The United Kingdom general election, 1801 was not an election as such, but the co-option of members to serve in the first Parliament to be held after the formation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801. The 1801-1802 Parliament was composed of members of the former Parliaments of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. The election to the 2nd Parliament of the United Kingdom was the first to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland (as the 1801-1802 Parliament was composed of members elected to the former Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland). ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right)1 Capital London Language English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy Head of State British monarch Head of Govt. ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... Royal motto: Dieu et mon droit (French: God and my right)1 Capital London Head of State King of Great Britain Head of Government Prime Minister Parliament House of Commons, House of Lords The Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain (see below), was... Capital Dublin Head of state King of Ireland Kings representative: Variously called Judiciar, Lord Deputy or Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Head of government: Chief Secretary for Ireland Parliament: Irish House of Commons and Irish House of Lords The Kingdom of Ireland was the name given to the English-ruled...

The Parliament of Great Britain held its last general election in 1796. The final election for the Parliament of Ireland took place in 1797. The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative institution in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories (it alone has parliamentary sovereignty). ... This article is about the legislature abolished in 1801. ...

Political Situation

Great Britain had been at war with France since 1792. The Prime Minister since 1783, William Pitt the Younger, led a broad wartime coalition of Whig and Tory politicians. William Pitt the Younger (28 May 1759 – 23 January 1806) was a British politician during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ... While the Whigs (along with the Tories) are often described as one of the two political parties in late 17th to mid 19th century Great Britain, it is more accurate to describe them as loose political groupings or tendencies. ... The term Tory derives from the Tory Party, the ancestor of the modern UK Conservative Party. ...

The principal opposition to Pitt was a relatively weak faction of Whigs, led by Charles James Fox. For four years after 1797 opposition attendance at Westminster had been sporadic as Fox pursued a strategy of secession from Parliament. Only a small group, led by George Tierney, had attended frequently to oppose the ministers. As Foord observes "only once did the minority reach seventy-five, and it was often less than ten". Charles James Fox Statue of Charles James Fox in Bloomsbury Square, erected 1816. ... George Tierney (20 March 1761 - 25 January 1830) was an English Whig politician, was born at Gibraltar, being the son of a wealthy Irish merchant of London, who was living there as prize agent. ...

The Act of Union 1800 created the United Kingdom, by merging the previous Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. The first Parliament of the United Kingdom was composed of all the members of the last Parliament of Great Britain and some of the members of the final Parliament of Ireland. The Act of Union 1800 merged the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain (itself a merger of England and Wales and Scotland under the Act of Union 1707) to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801. ...

Pitt wished to grant Catholic emancipation (the right for Roman Catholics to sit in Parliament), to help reconcile the Irish Catholic majority with the Union. King George III was opposed to that policy, so Pitt was compelled to resign in March 1801. Catholic Emancipation was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the Penal Laws. ... George III (George William Frederick) (4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until 1 January 1801, and thereafter King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. ...

The new Tory Prime Minister was Henry Addington. He led another war time administration of pro-government Whigs and Tories. This was however weaker than Pitt's Ministry as Pitt and his faction did not join the new governmenr. The term Tory derives from the Tory Party, the ancestor of the modern UK Conservative Party. ... Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth (May 30, 1757 - February 15, 1844) was a British statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804. ... While the Whigs (along with the Tories) are often described as one of the two political parties in late 17th to mid 19th century Great Britain, it is more accurate to describe them as loose political groupings or tendencies. ...

The younger opposition Whigs also became more involved in Parliamentary opposition. Charles Grey, on 25 March 1801 tried to persuade the House of Commons to set up a Committee on the State of the Nation. His motion was lost, but it attracted 105 supporters. The Foxite leaders gradually ended their secession from Parliament. The Right Honourable Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC (13 March 1764–17 July 1845), known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was a British Whig statesman and Prime Minister. ... March 25 is the 84th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (85th in leap years). ... The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ...

Pitt was generally supportive of the Addington Ministry, but was semi-detached from it. As the well known couplet tellingly observed "Pitt is to Addington, as London is to Paddington", which indicates the contemporary view of the relative abilities of the two Prime Ministers..

Dates of Co-option

All British MPs and those Irish members representing constituencies which retained two members after the Union (the thirty-two Irish counties and the cities of Dublin and Cork) automatically retained their seats when the Union took effect on 1 January 1801. A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ... For other uses of Cork, see Cork (disambiguation). ... January 1 is the first day of the calendar year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. ... The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ...

Those members of the Irish House of Commons to sit at Westminster, who represented constituencies still enfranchised after the Union but reduced from two members to one (the remaining thirty one most considerable Irish boroughs and Dublin University), were selected by drawing lots. If one of the seats in the Irish Parliament was vacant, then the remaining member for the constituency was automatically chosen for the Westminster Parliament. If both seats were vacant a by-election was held. The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin or more commonly Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin, Irelands oldest university. ...

Summary of the Constituencies

Key to categories in the following tables: BC - Borough/Burgh constituencies, CC - County constituencies, UC - University constituencies, Total C - Total constituencies, BMP - Borough/Burgh Members of Parliament, CMP - County Members of Parliament, UMP - University Members of Parliament. A borough constituency (in Scotland, a burgh constituency) is a type of parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom. ... A County constituency is a constituency in the United Kingdom that covers a predominantly rural area. ... University constituencies existed from 1603 until 1950 to allow a University to be represented in the United Kingdom Parliament. ...

Monmouthshire (1 County constituency with 2 MPs and one single member Borough constituency) is included in Wales in these tables. Sources for this period may include the county in England. Monmouthshire (Welsh: Sir Fynwy) is both a principal area and a traditional county in south-east Wales. ...

Table 1: Constituencies and MPs, by type and country

Table 2: Number of seats per constituency, by type and country

Sources:

(Dates of Elections) Footnote to Table 5.02 British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000).

(Types of constituencies - Great Britain) British Historical Facts 1760-1830, by Chris Cook and John Stevenson (The Macmillan Press 1980).

(Types of constituencies - Ireland) Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801-1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978).

See also

• United Kingdom general elections
• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1801

This is a list of United Kingdom general elections since 1802. ...

Reference

• His Majesty's Opposition 1714-1830, by Archibald S. Foord (Oxford University Press 1964)

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