# East Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)

East Cumberland is a former county constituency in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) by the bloc vote system of election.

## Boundaries

1832–1885: The Wards of Cumberland, Eskdale and Leath.
In 1832 the historic county of Cumberland, in north west England, was split for parliamentary purposes into two county divisions. These were the East division (with a place of election at Carlisle) and West Cumberland (where voting took place at Cockermouth). Each division returned two members to Parliament.
The only parliamentary borough included in the East division, between 1832 and 1885, (whose non-resident 40-shilling freeholders could vote in the county constituency) was Carlisle. (Source: Stooks Smith).

## History

The first two Members of Parliament for this division were the last pair of representatives for the undivided county before the 1832 general election.
On the formation of Earl Grey's administration in 1830 Sir James Graham had received the post of First Lord of the Admiralty, with a seat in the cabinet. He resigned over the Irish Church question in 1834, and eventually joined the Conservatives in 1837. His former constituents did not re-elect Sir James when he sought election as a Tory at the 1837 general election.
The division proved to be favourable to the Liberal Party as no Conservative was elected until after the Reform Act 1867 and the party never held both seats simultaneously. In 1868 and again in 1880 a Conservative MP was returned.
The Howard family (whose head was the Earl of Carlisle) seem to have had influence in the constituency. The sixth son of the 6th Earl of Carlisle, the Honourable Charles Howard, represented the division from 1840 until his death in 1879. He was joined by Edward Howard in the representation of the constituency in 1876. Charles Howard's son George was the third Howard to sit for the constituency.
In 1885 this division was abolished, when the East and West Cumberland county divisions were replaced by four new single-member county constituencies. These were Cockermouth, Egremont (the Western division), Eskdale (Northern division) and Penrith (Mid division). In addition there were two remaining Cumberland borough constituencies; Carlisle and Whitehaven.

## Members of Parliament

* Constituency created (1832)
| Election | First member | First party | Second member | Second party |
| 1832 | William Blamire | Whig | Sir James Graham, Bt $^a$ | Whig |
| 1836 by-election | William James | Radical | Sir James Graham, Bt $^a$ | Whig |
| 1837 | William James | Radical | Francis Aglionby | Radical |
| 1840 by-election | William James | Radical | Hon. Charles Howard | Whig |
| 1847 | William Marshall | Whig | Hon. Charles Howard | Whig |
| 1859 | William Marshall | Liberal | Hon. Charles Howard | Liberal |
| 1868 | William Nicholson Hodgson | Conservative | Hon. Charles Howard | Liberal |
| 1876 by-election | Stafford Howard | Liberal | Hon. Charles Howard | Liberal |
| 1879 by-election | Stafford Howard | Liberal | George Howard | Liberal |
| 1880 | Stafford Howard | Liberal | Sir Richard Musgrave, Bt | Conservative |
| 1881 by-election | Stafford Howard | Liberal | George Howard | Liberal |
| 1885 | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished | Constituency abolished |
Notes:-
* $^a$ Graham contested the 1837 United Kingdom general election as a Conservative candidate, although he lost.