PARLIAMENTARY, CORPORATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS

Division within ZC

PARLIAMENTARY, CORPORATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS

English

The classification of the surviving records of parliamentary and corporation elections, and of local government elections after 1835, presents certain difficulties. Traditionally the sheriffs controlled elections in the city, and the group of parliamentary election indentures which are strays from the Sheriffs' files have been placed with the sheriffs' records. However, the enrolment of freemen of the city was traditionally recorded in the Mayors' books, and for this reason the freemens' rolls have been placed with the mayors' records. Poll books and other election records are normally placed with Quarter Sessions records, but some of the Chester poll books relate to both parliamentary and corporation elections, and although after 1832 lists of parliamentary voters were compiled separately from lists of burgesses qualified to vote in local government elections, following the Registration Act of 1878 the lists were combined. For these reasons the surviving records relating to parliamentary, corporation and local government elections have been put together in a separate sub-section of the Corporation records.

Chester was first empowered to send two members to Parliament in 1543 under the Act of 34 and 35 Henry VIII cap. 15, but no members for the city have been traced in the next parliament of 1 Edward VI, 1547-8, and it was not until the following parliament of 7 Edward VI in 1553 that the city was represented. Chester continued to send two members to parliament until 1885, when boroughs with a population of less than 50,000 lost the right to have more than one member.

In Chester the records of parliamentary and corporation elections are inextricably mingled, as by the charter of 1506 the freemen had the right to elect annually the mayor, sheriffs, aldermen and councilmen, although in practice these rights were restricted, and the freemen also elected members to parliament. Until 1747 both resident and non-resident freemen had the right to vote at parliamentary elections, but, following the 1747 election, the right of non-resident freemen was disputed, and an order of the House of Commons dated 2 Feb. 1747/8 stated that only resident freemen not receiving alms or any public charity had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

The Reform Act of 1832 extended the right to vote in the boroughs to £10 occupiers in addition to the freemen, and the franchise was further extended in the boroughs in 1867 to a household franchise on the payment of rates and lodger franchise in respect of lodgings of £10 annual value. The Corrupt Practices Act of 1853 required an audit of election expences, in 1883 election expences were proportioned to the size of the constituency and these measures together with the Ballot Act of 1873 and the introduction of new registration authorities in the boroughs in 1878 counties 1855 paved the way for the Franchise Act of 1884, which extended the household franchise to the counties. In 1918 the franchise was extended to adult resident males and to women aged 30 and over and in 1928 women gained the same voting rights as men. In this connection it is of interest to note that the freemen of Chester had voting privileges until 1918