Editing Reform Act 1832 (section)

===The franchise===
Statutes passed in 1430 and 1432, during the reign of [[Henry VI of England|Henry VI]], standardised property qualifications for county voters. Under these Acts, all owners of [[fee simple|freehold property]] or land with an annual value of at least forty shillings in a particular county were entitled to vote in that county. This requirement, known as the [[Forty Shilling Freeholders|forty shilling freehold]], was never adjusted for inflation of land value; thus the amount of land one had to own in order to vote gradually diminished over time.{{efn|40 shillings, or £2, was equivalent to £{{inflation|UK|2|1430|fmt=c|r=-2}} in {{Inflation/year|UK}} terms in 1430, but had dropped to £{{inflation|UK|2|1832|fmt=c|r=-1}} in {{Inflation/year|UK}} terms by 1832.{{Inflation/fn|UK}}}}<ref>{{harvp|Blackstone|1765|pp=166–167}}</ref> The franchise was restricted to men by custom rather than statute;<ref>{{citation|title=The History of the Parliamentary Franchise|chapter-url=http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/RP13-14|publisher=House of Commons Library|access-date=16 March 2016|date=1 March 2013|chapter=Ancient voting rights|page=6|last1=Johnston|first1=Neil}}</ref> on rare occasions women had been able to vote in parliamentary elections as a result of property ownership.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Heater |first1=Derek |title=Citizenship in Britain: A History |date=2006 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9780748626724 |page=107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=js-qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107}}</ref> Nevertheless, the vast majority of people were not entitled to vote; the size of the English county electorate in 1831 has been estimated at only 200,000 and 400,000 enfranchised Englishmen overall.<ref>{{harvp|Phillips|Wetherell|1995|p=413}}</ref> Furthermore, the sizes of the individual county constituencies varied significantly. The smallest counties, [[Rutland]] and [[Anglesey]], had fewer than 1,000 voters each, while the largest county, [[Yorkshire]], had more than 20,000.<ref>Thorne (1986), vol. II, pp. 331, 435, 480.</ref> Those who owned property in multiple constituencies could [[plural voting|vote multiple times]]. Not only was this typically legal (since there was usually no need for a property owner to live in a constituency in order to vote there) it was also feasible, even with the technology of the time, since polling was usually held over several days.

In boroughs the franchise was far more varied. There were broadly six types of parliamentary boroughs, as defined by their franchise:
# Boroughs in which freemen were electors;
# Boroughs in which the franchise was restricted to those paying [[scot and lot]], a form of municipal taxation;
# Boroughs in which only the ownership of a [[burgage]] property qualified a person to vote;
# Boroughs in which only members of the corporation were electors (such boroughs were perhaps in every case "[[pocket borough]]s", because council members were usually "in the pocket" of a wealthy patron);
# Boroughs in which male householders were electors (these were usually known as "[[potwalloper]] boroughs", as the usual definition of a householder was a person able to boil a pot on his/her own hearth);
# Boroughs in which freeholders of land had the right to vote.

Some boroughs had a combination of these varying types of franchise, and most had special rules and exceptions,<ref>May (1896), vol. I, pp. 321–322.</ref> so many boroughs had a form of franchise that was unique to themselves.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

The largest borough, [[Westminster (UK Parliament constituency)|Westminster]], had about 12,000 voters, while many of the smallest, usually known as "rotten boroughs", had fewer than 100 each.<ref>Thorne (1986), vol. II, p. 266.</ref> The most famous rotten borough was [[Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)|Old Sarum]], which had 13 [[Burgage|burgage plots]] that could be used to "manufacture" electors if necessary—usually around half a dozen was thought sufficient. Other examples were [[Dunwich (UK Parliament constituency)|Dunwich]] (32 voters), [[Camelford (UK Parliament constituency)|Camelford]] (25), and [[Gatton (UK Parliament constituency)|Gatton]] (7).<ref>Thorne (1986), vol. II, pp. 50, 369, 380.</ref>