ELECTORAL REGISTERS and POLL BOOKS

The voting system began when poll books were introduced in 1696 to try and minimise fraud in the parliamentary elections. The local sheriff would list voters in the area and also record which candidate he voted for so these books only contain details of a small minority of the population.

These lists were frequently published and often contained additional details about the voter including address, occupation and the qualifications to vote. Only property owners could vote until voting rights were extended in the second half of the nineteenth century. Poll books continued to be used until 1872 when secret ballot legislation was introduced. Until then, men who voted in a parliamentary election did so in public.

Poll books may also state an elector’s exact address and the address of any property that gave him the right to vote in a particular constituency. Within a poll book, the list of electors may be arranged by parish, ward, hundred or township. Poll books are generally a rarity before 1696. An Act of parliament in 1711 required poll books to be deposited with the Clerk of the Peace. Since the Local Government Act 1888, copies had now to be sent to the county council.  Not all early electoral registers survive.

Electoral registers were mandatory in Britain after the Reform Act of 1832. They have usually been published every year since then, apart from the war years. Initially only a small proportion of the adult population appeared in the rolls because only males who owned property were eligible to vote.

By 1867 working-class male householders who lived in cities could vote and this was extended to rural areas in 1884. In 1918, all males over the age of twenty-one years and women over the age of thirty years were eligible to vote. After 1928 all women aged twenty-one years and over could vote.

Electoral registers list all those people who were entitled to vote in parliamentary elections. Electoral registers specify entitlement to vote; you were only able to vote if your name appeared on the register.

England has been divided into parliamentary constituencies since medieval times, and until 1832 each county formed a constituency electing two members of Parliament - except the Welsh counties which elected only one member. English boroughs also elected two MPs. After the Reform Act of 1832 a fairer representation existed as most counties were divided into two or more constituencies so the number of MPs gave better representation determined by population distribution.

In 1832 the vote in the counties was granted to the owners of property worth at least £10; this  increased the electorate to around one million men. By 1867 the electorate had grown to about  2.5 million.  All male owners of real property worth £5 or more were enfranchised in the counties, together with those who occupied land and paid rent of £50 or more per year.

In boroughs, owners and most occupiers of dwellings who paid rent of £10 or more per annum were given the vote. In 1884 in the counties the majority of male householders over twenty-one years were entitled to vote. In 1918 the franchise for men was extended to all those aged twenty-one years normally resident in the constituency. Women did not obtain the vote in national elections until 1918, when it was limited to those aged over thirty who were householders, or the wives of householders. It was only in 1928 that the vote was granted to women aged  twenty-one and over. 

Until 1918 electoral registers listed the names of electors, their address and the nature of their qualification to vote such as having a freehold house and land. Many nineteenth-century registers contained separate lists for property owners and occupiers making it necessary to research all sections in the register.

During the nineteenth century, registers list the names of electors alphabetically but the registers began to be compiled by electoral wards, listing electors by streets and house numbers, a format which was adopted universally after 1918. With the online search facility, results can still be had just by entering the name in the search field.

The 1918 Representation of the People Act meant that women were given the right to vote for the first time in government elections as long as they were over thirty years of age, but only if they occupied, as owners or tenants, any land or premises which with the exception of dwelling houses had to exceed a £5 yearly value. Wives of husbands who were entitled to vote in elections also had the right to vote if they were over thirty years old.

There was one important provision in the 1918 Act - it disqualified wartime conscientious objectors from voting for a period of five years.

From 1885 a description of what entitled a person to be included on the electoral register was added. This may include information such as the landlord's name, the rent paid and number of rooms rented. If a person had moved house during the last year, the word "successive" appeared usually succeeded by the previous address

After 1918 against each name there were two codes, the first giving the qualification for parliamentary elections, and the second the qualification for local elections. If a dash appears, it meant the person was not eligible to vote in the election under which column it appeared. The codes were as follows:

R      Residence qualification

BP    Business premises qualification

O      Occupational qualification

HO  Qualification through husband's occupation. Occupation relates to occupation of a property not employment.

NM   Naval or military voter

From 1928 against each person there continued to be two codes on the same basis as earlier registers. The codes then used were as follows:

R       Residence qualification (man)

Rw    Residence qualification (woman)

B       Business premises qualification (man)

Bw   Business premises qualification (woman)

O      Occupational qualification (man)

Ow   Occupational qualification (woman)

D      Qualification through wife's occupation

Dw  Qualification through husband's occupation

NM  Naval or military voter

Against names, the following extra codes often appeared:

J       Eligible to serve as juror

SJ     Eligible to serve as special juror.

A      Absent voter