Records of the House of Lords: Domestic Committees: Committee for Privileges: Claims to vote for Representative Peers for Ireland
For ordering, viewing and copying options: please select Ordering and Viewing
- Held At: Parliamentary Archives: GB-061
- Catalogue Reference: HL/PO/DC/CP/24
- Date: 1822-1922
- Level: Series
- Extent: 4 files
- Creator Name: House of Lords; Committee for Privileges; 1621-2019
- Administrative or Biographical History: In accordance with the Union with Ireland Act, 1800, 39 & 40 Geo III, c67, 4 Lords Spiritual in rotation and 28 Lords Temporal elected for life, sat in the United Kingdom House of Lords. The bishops were withdrawn after 1 January 1871 on the disestablishment of the Irish Church (Irish Church Act, 1869, 32 & 33, Vict, c42). The Lords Temporal were elected by the peers of Ireland, who delivered in to the Clerk of the Crown in Ireland or his deputy, lists of their choice, from which the Clerk made a return of the peers elected to the House of Lords. Elections took place on the death or forfeiture of a previously elected Representative peer. As a result of the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act, 1922, 12 7 13, Geo V, elections of Representative Peers ceased. A Petition of Irish Peers that the House should provide means for the representation of the Peers of Ireland by 28 peers in the House of Lords, presented to the House in 1965, after being considered by the Committee for Privileges, was rejected.
Claims to vote at elections of peers were submitted to House of Lords Standing Order 160 of 2 April 1802 provided that the claim should be made in a petition to the House, stating the derivation of the peerage claimed. The practice of the House until 1857 was to refer the Petition directly to the Committee for Privileges; after 1857 the procedure was similar to that on ordinary applications for a Writ of Summons. In 1969 the House, revising its Standing Order 68, ceased to receive claims of rights to vote but continued to accept claims "to any peerage of Ireland".
Claims as coheirs to Irish peerages in abeyance were also to be submitted to the House, under Standing Orders 162-63, but in addition, they needed the commendation of the Crown before being referred to the Committee for Privileges.
Elections for representative peers ceased with the creation of The Irish Free State in December 1921 and the last peer elected, the 4th Earl of Kilmorey, died in 1961. Irish peers are no longer represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Irish peers may attend Parliament as observers, sitting on the steps of the throne in the Upper House, along with the eldest sons of peers. - Acquisition: Transferred from the Judicial Office.
- Description: Statements of proof supporting claims to vote as Representative Peers for Ireland.
- Terms:
- Accruals: No further accruals expected.
- Related Record:
- Access Status: Open
- Publication Notes: M F Bond, "Guide to the Records of Parliament" (London, 1971), p 169.
Ordering the Document
Sorry, this document cannot be ordered.
The Parliamentary Archives search room and copying service is now closed and
collections are unavailable because of the Archives Relocation Programme. For
more information please see Plan Your Visit.
For files with an Access Status of Closed, requests will be considered in
accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. To see these you will need
to submit a Freedom of Information Request by emailing archives@parliament.uk.
Please include the catalogue references of the documents you are interested in.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions by emailing archives@parliament.uk