Rutland was a parliamentary constituency covering the county of Rutland. It was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1918, when it became part of the Rutland and Stamford constituency, along with Stamford in Lincolnshire. Since 1983, Rutland has formed part of the Rutland and Melton constituency along with Melton Mowbray from Leicestershire.

The constituency elected two Members of Parliament (MPs), traditionally known as Knights of the Shire, until 1885, when it was reduced to one Member.

Boundaries

The constituency comprised the whole of the historic county of Rutland, in the East Midlands. Rutland, the smallest of the historic counties of England, never had any Parliamentary borough constituencies within its borders.

The place of election for the county was at Oakham. This was where the hustings were held; at which candidates were nominated (before the Ballot Act 1872), polling took place (before the introduction of multiple polling places in county constituencies) and where the result was announced.

Pelling in his Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 describes most of the people in this county as "engaged in or dependent upon agriculture". The constituency was a safe Conservative one and was rarely contested in the period covered by the book. G. H. Finch MP had personally owned almost one tenth of the county he represented.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Population in 1831: 19,380

General Election 1832 (December 14)
Registered Electors: 1,296
G N Noel, Bart. Conservative
G Heathcote Whig

General Election 1835 (January 10)
G N Noel, Bart. Conservative
G Heathcote Whig

General Election 1837 (July 29)
G N Noel, Bart. Conservative
G Heathcote Whig

Following the death of Sir G N Noel:

By-Election 1838 (March 13)
W M Noel Conservative

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: Rutland (2 seats) ^[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Finch	Unopposed
	Conservative	Gerard Noel	Unopposed
Registered electors			1,736
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

Noel's resignation caused a by-election, which was the first contest in the constituency for 42 years.^[21]

By-election, 1 Sep 1883: Rutland (1 seat) ^[20]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Lowther	860	81.6	N/A
	Liberal	John William Davenport-Handley[22]	194	18.4	New
Majority			666	63.2	N/A
Turnout			1,054	59.6	N/A
Registered electors			1,768
	Conservative hold

Buszard

General election 1885: Rutland ^[23][24][25]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Finch	2,366	68.1	N/A
	Liberal	Marston Clarke Buszard	1,110	31.9	N/A
Majority			1,256	36.2	N/A
Turnout			3,476	83.4	N/A
Registered electors			4,166
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

Finch

General election 1886: Rutland ^[23][24]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Finch	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Rutland ^[23][24][26]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Finch	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Pearson

General election 1906: Rutland ^[23][24]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Finch	2,047	56.7	N/A
	Liberal	Harold Pearson	1,564	43.3	New
Majority			483	13.4	N/A
Turnout			3,611	89.3	N/A
Registered electors			4,042
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

John Gretton

1907 Rutland by-election^[23]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Gretton	2,213	61.9	+5.2
	Liberal	W F H Lyon	1,362	38.1	−5.2
Majority			851	23.8	+10.4
Turnout			3,575	87.6	−1.7
Registered electors			4,083
	Conservative hold		Swing	+5.2

References

Sources

• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• 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) Digital Bodleian
• F W S Craig, Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972 (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• M Kinnear, The British Voter (London: Batsford, 1968)
• McCalmont's Parliamentary Poll Book of All Elections 1832–1918
• Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754–1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
• J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
• Henry Pelling, Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 (Macmillan, 1967)
• Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "R" (part 2)