The Local Government Act 1888 created County Councils throughout England and Wales, to take over various administrative functions until then carried out by the unelected Quarter Sessions.

These included repairing county roads and bridges; maintaining court houses, police stations, and county halls; providing an asylum for pauper lunatics and reformatory and industrial schools; and being responsible for weights and measures and the control of contagious diseases in animals.

[2] Elections to the council were to be held every three years on a household franchise, with sixty seats available, including three for Salisbury and one each for Devizes, Malmesbury, and Marlborough.

[6] Five Labour candidates were reported to be standing as Liberals, and one, Isaac Dalley, was elected[3] in the North Western division.

[7] A first provisional meeting of the county council, before it gained its powers, was held at Devizes on 31 January 1889, with all of the members present, and Lord Bath was elected as chairman.