Wilton was the name of a parliamentary borough in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

. It was represented in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...

from 1295 to 1707, then in 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 1707 to 1800 and finally in the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

from 1801 to 1918. It had two

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MPs) until 1832, but from 1832 to 1885 only one member, as a result of the

Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament, Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major chan ...

where it also adsorbed the former

rotten borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electorat ...

Old Sarum Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the now ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest re ...

.https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1832-06-07/debates/6ae968df-aa6e-4237-b143-ba4feccb8072/DivisionOfCountiesAndBoundariesBill In 1885 the

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

was abolished, but the name of the constituency was then transferred to a new

county constituency 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 ...

electing one Member from 1885 until 1918.

Boundaries

1885–1918: The Borough of Salisbury, the Sessional Divisions of Amesbury, Hindon, and Salisbury, and the civil parishes of Figheldean, Fisherton-de-la-Mere, Milston, and Wily.

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

was within the constituency from 1885 until the seat disappeared in 1918, since when it has been in the Salisbury seat.

Members of Parliament

Wilton borough

MPs 1295–1640

MPs 1640–1832

MPs 1832–1885

Wiltshire, Southern or Wilton Division

MPs 1885–1918

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

Elections in the 1840s

Harris succeeded to the peerage, becoming 3rd

Earl of Malmesbury Earl of Malmesbury is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1800 for the diplomat James Harris, 1st Baron Malmesbury. The son of the grammarian and politician James Harris, he served as Ambassador to Spain, Prussia, Russia ...

, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1850s

A'Court resigned after being appointed a Special Commissioner of Property and Income Tax in Ireland, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1860s

Elections in the 1870s

Antrobus resigned, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1880s

Herbert was appointed a

Lord Commissioner of the Treasury In the United Kingdom there are at least six Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, serving as a commission for the ancient office of Treasurer of the Exchequer. The board consists of the First Lord of the Treasury, the Second Lord of the ...

, requiring a by-election. Ranji 1897 page 367 Lord Pembroke

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1914–15: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected; *Unionist: Charles Bathurst *Liberal:

Charles Leach Charles Leach (1 March 1847 – 24 November 1919) was a Congregationalist Minister and Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom. He is notable as the only Member of Parliament to be deprived of his seat after being declared of unsound mind ...

References

*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

* ''The Constitutional Year Book for 1913'' (London: National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations, 1913) *F W S Craig, ''British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885'' (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989) * J Holladay Philbin, ''Parliamentary Representation 1832 - England and Wales'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilton (Uk Parliament Constituency) Parliamentary constituencies in Wiltshire (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1295 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1918