Lincolnshire was a county constituency of the Parliaments of England (before 1707), Great Britain (1707–1800), and the United Kingdom (after 1801), which returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1290 until its abolition in 1832.
Boundaries and Composition
The constituency consisted of the historic county of Lincolnshire, excluding the city of Lincoln, which had the status of a county in itself after 1409. Although Lincolnshire contained four other boroughs—Boston, Grantham, Great Grimsby, and Stamford—each of which elected two MPs in its own right for part of the period, these were not excluded from the county constituency. Owning property within those boroughs could confer a vote at the county election, though this was not the case for Lincoln.
Franchise
Between 1430 and 1832, the franchise was defined by the Forty Shilling Freeholder Act, which gave the right to vote to every man who possessed freehold property within the county valued at £2 or more per year for the purposes of land tax. It was not necessary for the freeholder to occupy his land, nor even in later years to be resident in the county at all.
Electoral System
Except during the period of the Commonwealth, Lincolnshire had two MPs, traditionally referred to as Knights of the Shire, elected by the bloc vote method, under which each voter had two votes. In the nominated Barebones Parliament (1653), five members represented Lincolnshire. In the First and Second Parliaments of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate, there was a general redistribution of seats, and Lincolnshire elected ten members, while each of the boroughs apart from Lincoln had their representation reduced to a single MP. The traditional arrangements were restored from 1659.
Elections were held at a single polling place in Lincoln. Voters from the rest of the county had to travel to the county town to exercise their franchise. It was normal for voters to expect the candidates to meet their expenses in travelling to the poll, making the cost of a contested election substantial. Contested elections were therefore rare; at all but 4 of the 29 general elections between 1701 and 1832, Lincolnshire's two MPs were elected unopposed.
Abolition
At the time of the Great Reform Act in 1832, Lincolnshire had a population of approximately 317,000, though only 5,391 electors voted at the last contested election (a by-election in 1823). The constituency was abolished in 1832 by the Great Reform Act, being divided into two two-member county divisions: Northern Lincolnshire (or The Parts of Lindsey) and Southern Lincolnshire (or The Parts of Kesteven and Holland).
Notable Members of Parliament
Notable MPs for Lincolnshire included Sir William Cecil (later Lord Burghley), who served as a member in the 16th century and was a chief advisor to Queen Elizabeth I; and Sir John Bussy, a prominent figure in the late 14th century. The constituency also returned members from notable Lincolnshire families such as the Dymokes (the hereditary King's Champions), the Berties, and the Skipwiths.
