2nd Parliament of Great Britain

The 2nd Parliament of Great Britain was the first to actually be elected, as the 1st Parliament of Great Britain was drawn from the former Parliament of England and Parliament of Scotland.

The Parliament was summoned on 26 April 1708. The members of the House of Commons of Great Britain were elected between 30 April 1708 and 7 July 1708.

Parliament was summoned to meet on 8 July 1708. Under the Triennial Act, the Parliament was due to expire, if not sooner dissolved, at the end of the term of three years from the first meeting.

Parliament was dissolved on 21 September 1710.

Key to categories in the following tables: BC - Borough/Burgh constituencies, CC - County constituencies, UC - University constituencies, Total C - Total constituencies, BMP - Borough/Burgh Members of Parliament, CMP - County Members of Parliament, UMP - University Members of Parliament.

Table 1: Constituencies and MPs, by type and country

Table 2: Number of seats per constituency, by type and country

Party Composition: An estimate of the approximate Party composition is Whig 291 and Tory 222.

On 16 November 1708, Sir Richard Onslow, Bt (1654-1717), MP (Whig) for Surrey since 1689, was elected the second Speaker of the House of Commons of Great Britain.

This Parliament was held before the office of Prime Minister had come into existence. The Lord High Treasurer (or when that office was in commission the First Lord of the Treasury) was a very powerful and important minister of the Crown.

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