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Parliamentary Reform and Protest in Wales and England c.1780-1885

The unreformed parliamentary system

  • 3 things to know
  • A2 Unit 3

Overview

Two kinds of constituency in the unreformed system, rotten borough and pocket borough.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What were the two kinds of constituency in the unreformed system?

Key term

Who could vote in a county before 1832?

Key term

Why was the borough franchise so inconsistent?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What were the two kinds of constituency in the unreformed system?

    Model answer

    County constituencies, returning knights of the shire, and borough constituencies, returning burgesses.

  2. 2

    Who could vote in a county before 1832?

    Model answer

    Men owning freehold land worth at least forty shillings a year.

  3. 3

    Why was the borough franchise so inconsistent?

    Model answer

    Each borough voted on its own ancient custom, so the qualification might be paying local rates, owning a particular property, membership of the corporation or the freedom of the town.

  4. 4

    What was a rotten borough?

    Model answer

    A borough whose population had shrunk to almost nothing but which still returned members to Parliament.

  5. 5

    Give an example of a rotten borough and say what made it notorious.

    Model answer

    Old Sarum in Wiltshire, an uninhabited hillside with a handful of voters, still returned two members.

  6. 6

    What was a pocket borough?

    Model answer

    A borough whose seats were controlled by a single patron, usually a great landowner, who could nominate the members.

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