Hackney (UK Parliament constituency)

Hackney was a two-seat constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament created under the Representation of the People Act, 1867 (often termed Second Reform Act) from the former northern parishes of the Tower Hamlets constituency and abolished under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885 (often termed a twin Third Reform Act, with its enabling Reform Act 1884).

Hackney
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
1868–1885
Seatstwo
Created fromTower Hamlets (former north part of)
Replaced byBethnal Green North East, Bethnal Green South West, Hackney North, Hackney Central, Hackney South, Hoxton and Shoreditch Haggerston

The constituency existed in its two-seat form for three general elections and returned two Liberal Party Members at each election until its abolition. At abolition it was noted intense house- and apartment (tenement block-) building had occurred within its boundaries and it was divided into seven single seats.

Boundaries
Hackney in the Metropolitan area from 1868 to 1885.

The vestry of the civil parish of Hackney became a local government authority in 1855.

The parliamentary borough of Hackney was established in 1868 and its area formed part of the east of the historic county of Middlesex. It comprised:

Parishes includedPopulation in 1871Population in 1881Total electorate 7 Dec 1868Total electorate of 20 Nov 1884
The Parish of St Leonard, Shoreditch[1]not knownnot known40,613[2]48,076[2]
The Parish of St Matthew, Bethnal Green[1]non knownnot known
The Parish of St John, Hackney[1]115,110[3]163,681[3]

The area thus formed the northern rump of Shoreditch and rest of the north of the former parliamentary borough of Tower Hamlets (Hackney accounted for the northernmost of the Hamlets in the nineteenth century, see Tower Division). The area was to the east of Islington and Hornsey, south of Tottenham in its county and west of Walthamstow in Essex.

In 1885 the two-member constituency was abolished. In 1889 the former area, for administrative purposes, became part of the London County Council local authority. In 1900 the main civil vestry was dissolved and the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney was created (with the same boundaries as the Parliamentary Borough). Since 1965 it has been part of Greater London.

Members of Parliament
Sir Charles Reed MP
Henry Fawcett and Millicent Garrett Fawcett by Ford Madox Brown, 1872, National Portrait Gallery, London
"Military changes"
Holms as caricatured by Spy (Leslie Ward) in Vanity Fair, February 1882
"Hoxton Division"
Stuart as caricatured by "Stuff" in Vanity Fair, October 1899
ElectionFirst member [4] First party Second member [4] Second party
1868 Sir Charles ReedLiberal John HolmsLiberal
1874 by-election Henry FawcettLiberal
1884 by-election James StuartLiberal
1885 Constituency abolished. See Hackney North, Hackney Central and Hackney South

Elections

Turnout, in multi-member elections, is estimated by dividing the number of votes by two. To the extent that electors did not use both their votes, the figure given will be an underestimate.

Change is calculated for individual candidates, when a party had more than one candidate in an election or the previous one. When a party had only one candidate in an election and the previous one change is calculated for the party vote.

Elections in the 1860s
General election 1868: Hackney (2 seats)[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Charles Reed 14,785 36.0
Liberal John Holms 12,243 29.8
Liberal Charles Salisbury Butler 6,825 16.6
Conservative Charles Locock Webb[6] 2,633 6.4
Liberal Lothian Sheffield Dickson 2,575 6.3
Liberal John James Homer[7] 2,021 4.9
Majority 5,418 13.2
Turnout 21,858 (est) 53.8 (est)
Registered electors 40,613
Liberal win (new seat)
Liberal win (new seat)

Elections in the 1870s
General election 1874: Hackney (2 seats)[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal John Holms 6,968 34.5 +4.7
Liberal Charles Reed 6,893 34.2 −1.8
Conservative William Gill[8] 6,310 31.3 +24.9
Majority 583 2.9 −10.3
Turnout 13,241 (est) 32.4 (est) −21.4
Registered electors 40,870
Liberal hold Swing −3.9
Liberal hold Swing −8.1
  • Election declared void on petition
By-election, 25 April 1874: Hackney (2 seats)[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal John Holms 10,905 35.9 +1.4
Liberal Henry Fawcett 10,476 34.5 +0.3
Conservative William Gill[8] 8,994 29.6 −1.7
Majority 1,482 4.9 +2.0
Turnout 19,685 (est) 48.2 (est) +15.8
Registered electors 40,870
Liberal hold Swing +1.1
Liberal hold Swing +0.6

Elections in the 1880s
General election 1880: Hackney (2 seats)[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Henry Fawcett 18,366 40.2 +6.0
Liberal John Holms 16,997 37.2 +2.7
Conservative George Trout Bartley 10,332 22.6 −8.7
Majority 6,675 14.6 +11.7
Turnout 28,688 (est) 65.5 (est) +33.1
Registered electors 43,773
Liberal hold Swing +5.2
Liberal hold Swing +3.5

The appointment of Fawcett as Postmaster General and Holms as a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury caused a by-election for both seats.

By-election, 7 May 1880: Hackney (2 seats)[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Henry Fawcett Unopposed
Liberal John Holms Unopposed
Liberal hold
Liberal hold

The death of Fawcett caused a by-election.

By-election, 20 Nov 1884: Hackney[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal James Stuart 14,540 63.0 −14.4
Conservative Alexander MacAlister[9] 8,543 37.0 +14.4
Majority 5,997 26.0 +11.4
Turnout 23,083 48.0 −17.5 (est)
Registered electors 48,076
Liberal hold Swing −14.4

References
  1. Reform Act 1867, Sch C. Legislation.gov.uk, publisher; UK Government
  2. F.W.S. Craig (ed.), British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (London: The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1977)
  3. 1881 Census of England and Wales, Population tables 2, Table 4 , 'Area, Houses, and Population of Civil Parishes in the several Registration Sub-Districts in 1871 and 1881'
  4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 1)
  5. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
  6. "The General Election". London Evening Standard. 17 November 1868. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 15 February 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. "Hackney". Morning Advertiser. 3 September 1868. p. 3. Retrieved 15 February 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. "Hackney Election". Cheltenham Chronicle. 28 April 1874. p. 3. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  9. "The Hackney Election". The Morning Post. 17 November 1884. p. 3. Retrieved 20 December 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.

Sources
  • Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
  • British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977)
  • Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910. by Henry Pelling (Macmillan 1967)
  • Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume I 1832-1885, edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
  • Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume II 1886-1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1978)
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