Electoral registers and poll books

Introduction

Electoral registers are a useful resource for family and house history research.

They enable you to track who was resident at a particular property at a particular date.

However, the right to vote (or electoral franchise) was primarily based on a property qualification until the later part of the 19th century.

Voting was therefore restricted to a small proportion of the male population only.

The following provides a summary of developments in voting rights and the records we hold.

Key developments in voting rights

Pre-1832

Counties: From 1429 the right to vote was given to men aged 21 or over, owning freehold lands or tenements with an annual net value of 40s or more.

Boroughs: The franchise varied widely according to local custom. It could range from extensive electorates of all male heads of households, to freemen only or to the 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 had the status of a parliamentary borough. It is often cited as an example of a rotten borough, due to its very small population.

1832

Counties: The Reform Act extended the county franchise to men who owned or occupied lands and tenements worth between £2 and £5 per annum, thus 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 about one in seven men were then entitled to vote.

Boroughs: Owners or tenants of buildings worth at least £10 per annum were given the vote.

However, this was 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 seven miles of the borough.

1867

Counties: All male owners of real estate worth £5 or more were enfranchised with the passing of the Second Reform Act, together with those who occupied land and paid rent of £50 or more per year.

The vote was also extended to 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 under the act, as well as most occupiers paying at least £10 rent per annum.

This resulted in a large increase in urban voters.

1869

Some women received a vote in local government elections, provided they had the necessary property qualifications and paid rates.

1884

The third Reform Act was passed. The borough qualification granted in 1867 was now extended to the counties.

Therefore freeholders of inherited land worth 40s, freeholders of any land worth £5 and certain leaseholders, 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 21 now had the right to vote.

1918

The 'Representation of the People' Act was passed. All males over 21 were now eligible to vote, as were women over 30 who were householders (ie local government electors) or wives of householders.

The residential qualification period was reduced to six months.

1928

The vote was granted to women over 21.

1969

The age limit for voting was reduced to 18.

Poll books

Parliament made county sheriffs responsible for recording the poll in elections from 1696. Electoral records from before this date rarely survive.

Lists of electors and the candidates who they voted for, known as poll books, were published until the introduction of the secret ballot in 1872.

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.

Norfolk poll books can be found at the following locations:

The Norfolk Heritage Centre (NHC) holds poll books for Norfolk (1714-1871), Norwich (1710-1871), Great Yarmouth (1754-1865) and King's Lynn (1747-1868)
The Norfolk Record Office (NRO) holds some poll books. For county poll books (1715-1868), see series C/Scd 3. For other poll books, check the online catalogue (opens new window). Type 'poll book' in the Any Text field to find matches. The earliest is dated 1700 (reference KIM 6/7)
King's Lynn Borough Archives holds poll books for the town (1835-54); see KL/TC 10
Some published and facsimile poll books are also held at the NRO and NHC eg: Norfolk Record Society VIII (poll list 1702) and Norfolk Genealogy 24 (facsimile East Norfolk poll and register, 1835)

Electoral registers

These record the names of people who were registered to vote. However, just as 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 were compiled at all between 1916-17 and 1940-44.

There are separate volumes for each electoral division per year or half year. The period during which each register was effective varied.

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
1869-85: North, South, West
1886-1915: North, South, East, North West, South West, Mid
1918-48: North, South, East, South West, King's Lynn
1949-70: North, South, South West, King's Lynn, Central, Great Yarmouth
1971-73: North, South, North West, South West, Great Yarmouth
1974-onwards: 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, 1845-1980s (microform to 1975), see list C/ERO 1 for 1845-1973 and DC 40-44 for 1974 onwards. Please note that the latter have not been bound into volumes, so it is much easier to use the bound copies at the NHC (see below).
Norwich, 1832, 1920-81 (original registers), see list N/TC 66.
King's Lynn, 1834-1915, 1918-75 (on microfilm, 1834-1901, 1918-75), see KL/TC 10, but note original registers are held at the King's Lynn Borough Archives. Electoral registers 1918-75 are included in the main sequence of Norfolk County electoral registers.
Great Yarmouth, 1832-1975 (on microform, 1832-1915, 1949-75), see list Y/TC 20. 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 (1872-1927, 1933-2003) and microfilm (1832-1915). Also separate citizens' (1860s-70s) and freemens' lists (1849-1890s) for elections.
Norfolk: 1845-1975 (microform) supplied by the NRO; also bound volumes for 1832-97 (some gaps) and 1956-2003 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.

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 (opens new window).

Some Norfolk electoral registers can also be accessed via FamilySearch (opens new window).

Some more recent electoral registers (2002 onwards) can be searched on the subscription-based site 192.com (opens new window).

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.

This was after the Armistice, but 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 holds:

King's Lynn absent voters list for 1919 (C/ERO 1/282)
Great Yarmouth absent voters list for 1918 -19 (Y/TC 20/104-109)

The NHC holds:

Norwich absent voters' lists for 1918 and spring 1919

These lists can be a useful resource for researching military ancestors as they provide:

Name
(Home) address
Rank
Service number
Unit (ie, regiment or ship where they were stationed at the time of the election)
Polling district
Voter's number

The list also includes women engaged in military duties for the first time, such as army nurses.

Guide to abbreviations and further reading


Abbreviation	Meaning
†	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

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.