| Taunton County constituency |
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| Taunton shown within Somerset, and Somerset shown within England | |
| Created: | 1295 |
| MP: | Jeremy Browne |
| Party: | Liberal Democrat |
| Type: | House of Commons |
| County: | Somerset |
| EP constituency: | South West England |
Taunton is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Following the review of parliamentary representation in Somerset, the Boundary Commission for England has created a modified Taunton constituency with the name change Taunton Deane, to reflect the district name.
Contents |
Boundaries
It is based on the town of Taunton, Somerset but extending to include Wellington, many small villages and parts of Exmoor.
Following review of parliamentary representation in Somerset, this seat will be renamed Taunton Deane at the next UK general election
History
In the 2005 general election, the victorious Liberal Democrats candidate in Taunton required the smallest percentage swing from the Conservative MP for them to take the seat.
Members of Parliament
1295-1640
- Constituency created (1295)
- 1529-1536: Thomas Cromwell
- 1563-1567: Miles Sandys
- 1586-1588: Francis Bacon
- 1592: William Aubrey
- 1604-1611: Edward Hexte
- 1601-1611: John Bond
- 1614: John Dunn
- 1614: James Clerke
- 1621-1622: Thomas Brereton
- 1621-1622: Lewis Pope
- 1625: Sir Hugh Portman
- 1628-1629: Sir Hugh Portman
-
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
1640-1885
| Year | First member | First party | Second member | Second party | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 1640 | Sir William Portman | Royalist | ? | |||
| November 1640 | George Searle | Parliamentarian | ||||
| February 1644 | Portman disabled from sitting - seat vacant | |||||
| 1645 | John Palmer, MD [1] | |||||
| 1653 | Taunton was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament | |||||
| 1654 | Colonel Thomas Gorges | John Gorges | ||||
| 1656 | Admiral Robert Blake | |||||
| January 1659 | Sir William Wyndham | |||||
| May 1659 | John Palmer, MD | One seat vacant | ||||
| March 1660 | Thomas Gorges | Sir William Wyndham | ||||
| 1661 | Sir William Portman | |||||
| February 1679 | John Trenchard | Whig | ||||
| September 1679 | Sir John Cutler Bt | |||||
| 1680 | Edmund Prideaux | |||||
| 1685 | Sir William Portman | John Sanford | ||||
| March 1690 | Edward Clarke | |||||
| April 1690 | John Speke | |||||
| 1698 | Henry Seymour Portman | |||||
| 1701 | Sir Francis Warre | |||||
| 1710 | Henry Seymour Portman | |||||
| 1715 [2] | William Pynsent | James Smith | ||||
| 1722 | John Trenchard | Whig | ||||
| 1724 | Abraham Elton | |||||
| 1727 | George Speke | Francis Fane | ||||
| 1734 | Henry William Berkeley Portman | |||||
| 1741 | Sir John Chapman | John Buck | ||||
| 1745 | Percy Wyndham-O'Brien | |||||
| 1747 | Sir Charles Wyndham [3] | Robert Webb | ||||
| 1750 | Admiral William Rowley | |||||
| April 1754 | The Lord Carpenter [4] | John Halliday | ||||
| December 1754 | Robert Maxwell [5] | Whig | ||||
| 1762 | Laurence Sulivan | |||||
| 1768 | Alexander Popham | Nathaniel Webb | ||||
| 1774 [6] | Hon. Edward Stratford | Whig | ||||
| 1775 | John Halliday | Alexander Popham | ||||
| 1780 | Major-General John Roberts | |||||
| 1782 | (Sir) Benjamin Hammet | |||||
| 1784 | Alexander Popham | |||||
| 1796 | William Morland | |||||
| 1800 | John Hammet | |||||
| 1806 | Alexander Baring | |||||
| 1812 | Henry Powell Collins | |||||
| 1818 | Sir William Burroughs | |||||
| 1819 | Henry Powell Collins | |||||
| 1820 | John Ashley Warre | |||||
| 1826 | Henry Seymour | William Peachey | ||||
| 1830 | Henry Labouchere | Whig | Edward Thomas Bainbridge | Whig | ||
| 1842 | Sir Thomas Colebrooke | Whig | ||||
| 1852 | Arthur Mills [7] | Conservative | ||||
| 1853 | Sir John Ramsden | Whig | ||||
| 1857 | Arthur Mills | Conservative | ||||
| 1859 | Liberal | |||||
| August 1859 | George Cavendish-Bentinck | Conservative | ||||
| 1865 | Alexander Charles Barclay | Liberal | Lord William Hay | Liberal | ||
| 1868 | Edward William Cox [8] | Conservative | ||||
| 1869 | (Sir) Henry James | Liberal | ||||
| 1880 | Sir William Palliser | Conservative | ||||
| 1882 | Samuel Charles Allsopp | Conservative | ||||
| 1885 | Representation reduced to one Member | |||||
1885-present
| Election | Member | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1885 | Samuel Charles Allsopp | Conservative | |
| 1887 | Alfred Percy Allsopp | Conservative | |
| 1895 | Alfred Cholmeley Earle Welby | Conservative | |
| 1906 | Sir Edward Boyle | Conservative | |
| 1909 | William Wellesley Peel | Conservative | |
| 1912 | Sir Gilbert Wills, Bt. | Conservative | |
| 1918 | Dennis Fortescue Boles | Coalition Conservative | |
| 1921 | Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen | Coalition Conservative | |
| 1922 | John Hope Simpson | Liberal | |
| 1924 | Andrew Hamilton Gault | Conservative | |
| 1935 | Lt Col Edward Wickham | Conservative | |
| 1945 | Victor Collins | Labour | |
| 1950 | Henry Hopkinson | Conservative | |
| 1956 by-election | Sir Edward du Cann | Conservative | |
| 1987 | David Nicholson | Conservative | |
| 1997 | Jackie Ballard | Liberal Democrat | |
| 2001 | Adrian Flook | Conservative | |
| 2005 | Jeremy Browne | Liberal Democrat | |
Notes
- ^ Cobbett records Admiral Robert Blake as being elected for Taunton and Palmer for Bridgwater; but Brunton & Pennington agree with the Dictionary of National Biography that Blake was MP for Bridgwater and Palmer for Taunton.
- ^ At the general election of 1715, Warre and Portman were initially declared re-elected, but on petition (in a dispute over the franchise) they were adjudged not to have been duly elected and their opponents, Pynsent and Smith, were seated in their place
- ^ Styled Lord Cockermouth from October 1749
- ^ Created Earl of Tyrconnell (in the Peerage of Ireland), May 1761
- ^ Succeeded as The Lord Farnham , August 1759; created Viscount Farnham, September 1760 and Earl of Farnham, May 1763 (all these titles being in the Peerage of Ireland).
- ^ On petition, Stratford and Webb were adjudged not to have been duly elected, and their opponents, Halliday and Popham, were seated in their place
- ^ On petition, Mills' election was declared void and a by-election was held
- ^ On petition, the election of Cox was declared void and after scrutiny of the votes his opponent, James, was declared to have been duly elected
Election results
Elections in the 2000s
| General Election 2005: Taunton | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal Democrat | Jeremy Browne | 25,764 | 43.3 | +2.0 | |
| Conservative | Adrian Flook | 25,191 | 42.3 | +0.6 | |
| Labour | Andrew Govier | 7,132 | 12.0 | -2.9 | |
| UKIP | Helen Miles | 1,441 | 2.4 | +0.3 | |
| Majority | 573 | 1.0 | +0.6 | ||
| Turnout | 59,528 | 69.7 | +2.1 | ||
| Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative | Swing | -0.7 | |||
| General Election 2001: Taunton | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Conservative | Adrian Flook | 23,033 | 41.7 | +3.0 | |
| Liberal Democrat | Jackie Ballard | 22,798 | 41.3 | -1.4 | |
| Labour | Andrew Govier | 8,254 | 14.9 | +1.4 | |
| UKIP | Michael Canton | 1,140 | 2.1 | N/A | |
| Majority | 235 | 0.4 | |||
| Turnout | 55,225 | 67.6 | -8.8 | ||
| Conservative gain from Liberal Democrat | Swing | ||||
Elections in the 1990s
| General Election 1997: Taunton | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal Democrat | Jackie Ballard | 26,064 | 42.7 | +1.9 | |
| Conservative | David Nicholson | 23,621 | 38.7 | -7.3 | |
| Labour | Elizabeth Lisgo | 8,248 | 13.5 | +0.8 | |
| Referendum Party | B. Ahern | 2,760 | 4.5 | N/A | |
| BNP | L. Andrews | 318 | 0.5 | N/A | |
| Majority | 2,443 | ||||
| Turnout | 76.5 | -5.8 | |||
| Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative | Swing | ||||
| General Election 1992: Taunton | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Conservative | David Nicholson | 29,576 | 46.0 | ||
| Liberal Democrat | Jackie Ballard | 26,240 | 40.8 | ||
| Labour | Jean Hole | 8,151 | 12.7 | ||
| Natural Law | P. Leavey | 279 | 0.4 | N/A | |
| Majority | 3,336 | ||||
| Turnout | 82.3 | ||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
See also
References
- Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
- 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) [2]
- F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
- Maija Jansson (ed.), Proceedings in Parliament, 1614 (House of Commons) (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1988)
- J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
- Concise Dictionary of National Biography
- List of speakers: Parliaments of 1656 and 1658-9, Diary of Thomas Burton esq, volume 4: March - April 1659 (1828) at British History Online
External links
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