Wexford Borough (UK Parliament constituency)

Wexford Borough was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency, in Ireland, returning one Member of Parliament (MP). It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801.

Wexford Borough
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1801–1885
Number of members	One

Boundaries

This constituency was the Parliamentary borough of Wexford in County Wexford.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Note
	1801-01-01	Francis Leigh		1801: Co-opted; Resigned (appointed Escheator of Munster)
	1801-02-20	Ponsonby Tottenham
	1802-07-09	Richard Nevill ^1	Tory
	1806-11-10	Sir Robert Wigram, Bt	Tory[1]
	1807-05-21	Richard Nevill ^1	Tory	Resigned (appointed Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds)
	1810-03-03	Captain Peter Parker R.N.	Tory	Resigned (appointed Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds)
	1811-07-01	Richard Nevill ^1	Tory	Resigned (appointed Steward of the Manor of East Hendred)
	1813-03-03	Vice Admiral John Fish	Tory	Resigned (appointed Escheator of Munster)
	1814-08-09	Richard Nevill ^1	Tory	Resigned (appointed Escheator of Ulster)
	1819-03-01	Captain Henry Evans R.N.	Tory
	1820-03-20	William Wigram	Tory[1]
	1826-06-19	Rear Admiral Henry Evans	Tory	Resigned (appointed Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds)
	1829-06-03	Robert Wigram ^2	Tory[1]	Unseated on petition
	1830-03-15 ^3	Sir Edward Dering, Bt	Tory[1]	Declared duly elected
	1830-08-07	William Wigram	Tory[1]	Unseated on petition
	1831-02-21 ^3	Sir Edward Dering, Bt	Ultra-Tory	Declared duly elected
	1831-05-06	Charles Arthur Walker	Whig	Re-elected as a candidate of the Repeal Association
	1832-12-14		Repeal Association[2]	Re-elected as a candidate of a Liberal/Repealer pact
	1841-07-12	Sir Thomas Esmonde, Bt	Whig[1][3]
	1847-08-04	John Thomas Devereux	Repeal Association[2]	Re-elected as an Independent Irish candidate
	1852-07-09		Ind. Irish[2]	Re-elected as a Liberal candidate
	1857-03-20		Whig
	1859-05-03	John Edward Redmond	Liberal[2]	The grand uncle of John Redmond (1856–1918)
	1865-07-17	Richard Joseph Devereux	Liberal[2]	Resigned
	1872-04-26	William Archer Redmond	Home Rule League[2]	The grandfather of William Redmond (1886–1932). Died 1880.
	1880-11-24	Tim Healy	Home Rule League[2]	Joined new organisation
	1882 ^4		Irish Parliamentary[2]	Resigned to contest Monaghan
	1883-07-17	Willie Redmond	Irish Parliamentary[2]	Last MP for the constituency
1885-11-18		Constituency abolished

Notes:-

• ¹ Stooks Smith names the MP 1802-1806 as Richard Neville Furness, 1807-1810 as Richard Neville, 1811-1813 as Robert Neville and 1814-1819 as Richard Neville. Walker names the MP for all these terms as Richard Nevill.
• ² From 1832 known as Robert Fitzwygram.
• ³ Not an election - date when the previous member was unseated and the petitioner was declared duly elected.
• ⁴ Not an election - change of party allegiance.

Elections

Elections in the 1830s

General election 1830: Wexford Borough[2][1][4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Tory	William Wigram	31	52.5
	Ultra-Tory	Edward Dering	28	47.5
Majority			3	5.0
Turnout			59	c. 36.9
Registered electors			c. 160
	Tory hold

• On petition, Wigram was unseated and Dering was declared elected.

General election 1831: Wexford Borough[2][1][4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Whig	Charles Arthur Walker	Unopposed
Registered electors			160
	Whig gain from Tory

General election 1832: Wexford Borough[2][1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Irish Repeal	Charles Arthur Walker	Unopposed
Registered electors			269
	Irish Repeal gain from Whig

General election 1835: Wexford Borough[2][1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Irish Repeal (Whig)	Charles Arthur Walker	Unopposed
Registered electors			373
	Irish Repeal hold

General election 1837: Wexford Borough[2][1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Irish Repeal (Whig)	Charles Arthur Walker	Unopposed
Registered electors			361
	Irish Repeal hold

Elections in the 1840s

General election 1841: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Thomas Esmonde	145	59.2	New
	Conservative	James Bourne	100	40.8	New
Majority			45	18.4	N/A
Turnout			245	81.4	N/A
Registered electors			301
	Whig gain from Irish Repeal		Swing	N/A

General election 1847: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Repeal	John Thomas Devereux	Unopposed
Registered electors			375
	Irish Repeal gain from Whig

Elections in the 1850s

General election 1852: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Irish	John Thomas Devereux	Unopposed
Registered electors			348
	Independent Irish gain from Irish Repeal

General election 1857: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	John Thomas Devereux	Unopposed
Registered electors			314
	Whig gain from Independent Irish

General election 1859: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Redmond	Unopposed
Registered electors			301
	Liberal hold

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1865: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Richard Joseph Devereux	153	58.8	N/A
	Liberal	John Redmond	107	41.2	N/A
Majority			46	17.6	N/A
Turnout			260	77.8	N/A
Registered electors			334
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1868: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Richard Joseph Devereux	Unopposed
Registered electors			520
	Liberal hold

On petition, Devereux was unseated due to "informality" in the return, causing a by-election at which he was re-elected.[5]

By-election, 26 February 1869: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Richard Joseph Devereux	Unopposed
Registered electors			520
	Liberal hold

Elections in the 1870s

Devereux resigned, causing a by-election.

By-election, 26 Apr 1872: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Home Rule	William Archer Redmond	321	86.3	New
	Home Rule	Walter Redmond	51	13.7	New
Majority			270	72.6	N/A
Turnout			372	69.5	N/A
Registered electors			535
	Home Rule gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

General election 1874: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Home Rule	William Archer Redmond	323	81.6	N/A
	Liberal	Sir Frederick Hughes, 7th Baronet	73	18.4	N/A
Majority			250	63.2	N/A
Turnout			396	79.0	N/A
Registered electors			501
	Home Rule gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Home Rule	William Archer Redmond	292	75.5	−6.1
	Liberal	Sir Frederick Hughes, 7th Baronet	95	24.5	+6.1
Majority			197	50.9	−12.3
Turnout			387	80.8	+1.8
Registered electors			479
	Home Rule hold		Swing	−6.1

Redmond's death caused a by-election.

By-election, 24 Nov 1880: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Home Rule	Tim Healy	Unopposed
Registered electors			479
	Home Rule hold

Healy resigned to stand at the 1883 by-election in Monaghan, causing a by-election.

By-election, 17 July 1883: Wexford Borough[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Irish Parliamentary	Willie Redmond	307	70.9	−4.6
	Liberal	Charles Owen O'Conor	126	29.1	+4.6
Majority			181	41.8	−9.1
Turnout			433	83.0	+2.2
Registered electors			522
	Irish Parliamentary hold		Swing	−4.6

References

1. Smith, Henry Stooks (1842). The Register of Parliamentary Contested Elections (Second ed.). Simpkin, Marshall & Company. p. 243. Retrieved 14 October 2018 – via Google Books.
2. Walker, B.M., ed. (1978). Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. ISBN 0901714127.
3. "Evening Mail". 21 June 1841. p. 3. Retrieved 26 August 2019 – via British Newspaper Archive.
4. Salmon, Philip. "Wexford". The History of Parliament. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
5. "To the Electors of the Borough of Wexford". Wexford Independent. 24 February 1869. p. 3. Retrieved 22 March 2018 – via British Newspaper Archive.

• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844-50), 2nd edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 3)