The first use of this office to allow an MP to resign was in 1751 - for John Pitt.
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As the area was wild and notorious for outlaws, a Steward and Bailiff was appointed directly by the Crown (thus it was a legal office answerable to the reigning monarch) to maintain law and order in the districts.
Davis formally stood down as an MP on 18 June 2008, by accepting the position of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern, which he immediately renounced in order to be able to stand for the by-election; this is the traditional method of resigning from Parliament, since MPs are not permitted to hold most positions in the gift of the Crown without approval from their constituencies.
The seat had fallen vacant in a Parliamentary recess, and the law does not permit a byelection to be called during a recess if the sitting member resigns by taking the Chiltern Hundreds.
The by-election was caused by the resignation of the sitting Unionist Member of Parliament (MP) Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton, by his application for the Chiltern Hundreds.
He resigned in 1931 by appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds to concentrate on his business interests, including a seat on the Vickers-Armstrongs board and a position as chairman of the Bank of Australia between 1937 and 1945.
Members who wish to retire ask to be appointed to the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of Her Majesty’s Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham, or Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead.
He resigned from the House of Commons on 13 February 1923 by appointment as Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds.
Chiltern Hundreds | Chiltern Hills | Chiltern, Victoria | Chiltern Main Line | Chiltern | List of hundreds of Delaware | The Hundreds | Hundreds of Cheshire | Chiltern Railways |
The seat had become vacant when the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Richard Chaloner had taken the post of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds on 18 June 1917, thus effectively resigning from the Commons.
He retained this seat until 18 June 1917, when he was made Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, a post that expelled him from the Commons, thus effectively resigning from the Commons.