Ayrshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a new unified Kingdo ...

from 1708 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 until 1868, when it was divided into

North Ayrshire North Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Àir a Tuath, ) is one of 32 council areas in Scotland. The council area borders Inverclyde to the north, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire to the northeast, and East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire to the east and so ...

and

South Ayrshire South Ayrshire ( sco, Sooth Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir a Deas, ) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. On 30 June 2 ...

. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP), using the first-past-the-post voting system.

Creation

The British parliamentary constituency was created in 1708 following the

Acts of Union, 1707 The Acts of Union ( gd, Achd an Aonaidh) were two Acts of Parliament: the Union with Scotland Act 1706 passed by the Parliament of England, and the Union with England Act 1707 passed by the Parliament of Scotland. They put into effect the te ...

and replaced the former Parliament of Scotland shire constituency of

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

Boundaries

The Ayrshire constituency represented the county of Ayrshire, minus the

parliamentary burgh In the United Kingdom (UK), each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one member to the House of Commons. Within the United Kingdom there are five bodies with members elected by electoral districts called "constituenc ...

s of Ayr and

Irvine Irvine may refer to: Places On Earth Antarctica *Irvine Glacier *Mount Irvine (Antarctica) Australia *Irvine Island *Mount Irvine, New South Wales Canada *Irvine, Alberta * Irvine Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotla ...

, which were components of the Ayr Burghs constituency.

History

The constituency elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system until it was divided into

and

for the 1868 general election.

Members of Parliament

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

Oswald's resignation caused a by-election. Dunlop's death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1840s

Carr-Boyle succeeded to the peerage, becoming 5th Earl of Glasgow and causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1850s

Blair's death caused a by-election. Crichton-Stuart's death caused a by-election.