Mid Somerset (UK Parliament constituency)

Mid Somerset was a parliamentary constituency in the county of Somerset, which returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.

Mid Somerset
Former county constituency for the House of Commons
1868–1885
Seats	two
Created from	East Somerset West Somerset
Replaced by	East Somerset South Somerset Wells

It was created for the 1868 general election,^[1] and abolished for the 1885 general election, when Somerset was divided into several new single-member constituencies: Bridgwater, Frome, East Somerset, North Somerset, South Somerset, Wellington and Wells.

Members of Parliament

Year	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
1868		Richard Paget	Conservative		Ralph Neville-Grenville[2]	Conservative
1878 by-election					William Gore-Langton[3][2]	Conservative
1885 by-election					John Wingfield Digby[2]	Conservative
1885	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1868: Mid Somerset^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Paget	3,692	32.1
	Conservative	Ralph Neville-Grenville	3,636	31.6
	Liberal	Francis Tagart[5]	2,151	18.7
	Liberal	Edward Augustus Freeman[6]	2,018	17.6
Majority			1,485	12.9
Turnout			5,749 (est)	68.7 (est)
Registered electors			8,364
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Elections in the 1870s

General election 1874: Mid Somerset^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ralph Neville-Grenville	Unopposed
	Conservative	Richard Paget	Unopposed
Registered electors			8,571
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

Neville-Grenville resigned, causing a by-election.

By-election, 19 Mar 1878: Mid Somerset^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Gore-Langton	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: Mid Somerset^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Gore-Langton	Unopposed
	Conservative	Richard Paget	Unopposed
Registered electors			8,470
	Conservative hold
	Conservative hold

Gore-Langton resigned, causing a by-election.

By-election, 4 Mar 1885: Mid Somerset^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Wingfield Digby	Unopposed
	Conservative hold