Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hello, I have just found this on the main site and found my ancestor on it. I'm sure I asked this 10 years ago but have long forgotten, what was this poll book all about and what do the abbreviations stand for please?

PRITCHARD,JOHN,BOOK KEEPER,VIRGIL STREET,LIVERPOOL,E & T,

Poll books provide a list of electors (confined to male adults over the age of 21) and who they voted for in parliamentary (Members of Parliament or ‘Knights of the Shire’), county and borough elections (from 1843) together with details of their entitlement to vote, measured by land and income. Eligibility was linked to property ownership and local customs but in some areas most adult males had the vote. Land Tax Assessments were used to determine eligibility.

Some explanations are both here http://www.genguide.co.uk/source/poll-books/23/
and http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/P ... _and_Wales

Although the abbreviations list doesn't show the E & T I believe they are something to do with who they voted for - possibly T for Tory, but I feel sure somebody else will confirm or deny this.

I think a lot of us have Word copies of this 1832 Poll Book. There's now original images of this Poll Book on Ancestry within the collection entitled "UK, Poll Books and Electoral Registers, 1538-1893". The Liverpool 1832 Poll Book front page names the candidates and it looks like the letters refer to the surnames of the candidates. Liverpool elected two out of the four candidates to be their representatives in Parliament. In 1832 Ewart and Sandon were elected. Here are the candidates:-

E= William Ewart, Esq [Liberal]
S= Lord Viscount Sandon (AKA Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl of Harrowby) [Conservative]
T= Thomas Thornley, Esq [Liberal]
D= Major-General Sir Howard Douglas, Baronet [Conservative]

Ewart was a Liverpool MP from 1830-37, Sandon from 1831-47, Douglas 1842-47 and Thornley went on to be MP for Wolverhampton 1835-59. The letters BGS/FMN do not appear on the original images on Ancestry. I've read comments online saying these letters mean the person was a Burgess/Freeman no idea if this is true or not. The original images usually just have two letters referring to two of the candidates.







Blue

Thanks Blue, it's been a while since these letters had been mentioned and I'd forgotten exact details.

Thank you both very much ☺

Oh dear, I have been mistaken here.

Somebody has just told me that to vote in 1832 you had to be a property owner or pay rent of more than £10 a year, it's hardly likely that somebody who ended up in Feather street (or courts) in the 1841 census 9 years later was either of these.

Right name, right occupation, right area but maybe Virgil Street in 1832 was a tad more upmarket than it later became.

Unless it's a riches to rags story.

See under "The Franchise":-

"In 1832 the borough franchise was standardised and simplified and the existing county franchise was supplemented by a complex variety of new franchises. In English boroughs the franchise was now extended to the £10 householder, that is an occupier of property, either as owner or tenant, worth £10 per year, or lodgers if the value of the property occupied divided by the number of lodgers exceeded £10 per year. In all cases the householder had to have been in the possession of the property for twelve months. Existing franchise holders retained their franchise provided they had resided in the borough or within seven miles for six months."

http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestyp ... encies.pdf


Blue

Where did you find this poll book to look at?? Please and thanks

There's a transcript here:-

http://www.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk/1 ... ok1832.htm

Images here:-

http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=2410



Blue

It is on our website http://www.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk/1 ... ok1832.htm

We also have a list of directories held by our members who are willing to do look ups in them
http://forum.liverpool-genealogy.org.uk ... 16&t=13794

Thanks Blue, so it possibly is him maybe living as a lodger, he would have been about 26 married with one child.

Thanks for the 1832 directory. None of my ancestors on it though

PRITCHARD,JOHN,BOOK KEEPER,VIRGIL STREET,LIVERPOOL,E & T,

Deaths - "Same day" (Wednesday 22nd November 1837) "at his residence, in Virgil-street, aged 47, Mr John Pritchard, deeply regretted by his family and friends."

Liverpool Mercury, 1 December 1837

I take it he's one of yours S? glad you found it useful. I checked Gibsons but unfortunately his burial wasn't there.

I take it he's one of yours S?

No, he's the one that BarbaraW is interested in.

Ooops of course

Thank you RT, mine was very much alive in the 1861 census so not him then though at least I did learn some things along the way.............

And something else I just had a light bulb moment about is that I need to look in the newpapers more than I do, it's not all criminals and toffs there are lots of ordinary people in there too.......