Norfolk Record Office Research Guide: Electoral registers and poll books

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1 Introduction Norfolk Record Office Research Guide: Electoral registers and poll books Electoral registers can be a useful resource for family and house history, enabling you to track who was resident at a particular property at a particular date. However, until the latter part of the nineteenth century the right to vote (or electoral franchise) was primarily based on a property qualification and therefore restricted to a small proportion of the male population only. The following provides a summary of key developments in voting rights: Pre-1832 Counties: From 1429 the right to vote was given to men of 21 or over owning freehold lands or tenements with an annual net value of 40s. or more i.e. landowners only: the majority of males were therefore excluded from voting. Boroughs: The franchise varied widely according to local custom, ranging from extensive electorates of all male heads of households or freemen to so-called rotten or pocket boroughs where only a handful of people could vote. Norfolk Boroughs which elected members to parliament were Norwich, King s Lynn, Great Yarmouth and Thetford. Before the 1832 Reform Act (see below) Castle Rising also had the status of a parliamentary borough and is often cited as an example of a rotten borough, due to its very small population Counties: The Reform Act extended the county franchise to men who had an interest in, and occupation of, lands and tenements worth between 2 and 5 per annum (i.e. including tenants for the first time). Holders of property worth more than 10 were also given the right to vote. It has been estimated that approximately one in seven men were now entitled to vote. Boroughs: Owners or tenants of buildings worth at least 10 per annum were given the vote, provided that they had occupied the building(s) for at least 12 months prior to the registration date and had paid the appropriate poor rates and taxes. It was also necessary to live within 7 miles of the borough The Second Reform Act was passed. Counties: All male owners of real property worth 5 or more were enfranchised, together with those who occupied land and paid rent of 50 or more per year. Also owners and tenants of lands with the rateable value of 12 or more who were paying taxes. Boroughs: The Vote was extended to all male owners and tenants of dwelling-houses, and most occupiers paying at least 10 rent per annum. This resulted in a large increase in urban voters.

2 1869 Some women received a vote in local government elections (provided they had the necessary property qualifications and paid rates) Third Reform Act passed. The borough qualification granted in 1867 was now extended to the counties so that freeholders of inherited land worth 40s., freeholders of any land worth 5, and certain lessees, occupiers and lodgers were now enfranchised. The majority of male householders over 21 were now entitled to vote but residence in one place for 12 months was required. It has been estimated that just over 60% of men over the age of 21 now had the right to vote Representation of the People Act passed. All males over 21 were now eligible to vote, as were women over 30 who were householders (i.e. local government electors) or wives of householders. The residential qualification period was reduced to 6 months The vote was granted to women over The age limit for voting was reduced to 18. Poll books From 1696 Parliament made county sheriffs responsible for recording the poll in elections. Lists of electors and the candidates who they voted for, known as poll books, were therefore published until the introduction of the secret ballot in Poll books provide the names of electors, their parish of residence and how they voted. They may state the elector s address and (if different) the address of the property which entitled him to vote. The list of electors may be arranged by parish, ward, hundred or township. Poll books rarely survive before Norfolk poll books are held at the Norfolk Heritage Centre (NHC): for Norfolk ( ), Norwich ( ), Great Yarmouth ( ) and King s Lynn ( ). A full listing is available at the NHC. In addition, some poll books can be found in the Norfolk Record Office s (NRO) collection: check the NRO catalogue for more details. Search on poll book in the any text field to find matches: the earliest is dated 1700 (reference KIM 6/7). The catalogue reference for poll books ( ) in the King s Lynn borough archives is KL/TC 10, whilst a series of county poll books ( ) can be found using C/Scd 3 as the catalogue reference. Some published and facsimile poll books are also held at the NRO and NHC e.g. Norfolk Record Society VIII (poll list 1702) and Norfolk Genealogy 24 (facsimile East Norfolk poll and register, 1835).

3 Electoral Registers These record the names of people who were registered to vote but, as happens today, not everyone who was eligible to vote got round to registering. They are arranged by electoral division, polling district and then alphabetically, either by street or by voter. They were published for national elections from 1832 onwards. No registers at all were complied between and There are separate volumes for each electoral division per year or half year. The period during which each register was effective varied: generally the electoral year began and ended in December or January until 1919, when spring and autumn registers were introduced. From 1927 the registers usually came into effect in October, from 1950 in March and from 1955 in February. Maps are available in the NRO and NHC searchrooms showing electoral divisions at different dates. The Parish Key (NRO and NHC) will also tell you which division a particular parish was in at a particular date. The county was divided into the following electoral divisions: 1845: East, West : North, South, West : North, South, East, North West, South West, Mid : North, South, East, South West, King's Lynn : North, South, South West, King's Lynn, Central, Great Yarmouth 1971: North, South, North West, South West, Great Yarmouth 1974: North Norfolk, Breckland, Broadland, South Norfolk, Great Yarmouth Borough, King s Lynn West Norfolk Borough, Norwich City The following provides a summary list of electoral registers held by the NRO with the main document references to use on the catalogue: Norfolk County, s (microform to 1975). In the NRO catalogue, see series C/ERO 1 (Electoral Registration Officer: electoral registers for Norfolk, ) and DC (District Council registers of electors, 1974 onwards). Please note that the latter have not been bound into volumes and it is therefore much easier to use the bound copies at the NHC (see below). Norwich, 1832, (original registers). In the NRO catalogue see series N/TC 66 (Norwich City Council registers of electors for Norwich). King s Lynn, , (on microfilm, , ). In the NRO catalogue, for , see KL/TC 10 (Borough of King s Lynn: poll books, electoral registers, burgess rolls), but note original registers are held at the King s Lynn Borough Archives. Burgess rolls are registers of voters entitled to vote in municipal elections and, from 1890, in County Council elections. Electoral

4 registers, are included in the main sequence of Norfolk County electoral registers. Great Yarmouth, (on microform, , ). In the NRO catalogue, see series Y/TC 20 (Great Yarmouth Borough Archives, registers of electors ). After 1948 Great Yarmouth was no longer a parliamentary borough and the electoral registers for this area are included in the main county sequence. The NHC holds copies of electoral registers as follows: Norwich: bound volumes ( , ) and microfilm ( ). Also separate citizens (1860s-70s) and freemens lists ( s) for elections. Norfolk: (microform) supplied by the NRO; also bound volumes for (some gaps) and but microform copies are to be used where available. Please note that the NHC does not hold any electoral registers after 2003 and current copies can be accessed at the relevant district council offices. Elsewhere King s Lynn and Great Yarmouth libraries hold some poll books and electoral registers for their own areas. Please contact them for more details. National collections of electoral registers are held at the British Library ( Some Norfolk electoral registers can also be accessed online on the Family Search website: Some more recent electoral registers (2002 onwards) can be searched on the subscription-based site: Absent Voters Lists Absent voters lists are separate registers of military personnel entitled to vote. The first election to be held after the Representation of the People Act (February 1918) was on 14 December of that year. Although this was after Armistice many military personnel were still based away from their homes on the day of the election. The government therefore decided to compile lists of all these absent voters so they could still vote, wherever they were currently based. The NRO has the King s Lynn absent voters list for 1919 (C/ERO 1/282) and registers for Great Yarmouth (Y/TC 20/ ). The NHC holds Norwich absent voters lists for 1918 and Spring They can be a useful resource for military ancestors as they provide: name, (home) address, rank, service number, unit (i.e. regiment or ship where they were stationed at the time of the election), polling district, voter s number. The also list includes women engaged in military duties for the first time e.g. army nurses. Further Reading M. Herber, Ancestral Trails, includes chapter on elections (Sutton Publishing Limited in association with the Society of Genealogists, 2005), ISBN

5 J. Gibson, Electoral registers , and burgess rolls: a directory to holdings in Great Britain (The Family History Partnership, 2008) ISBN Appendix: some abbreviations commonly used in electoral registers Not entitled to vote in local (later, metropolitan borough, urban district, or parish) elections Not entitled to vote in rural district elections date given Entitled to vote from that date a Absent voter (serving in the armed forces) BP(Bw) Business premises qualification (women) D (Dw) Spouse s occupation qualification E Not entitled to vote in local or parliamentary elections F Not entitled to vote in local elections G Citizen of Europe, entitled to vote in local elections only HO Husband s occupational qualification J Eligible for jury service JS Special juror (as defined by the Jurors Act 1870 i.e. esquire or above, bankers, merchants, and anyone owning property of more than a certain value) K Citizen of Europe, entitled to vote in local and European elections only L Not entitled to vote in parliamentary elections M Merchant seamen N To be included in the next register as a voter NM Naval or military voter O (Ow) Occupational qualification (women) R (Rw) Residential qualification (women) S Service (military) voter U Citizen of Europe, entitled to vote in European elections only x Not entitled to vote in Parliamentary elections Y Entitled to vote in the following year

6 House successive = If a voter moved during the electoral year, their right to vote could be carried forward to the next address. Noted in the next electoral register as house successive and previous address supplied.