Sir James Flower, 2nd Baronet (14 December 1794 – 17 May 1850) was a British Conservative Party politician. He sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

from 1842 to 1846. Flower was

High Sheriff of Norfolk The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The High Sheriff of Norfolk was originally the principal law enforcement officer in Norfolk and presided at the assizes and other im ...

from 1838 to 1839. In June 1841, he was asked by some of the electors in the borough of Thetford in Norfolk to contest the seat at the imminent general election. Nominations took place on 29 June, when Flower was nominated by Andrew Young and W. Watts Wickes. A show of hands declared to be in favour of Flower and his fellow Conservative Bingham Baring, but the third candidate and sitting Liberal MP Earl of Euston demanded a poll. Voting took place the following day, on 30 June, and the result was that Flower and Euston tied for second place with 71 votes each. Amidst many challenges to the validity of votes, the mayor refused to exercise a casting vote, and returned the tied result; all three candidates were declared elected to the two seats. Flower submitted a petition, When the votes were scrutinised, Euston's total was reduced by one, and on 4 May 1842 he was declared unduly elected, thereby giving the seat to Flower. He did not contest the seat at the next general election, in 1847.

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* 1794 births 1850 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1841–1847 Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom High sheriffs of Norfolk Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Thetford {{England-Conservative-UK-MP-1790s-stub