The constituency was created under the
Second Reform Act for the
1868 general election, and abolished by the
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 for the
1885 general election. ;Political history The seat elected a brief series of Conservatives. ;Successor seats The 1885 Act took from 2 to 16 the metropolitan seats in the north-east of the county — that is the zone north-east of Wimbledon and Croydon coming from 1889 into the newly formed
County of London. It also founded six single-member
county constituencies (seats) to cover the rump bulk of the county, commonly referred to at the time as the non-metropolitan county. The Act thus abolished the
West,
Mid and
East Surrey divisions double seat-areas that comprised the county. As Surrey was now split into single-representative areas this met a
Chartist objective, discouraging the frequent collusion between candidates or parties which had beset multi-member constituencies (specifically
plurality-at-large voting, for which "bloc(k) vote" in Britain was the term used). These six distinctly county (non-metropolitan) divisions the Act numbered, named (and detailed as summarised in outline below): • The
North-Western or Chertsey Division (usually recorded as Chertsey, Surrey N.W. or North-West) - included Woking and Egham • The
South-Western or Guildford Division (as style shown above) - included Godalming, Farnham and surrounds • The
South-Eastern or Reigate Division (as style shown above) - included Dorking sessional division save for two parishes in No. 4. • The
Mid or Epsom Division (as style shown above) - included Kingston's southern and eastern sessional division components • The
Kingston Division (invariably Kingston or Kingston-upon-Thames) - included Richmond • The
North-Eastern or Wimbledon Division (as style shown above) - included sessional division of Croydon except its core and north in the Metropolis; plus Caterham, Chelsham, Farley, Warlingham. ==Boundaries==