Political affiliations of MPs

November 28, 2012 8:38 AM

Research help: I'm trying to find political affiliations for specific members of the British House of Lords in the 1850s and 1860s.

I understand that because Parliament is so much bigger than the US Congress, it's harder to have definitive lists of everyone. I'm just hoping for a roster or something from one of the years in that period that lets me quickly learn whether, say, Lord Colchester is conservative or liberal. As of now, I'm doing a lot of detective work - eg reading through a biography, learning that the person voted against a piece of legislation, looking up that legislation, and only then knowing affiliation.

I'm an American college student and so have access to scholarly resources! Thank you.

posted by estlin to education (6 answers total)

Wikipedia actually has some resources, listing members of parliament by year for 1852, 1857 and 1868, and listing their party affiliation. They also have lists of MP by party affiliation.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:25 AM on November 28, 2012

Note that said Wikipedia pages don't have any source listed for the party affiliations. If you need this for scholarly purposes, you'll have to look elsewhere.
posted by vasi at 12:18 PM on November 28, 2012

Would the appropriate edition's of Burke's Peerage have what you're looking for? If you're only looking for lords, they should all be included. I do not know if their political affiliation will be listed though.
posted by ocherdraco at 12:40 PM on November 28, 2012

Might be worth a try seeing if the House of Lords Information Office has a readily-accessible list, or can advise you where to look.
posted by djgh at 12:55 PM on November 28, 2012

There are some sources listed in the Talk section for the 1852 election on Wikipedia.

Your library might have a copy of Who's who of British members of Parliament.
posted by derforsher at 1:56 PM on November 28, 2012

It looks like Google Books has some editions of Dod's Parliamentary Companion available for full view.

It includes the political affiliation for the House of Commons, but it only indicates if a member of the House of Lords supports or doesn't support the government (e.g. 1852).
posted by derforsher at 5:00 PM on November 28, 2012