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Ayrshire (UK Parliament Constituency)
Ayrshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of Great Britain, House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 until 1868, when it was divided into North Ayrshire (UK Parliament constituency), North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire (UK Parliament constituency), South Ayrshire. It elected one Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), 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 and replaced the former Parliament of Scotland shire constituency of Ayrshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency), Ayrshire. Boundaries The Ayrshire constituency represented the Ayrshire, county of Ayrshire, minus the parliamentary burghs of Ayr and Irvine, Ayrshire, Irvine, which were components of the Ayr Burghs (UK Parliament cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayrshire (Parliament Of Scotland Constituency)
Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Scottish feudal baron, barons of the sheriffdom or shires of Scotland, shire of Ayrshire, Ayr elected shire commissioner, commissioners to represent them in the Parliament of Scotland and in the Convention of the Estates. The number of commissioners was increased from two to four in 1690. After the Union, Ayrshire (UK Parliament constituency), Ayrshire returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of Great Britain and later to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. List of shire commissioners * 1605, 1609: Sir John Wallace of Carnell, Ayrshire, Carnell Sources * ''Return of Members of Parliament'' (1878), Part II. * Joseph Foster (genealogist), Joseph Foster, ''Members of Parliament, Scotland'' (1882). * George Edward Cokayne, ''The Complete Baronetage'', 5 vols (1901–6). * The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland. See also * List of constituencies in the Parliament of Scotland at the time of the Union References ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plurality Voting System
Plurality voting refers to electoral systems in which a candidate, or candidates, who poll more than any other counterpart (that is, receive a plurality), are elected. In systems based on single-member districts, it elects just one member per district and may also be referred to as first-past-the-post (FPTP), single-member plurality (SMP/SMDP), single-choice voting (an imprecise term as non-plurality voting systems may also use a single choice), simple plurality or relative majority (as opposed to an ''absolute majorit''y, where more than half of votes is needed, this is called ''majority voting''). A system which elects multiple winners elected at once with the plurality rule, such as one based on multi-seat districts, is referred to as plurality block voting. Plurality voting is distinguished from ''majority voting'', in which a winning candidate must receive an absolute majority of votes: more than half of all votes (more than all other candidates combined if each voter h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1741 British General Election
The 1741 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 9th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election saw support for the government party increase in the quasi-democratic constituencies which were decided by popular vote, but the Whigs lost control of a number of rotten and pocket boroughs, partly as a result of the influence of the Prince of Wales, and were consequently re-elected with the barest of majorities in the Commons, Walpole's supporters only narrowly outnumbering his opponents. Partly as a result of the election, and also due to the crisis created by naval defeats in the war with Spain, Walpole was finally forced out of office on 11 February 1742, after his government was defeated in a motion of no confidence concerning a supposedly rigged by-election. His supporters were then able to reconcile partially with the Patriot Whigs to form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1734 British General Election
The 1734 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's increasingly unpopular Whig government lost ground to the Tories and the opposition Whigs, but still had a secure majority in the House of Commons. The Patriot Whigs were joined in opposition by a group of Whig members led by Lord Cobham known as the Cobhamites, or 'Cobham's Cubs'. Summary of the constituencies See 1796 British general election for details. The constituencies used were the same throughout the existence of the Parliament of Great Britain. Dates of election The general election was held between 22 April 1734 and 6 June 1734. At this period elections did not take place at the same time in every constituency. The returning officer in each county or parliamentary borough fixed the precise date (see hustings for details of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whigs (British Political Party)
The Whigs were a political faction and then a political party in the Parliaments of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom. Between the 1680s and the 1850s, the Whigs contested power with their rivals, the Tories. The Whigs merged into the new Liberal Party with the Peelites and Radicals in the 1850s, and other Whigs left the Liberal Party in 1886 to form the Liberal Unionist Party, which merged into the Liberals' rival, the modern day Conservative Party, in 1912. The Whigs began as a political faction that opposed absolute monarchy and Catholic Emancipation, supporting constitutional monarchism with a parliamentary system. They played a central role in the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and were the standing enemies of the Roman Catholic Stuart kings and pretenders. The period known as the Whig Supremacy (1714–1760) was enabled by the Hanoverian succession of George I in 1714 and the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1715 by Tory rebels. The Wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Campbell (British Army Officer, Died 1745)
Lieutenant-General Sir James Campbell, KB ( – May 11, 1745) was a Scottish professional soldier, Member of Parliament for Ayrshire from 1727 to 1741, and Governor of Edinburgh Castle from 1738 to 1745. A distinguished cavalry officer, Campbell served in the War of the Spanish Succession and supported George I of Great Britain in 1714, which allowed him to pursue a career as a Whig. Promoted Lieutenant-General in 1740, during the War of the Austrian Succession he was knighted for his service at Dettingen in 1743. He commanded the British cavalry at Fontenoy in May 1745, where he lost a leg to a French cannonball and later died of his wounds. Personal details James Campbell was born in Lawers, Perthshire. His father, James Campbell, 2nd Earl of Loudoun, was an aristocrat and son of noted Covenanter John Campbell. Campbell's mother was Lady Margaret Montgomerie, the daughter of landowner Hugh Montgomerie, 7th Earl of Eglinton. His brother, Hugh Campbell, would go on to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1727 British General Election
The 1727 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 7th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election was triggered by the death of King George I; at the time, it was the convention to hold new elections following the succession of a new monarch. The Tories, led in the House of Commons by William Wyndham, and under the direction of Bolingbroke, who had returned to the country in 1723 after being pardoned for his role in the Jacobite rising of 1715, lost further ground to the Whigs, rendering them ineffectual and largely irrelevant to practical politics. A group known as the Patriot Whigs, led by William Pulteney, who were disenchanted with Walpole's government and believed he was betraying Whig principles, had been formed prior to the election. Bolingbroke and Pulteney had not expected the next election to occur until 1729, and were consequent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1722 British General Election
The 1722 British general election elected members to serve in the House of Commons of the 6th Parliament of Great Britain. This was the fifth such election since the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Thanks to the Septennial Act of 1715, which swept away the maximum three-year life of a parliament created by the Meeting of Parliament Act 1694, it followed some seven years after the previous election, that of 1715. The election was fiercely fought, with contests taking place in more than half of the constituencies, which was unusual for the time. Despite the level of public involvement, however, with the Whigs having consolidated their control over virtually every branch of government, Walpole's party commanded almost a monopoly of electoral patronage, and was therefore able to increase its majority in Parliament even as its popular support fell. In the midst of the election, word came from France of a Jacobite plot aimed at an immin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1715 British General Election
The 1715 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 5th Parliament of Great Britain to be held, after the 1707 merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In October 1714, soon after George I had arrived in London after ascending to the throne, he dismissed the Tory cabinet and replaced it with one almost entirely composed of Whigs, as they were responsible for securing his succession. The election of 1715 saw the Whigs win an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, and afterwards virtually all Tories in central or local government were purged, leading to a period of Whig ascendancy lasting almost fifty years during which Tories were almost entirely excluded from office. The Whigs then moved to impeach Robert Harley, the former Tory first minister. After he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two years, the case ultimately ended with his acquittal in 1717. Constituencies See 1796 British general electi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1713 British General Election
The 1713 British general election produced further gains for the governing Tory party. Since 1710 Robert Harley had led a government appointed after the downfall of the Whig Junto, attempting to pursue a moderate and non-controversial policy, but had increasingly struggled to deal with the extreme Tory backbenchers who were frustrated by the lack of support for anti-dissenter legislation. The government remained popular with the electorate, however, having helped to end the War of the Spanish Succession and agreeing on the Treaty of Utrecht. The Tories consequently made further gains against the Whigs, making Harley's job even more difficult. Contests were held in 94 constituencies in England and Wales, some 35 per cent of the total, reflecting a decline in partisan tension and the Whigs' belief that they were unlikely to win anyway. Summary of the constituencies See 1796 British general election for details. The constituencies used were the same throughout the existence ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Montgomerie
Colonel John Montgomerie (died 1731) was colonial governor of New York and New Jersey from 1728 to 1731. Life Montgomerie was born in the parish of Beith in Scotland. His father, Francis Montgomerie, was a member of the Privy Council under William III and Mary II and Queen Anne, and lord of Castle Giffen in Beith. When John Montgomerie married, his father gave him the estate at Hessilhead, which was auctioned off in 1722 to pay off accumulated debts. Montgomerie served in the 3rd Foot Guards, and was elected to Parliament for Ayrshire between 1710 and 1722. When George II ascended the throne in 1727 he rewarded Montgomerie for his service with the governorship of New York and New Jersey, a position Montgomerie may have sought on account of his financial difficulties. During Montgomerie's term in New York he presided over the issuance of what became known as the Montgomerie Charter for New York City. This served as the city's governing charter for more than a century, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1710 British General Election
The 1710 British general election produced a landslide victory for the Tories. The election came in the wake of the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, which had led to the collapse of the previous government led by Godolphin and the Whig Junto. In November 1709 the clergyman Henry Sacheverell had delivered a sermon fiercely criticising the government's policy of toleration for Protestant dissenters and attacking the personal conduct of the ministers. The government had Sacheverell impeached, and he was narrowly found guilty but received only a light sentence, making the government appear weak and vindictive. The trial enraged a large section of the population, and riots in London led to attacks on dissenting places of worship and cries of "Church in Danger". The government's unpopularity was further increased by its enthusiasm for the war with France, as peace talks with the French king Louis XIV had broken down over the government's insistence that the Bourbons hand over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
