Cockermouth was the name of a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England in 1295, and again from 1641, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1918. It was a parliamentary borough represented by two Members of Parliament until 1868, and by one member from 1868 to 1885. The name was then transferred to a county constituency electing one MP from 1885 until 1918.

Notable MPs have included the regicide, Francis Allen.

Until the Great Reform Act of 1832, the constituency consisted solely of the market town of Cockermouth in Cumberland. It first returned members to the Model Parliament of 1295, but its franchise then seems to have lapsed until 1641, when the Long Parliament passed a resolution (15 February 1641) to restore its ancient privileges.

The right of election in Cockermouth was vested in the burgage tenants of the borough, of whom there were about 300 in 1832. Cockermouth was considered a pocket borough, with the vast majority of the voters being under the influence of the Lowther family.

At the time of the 1831 census, the borough included just over 1,000 houses and had a population of 4,536. The Reform Act expanded the boundaries to bring in the neighbouring parishes of Eaglesfield, Brigham, Papcastle and Bridekirk, and part of Dovenby, increasing the population to 6,022 and encompassing 1,325 houses. This made the borough big enough to retain both its members. However, in the next wave of reform, introduced at the 1868 general election, one of Cockermouth's two seats was withdrawn, and in 1885 the borough was abolished altogether, although the name was transferred to the surrounding county constituency.

The Cockermouth constituency created in 1885, strictly speaking The Cockermouth Division of Cumberland, was a compact division stretching westwards from Cockermouth to the sea, and including the much larger town of Workington. There was a significant Irish vote, and the Conservative victory in 1885 and subsequent Liberal gain of the seat in 1886 have been attributed to Parnell's shift of support from the one party to the other.

The constituency was divided between the new Workington and Penrith and Cockermouth divisions of Cumberland from 1918.

Cockermouth re-enfranchised by Parliament in Nov 1640

MPs 1641–1868

More information Year, First member ...

Year			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1641	Sir John Fenwick, Bt[1]	Parliamentarian	Sir John Hippisley	Parliamentarian
		1642	Seat vacant through double return [2]
		1645	Francis Allen
		1653	Cockermouth was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliament and the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate
		January 1659	John Stapleton		Wilfrid Lawson
		May 1659	Not represented in the restored Rump
		1660	Richard Tolson		Sir Wilfrid Lawson
		1661	Hugh Potter
		1662	Robert Scawen
		1670	John Clarke
		1675	Sir Richard Grahme
		1679			Sir Orlando Gee
		1685	Sir Daniel Fleming
		1689	Sir Henry Capell		Henry Fletcher
		1690	Sir Orlando Gee		Sir Wilfrid Lawson
		1695	Sir Charles Gerard		Goodwin Wharton	Whig
		1698	George Fletcher	Whig	William Seymour
		1701	Goodwin Wharton	Whig
		February 1702	Thomas Lamplugh
		July 1702			James Stanhope	Whig
		1708	Albemarle Bertie
		1710	Nicholas Lechmere
		1713			Joseph Musgrave
		1715			James Stanhope	Whig
		April 1717			Sir Thomas Pengelly
		July 1717	Lord Percy Seymour[3]
		1721	Anthony Lowther
		1722	Sir Wilfrid Lawson
		1727			William Finch
		1734
		1738	Eldred Curwen
		1741	Sir John Mordaunt
		July 1747			Sir Charles Wyndham[4]
		December 1747			William Finch
		1754			Percy Wyndham-O'Brien[5]
		1761			Charles Jenkinson
		1767			Captain John Elliot, RN
		March 1768	Charles Jenkinson[6]		Sir George Macartney
		May 1768	Captain George Johnstone, RN[7]	Independent
		1769			Sir James Lowther
		1774			Fletcher Norton[8]
		1775	Ralph Gowland		James Adair
		1780	John Baynes Garforth	Tory[9]	John Lowther	Tory[9]
		1784	James Clarke Satterthwaite	Tory[9]
		1786			Humphrey Senhouse	Tory[9]
		1790	John Baynes Garforth	Tory[9]	Sir John Anstruther, 1st and 4th Baronet	Tory[9]
		1796			Edward Burrow	Tory[9]
		1800			Walter Spencer-Stanhope	Tory[9]
		1802	James Graham	Tory[9]	Robert Plumer Ward	Tory[9]
		1805	Viscount Garlies	Tory[9]
		1806	John Lowther	Tory[9]	James Graham	Tory[9]
		January 1807	Lord Binning	Tory
		May 1807	John Lowther	Tory[9]
		July 1807	John Osborn	Tory[9]
		1808	Viscount Lowther	Tory[9]
		October 1812			John Lowther	Tory[9]
		December 1812			Augustus Foster	Tory[9]
		1813			Thomas Wallace	Tory[9]
		1816	John Lowther	Tory[9]
		1818			Sir John Beckett	Tory[9]
		1821			William Wilson Carus Wilson	Tory[9]
		1826	Viscount Garlies	Tory[9]
		1827			Laurence Peel	Tory[9]
		1830			Philip Pleydell-Bouverie	Whig[9]
		1831	John Lowther	Tory[9]	Sir James Scarlett	Tory[9]
		1832	Henry Aglionby Aglionby	Radical[10][11][12][13][14][15]	Fretchville Lawson Ballantine Dykes	Whig[9]
		1836			Edward Horsman	Whig[9][10][16][17][18]
		1852			Henry Wyndham	Conservative
		1854	John Steel	Radical[19][20]
		1857			Lord Naas	Conservative
		1859		Liberal
		April 1868	Andrew Green Thompson	Conservative
1868			Representation reduced to one member

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