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All658 seats in theHouse of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.svg) Composition of theHouse of Commons following the election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1802 United Kingdom general election was the first general election after theActs of Union 1800, held from 5 July 1802 to 28 August 1802, to elect members of theHouse of Commons, thelower house of the newParliament of the United Kingdom. Thefirst Parliament had been composed of members of the former Parliaments of theKingdom of Great Britain and theKingdom of Ireland.
TheParliament of Great Britain held its lastgeneral election in 1796. The final election for theParliament of Ireland was held in1797.
The first united Parliament wasdissolved on 29 June 1802. The new Parliament was summoned to meet on 31 August 1802, for a maximum seven-year term from that date. (The maximum term could be and normally was curtailed, by the monarch dissolving the Parliament, before its term expired.)
Prime MinisterHenry Addington led a war-time administration of pro-governmentWhigs andTories, collectively referred to as the "Addingtonians",[1] in office during part of theNapoleonic Wars.
The previous Prime Minister,William Pitt the Younger, had been out of office since 1801.King George III had forced Pitt to resign by refusing to agree toCatholic emancipation (allowing Catholics to sit in Parliament) following the Union. His faction in Parliament was generally supportive of theAddington ministry, before becoming increasingly opposed over the course of the Parliamentary term.
On 25 March 1802 theTreaty of Amiens brought about peace with France, with which Great Britain had been at war since 1792. The international situation remained uneasy and a renewal of war was still possible. The Treaty was supported by a strong majority of the Commons, only meeting strong opposition from the small group of 'New Opposition' orGrenvillite parliamentarians, formed aroundLord Grenville and led in the Commons byWilliam Windham, both former cabinet ministers under Pitt.[2]
In the election the combination of the followers of Addington and Pitt comfortably defeated both the 'Old' OppositionFoxites underCharles James Fox and the 'New' Opposition of Lord Grenville. Despite his reluctance to foster a personal faction and the presence of some of his followers in both support and opposition to Addington, Pitt retained an unclear personal following of around fifty-seven MPs.[3]
The election was a decidedly quiet affair owing to the general popularity of Addington's diplomatic and peace policies. Two notable results occurred in the urban constituencies ofMiddlesex andNorwich. At Middlesex theRadicalFrancis Burdett defeatedWilliam Mainwaring, a supporter of Addington. After an inquiry Burdett was unseated and defeated narrowly at a by-election by Mainwaring's son,George Boulton Mainwaring. At Norwich Windham and fellow conservative incumbentJohn Frere were defeated by RadicalWilliam Smith and FoxiteRobert Fellowes in a campaign where Windham's opposition to peace had weakened his popularity. Windham was promptly returned for St Mawes, apocket borough of Lord Grenville's brother,Lord Buckingham.
At this period there was not one election day. After receiving a writ (a royal command) for the election to be held, the localreturning officer fixed the election timetable for the particular constituency or constituencies he was concerned with. Polling in seats with contested elections could continue for many days.
The election took place over a period of almost two months. The time between the first and last contested elections was 5 July to 28 August 1802.
| Addingtonian | 71.0% | |||
| Foxite | 18.8% | |||
| Grenvillite | 3.8% | |||
| Others | 6.4% | |||
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.
Table 1: Constituencies and MPs, by type and country
| Country | BC | CC | UC | Total C | BMP | CMP | UMP | Total MPs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 England | 202 | 39 | 2 | 243 | 404 | 78 | 4 | 486 |
| Wales | 13 | 13 | 0 | 26 | 13 | 14 | 0 | 27 |
 Scotland | 15 | 30 | 0 | 45 | 15 | 30 | 0 | 45 |
| Ireland | 33 | 32 | 1 | 66 | 35 | 64 | 1 | 100 |
| Total | 263 | 114 | 3 | 380 | 467 | 176 | 5 | 658 |
Table 2: Number of seats per constituency, by type and country
| Country | BCx1 | BCx2 | BCx4 | CCx1 | CCx2 | UCx1 | UCx2 | Total C |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 4 | 196 | 2 | 0 | 39 | 0 | 2 | 243 |
| Wales | 13 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| Scotland | 15 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| Ireland | 31 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 66 |
| Total | 63 | 198 | 2 | 42 | 72 | 1 | 2 | 380 |
