ABSTRACT

The Parliamentary Borough of Wolverhampton was a two-member constituency created by the First Reform Act of 1832, when Wolverhampton became one of many industrial towns to be granted the right to parliamentary representation under the redistribution of seats sanctioned by the Act. The parliamentary constituency, which included the township of Wolverhampton and the adjacent townships of Wednesfield and Willenhall in the east, and Bilston, Coseley and Sedgley to the south, comprised a population of almost 3260,000. However, there were divisions within the reform movement in Wolverhampton between the 'Moderates' and their Whig allies and the Radicals. The events in Wolverhampton acquired national publicity and Lord John Russell, the Leader of the House of Commons, instituted a Parliamentary Inquiry, chaired by Sir Frederick Roe, Chief Magistrate of Bow Street, into the disturbances. However, Charles Villiers' radical credentials were soon to be tested by the serious disorders which attended a Staffordshire County by-election held in Wolverhampton on 26 May 1835.