From 1868 to 1885, it returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, using the bloc vote system of election.
West Essex was created by the Reform Act 1867 for the 1868 general election as one of three two-member divisions of Essex (East, South and West), replacing the two divisions which had been created by the Reform Act 1832 (Northern and Southern).
[1][2] The boundaries were defined as: The first four of these hundreds had been part of the abolished Northern division, with the remainder transferred from the Southern Division.
The constituency was represented throughout its existence by the same two MPs, both of whom were Conservatives.
[6] The only contested election in Western Essex was in 1880, when the former King's Lynn MP Sir Thomas Buxton failed to win a seat for the Liberal Party.