1881 Preston by-election

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The 1881 Preston by-election took place on 20 May 1881 after the death of the incumbent Conservative MP Edward Hermon. The Conservative candidate William Farrer Ecroyd campaigned on a fair trade platform and won the seat.[1]

Preston by-election, 1881[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative William Farrer Ecroyd 6,004 58.0 -10.9
Liberal Henry Yates Thompson 4,340 42.0 +10.9
Majority 1,664 16.0 +14.3
Turnout 10,344 88.0 -7.8 (est)
Registered electors 11,748
Conservative hold Swing -10.9

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ A. C. Howe, ‘Ecroyd, William Farrer (1827–1915)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 16 Jan 2014.
  2. ^ "Political". The Cornishman. No. 150. 26 May 1881. p. 6.

Further reading[edit]

  • B. H. Brown, The Tariff Reform Movement in Great Britain, 1881–1895 (1943).
  • S. Zebel, ‘Fair Trade: An English Reaction to the Breakdown of the Cobden Treaty System’, Journal of Modern History, 12 (1940), pp. 161–185.