830 to 1831, and the Tory candidate was Edmund Beckett-Denison, later the 4th Baronet of Beckett, who had lost the seat in 1847. Denison won.

Two Hebden freeholders voted in the Leeds polling district - James Birch (voted for Denison) and William Hardacre (voted for Eardley). Of the eighteen freeholders eligible to vote in Hebden, six lived elsewhere.

Hebden Voting in 1859

A register of the voting electors for the West Riding Constituency of the House of Commons was published following the general election in 1859. The candidates were the two Liberals John Ramsden and Francis Crossley, and the Conservative James Stuart-Wortley. The two Liberals won. Stuart-Wortley was a career politician having held seats off and on between 1835 and 1859, and briefly holding the post of Solicitor General for England and Wales under Lord Palmerston. Ramsden was also a career politician having represented various constituencies seats between 1853 to 1886. He was a wealthy landowner owning a considerable portion of Huddersfield, and 150,000 acres spread across three estates in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and Inverness. Francis Crossley was a member of the family owning the massive J. Crossley & Sons carpet manufacturers at the Dean Clough Mills in Halifax.