POLITICAL HISTORY 



representation, while Lyme, Wareham, and Shaftesbury were reduced to 

 returning one member each ; Weymouth and Melcombe (which had pre- 

 viously sent four between them, two for each) now returned two only, as 

 a united borough. The county members, on the other hand, were increased 

 from two to three, as some compensation for this decrease in borough 

 representation.^ 



An Act passed the following year settled the inconvenience of the out- 

 lying portions of the county. Stockland parish and Dalwood township, 

 lying geographically in Devon, but being hitherto part of Dorset, were now 

 united with Devon; Thorncombe parish, and Burhall Downs and Easthay (part 

 of the parish of Axminster), hitherto part of Devon, were made part of 

 Dorset. Holwell parish, including the tithing of Buckshaw, which lay in 

 Dorset geographically, was henceforth to be part of Dorset, instead of being 

 an outlying part of Somerset.' 



By the Reform Bill of 1867 (Representation of the People Act) * Lyme 

 entirely ceased to be represented, not having a sufficient number of inhabited 

 houses (683 only). Dorchester, Bridport, and Poole were each reduced to 

 one member only. The Boundary Commissioners of 1867-8 did not see 

 their way to recommending an extension of any of the existing boundaries of 

 any of the Dorset boroughs. The population, stationary in the mid-Victorian 

 period, decreased between 1871 and 1881 from 143,478 to 137,146.* 

 Further reduction of representation was the natural outcome. 



The Act of 1885 merged in the county the Dorset boroughs still 

 remaining ; thus Bridport, Dorchester, Poole, Shaftesbury (part of which lay 

 however in Wiltshire), Wareham, and Weymouth and Melcombe vote now 

 in the four divisions of the county.' The number of county members was 

 increased from three to four. The petty sessional divisions had only been 

 adopted to a limited extent in the Boundary Acts of 1832 and 1868, the 

 hundred being still in theory the basis of electoral divisions. But it was 

 growing obsolete, and the inconveniences of its often detached portions, 

 together with the increasing difficulty of ascertaining its exact boundaries, 

 led to the adoption, in the Act of 1885, of the petty sessional division. The 

 North Dorset division, under the new Act, accordingly includes the sessional 

 divisions of Blandford, Shaftesbury, Sturminster, and part of Sherborne. The 

 division of East Dorset includes the sessional division of Wimborne and part 

 of that of Wareham with the municipal borough of Poole. South Dorset 

 includes the municipal boroughs of Dorchester, and Weymouth and Mel- 

 combe, with part of the sessional divisions of Dorchester and of Wareham. 

 The West Dorset division comprises the municipal boroughs of Bridport and 

 Lyme Regis, the sessional divisions of Bridport and Cerne, and certain poor- 

 law parishes in the sessional division of Dorchester. 



In 1685, after the rebellion of Monmouth, the Duke of Beaufort was 

 appointed colonel of a corps of musketeers and pikemen composed of men 

 of distinguished loyalty, from the disturbed districts of Dorset, Somerset, and 

 Devon. This, however, afterwards became known as the i ith North Devon 



' 2 Will. IV, cap. 45. 



' 2 and 3 Will. IV, c.ip. 64. For acreage and population involved see Notts and Queries for Somers. and 

 Dors. X, 86, 87. ' 30 & 31 Vict. cap. 102. 



* Re/). 0/ Boundary Com. 1885, pt. i, c. 4287. ^ 48 & 49 Vict. cap. 23. 



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