On the surface, electoral registers might appear to be of limited use to family historians. They provide us with very little in the way of genealogical detail and, before the passing of the Representation of the People Act of 1918, they list only a small percentage of the population.
But while it’s fair to say that they only really come into their own as a major source of information about our ancestors in the 20th century, we certainly shouldn’t ignore the surviving records from the 19th century and earlier.
The legislation
In order to get to grips with the question of who was and who wasn’t entitled to vote at different periods we need to explore the relevant legislation and we have to go right back to the 15th century to find the earliest significant Acts of Parliament.
Two Acts were passed in the reign of Henry VI (in 1429 and 1432) stipulating that the franchise was restricted to freeholders (i.e. those who held land directly from the crown) whose land was valued at 40 shillings or more (rent per year). With some minor amendments, the 40 shillings rule remained in place for the next 400 years during which time, simply due to inflation, more and more people became eligible to vote.
