The constituency comprised the whole of the historic county of Rutland, in the East Midlands. Rutland, the smallest of the historic counties of England, never had any Parliamentary borough constituencies within its borders.
The place of election for the county was at Oakham. This was where the hustings were held; at which candidates were nominated (before the Ballot Act 1872), polling took place (before the introduction of multiple polling places in county constituencies) and where the result was announced.
Pelling in his Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 describes most of the people in this county as "engaged in or dependent upon agriculture". The constituency was a safe Conservative one and was rarely contested in the period covered by the book. G. H. Finch MP had personally owned almost one tenth of the county he represented.
Members of Parliament[]
1295–1640[]
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Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;
^Sir Andrew Noel was elected despite being ineligible, being Sheriff of Rutland|| the Commons annulled his election and issued a new writ
^Edward Noel was returned despite being ineligible to sit|| he was underage, and owned no freeholds in the county. The controversial election, conducted by the candidate's father in his capacity as Sheriff, led to a suit in the Court of Star Chamber
^On petition, Noel was declared not to have been duly elected
^Adopted the surname Noel on succeeding to his uncle's estates in 1798
^Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
^ abcDebrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
^Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807) [1]
D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808) Digital Bodleian
F W S Craig, Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972 (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
M Kinnear, The British Voter (London: Batsford, 1968)
McCalmont's Parliamentary Poll Book of All Elections 1832–1918
Lewis Namier & John Brooke, The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1754–1790 (London: HMSO, 1964)
J E Neale, The Elizabethan House of Commons (London: Jonathan Cape, 1949)
Henry Pelling, Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910 (Macmillan, 1967)
Henry Stooks Smith, The Parliaments of England (1st edition published in three volumes 1844–50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)
