Open Access‘One of the best men of business we had ever met’: Thomas Drummond, the boundary commission and the 1832 Reform Act
Author(s) -
Spychal Martin
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
historical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.203
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1468-2281
pISSN - 0950-3471
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2281.12180
Subject(s) - commission , notice , law reform , boundary (topology) , law , welsh , political science , public administration , reform act , boundary work , sociology , history , archaeology , social science , mathematics , mathematical analysis
As one of Britain's landmark constitutional reforms, the 1832 Reform Act has attracted considerable historical attention. However, only cursory notice has been paid to the extensive work completed by the 1831–2 boundary commission to reform the nation's parliamentary boundaries. Drawing on previously unused archival material, this article provides the first sustained analysis of the boundary reforms that took place in England's ancient boroughs in 1832, revealing the significance of Thomas Drummond, a previously obscure royal engineer and chair of the English and Welsh boundary commission, to the ‘Great Reform Act’. As well as revealing the wider importance of parliamentary boundaries to the passage of reform by 1832, Drummond and the boundary commission established significant precedents for the expansion of the reformed British state and future parliamentary reform.