1910 Barnstaple by-election 1910 Barnstaple by-election The Barnstaple by-election, 1910 was a parliamentary by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of Barnstaple in North Devon on 2 March 1910. The by-election was caused by the appointment of the sitting Liberal MP, Ernest Soares as Junior Lord of the Treasury, i.e. one of the government whips. Under the Parliamentary rules of the day applicable to the appointment of ministers, Soares had to resign and fight a by-election. Despite having cut the Liberal majority in Barnstaple from 2,045 in the 1906 general election to just 882 in January 1910, the Unionists decided not to
Barnstaple August) by a jury of twelve. However Barnstaple was a mesne borough and was not held by the Mayor and Corporation in chief from the king but from the feudal baron of Barnstaple, later known as the lord of the "Castle Manor" or "Castle Court". The Corporation tried on several occasions to claim the status of a "free borough" which answered directly to the monarch and to divest itself of this overlordship, but without success. The mayor was not recognised as such by the monarch, but merely as the bailiff of the feudal baron. The powers of the borough were