The unreformed electoral system and early demands for reform

Overview

Rotten borough, pocket or nomination borough and economical reform.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What was a rotten borough?

   Model answer

   A parliamentary borough whose population had shrunk to almost nothing but which still returned one or two MPs.

2. 2

   Name two notorious rotten boroughs and say why they were notorious.

   Model answer

   Old Sarum in Wiltshire had no resident voters at all, and Dunwich in Suffolk had largely fallen into the sea, yet both still returned two MPs.

3. 3

   What was a pocket or nomination borough?

   Model answer

   A borough where the electorate was so small that a wealthy patron could decide the result, so the seat was said to be in his pocket.

4. 4

   Which growing industrial towns had no MPs of their own before 1832?

   Model answer

   Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Sheffield all lacked their own borough members despite their size.

5. 5

   State the county franchise qualification before 1832.

   Model answer

   Ownership of freehold land worth at least forty shillings a year, a qualification unchanged since the fifteenth century.

6. 6

   Why was the borough franchise described as chaotic?

   Model answer

   Every borough had its own rule, so the vote might belong to ratepayers, freemen, holders of particular houses, householders with a hearth, or only the corporation.

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