Jonathan Cooper: Franchise and Reform in 1830s Yorkshire

The coach speedily heralding the arrival of electoral reform in 1832

A brief introduction

Despite the relative brevity of the following post, don’t be mistaken in thinking that it a topic on which I have anything but the greatest interest in. The topic of parliamentary reform in the eighteenth century not only takes me back to happy memories of GCSE History lessons with Miss Sewell (no doubt my classmates will disagree!) but also remains for me an integral step in the creation of our modern representative democracy. The records show that my 5 x great grandfather, Jonathan Cooper, to be among the first generation of new voters in England following the 1832 Great Reform Act, something which I will be exploring in this post.

1832 Great Reform Act

Rotten Boroughs, Pocket Boroughs and other scandals pre-1832

British democracy in the period running up to the 1832 Reform Act, was undoubtedly corrupt. There was no universal suffrage. The common man simply didn’t have the opportunity to have his say in who was representing him in parliament. This privilege was instead held by a rather small minority. Indeed, rapidly growing industrial centres such as Manchester were grossly underrepresented in Parliament, whilst Old Sarum, abandoned in the early modern period in favour of the new settlement of Salisbury up the road, still sent two MPs to parliament in 1831. These two MPs were voted for by only eleven voters, all of whom resided elsewhere. Old Sarum and places like it were the notorious rotten boroughs, places with very small electorates (and often few or no residents) which were manipulated by landowning family to gain power and influence in Parliament and essentially to serve their own interests. Other horrors in this category include Gatton in Surrey (with 23 houses and 7 voters); Newtown on the Isle of White (with 14 houses and 23 voters) and Dulwich (which by 1816 was essentially underwater).

Even here in the West Country, there is still a joke which has survived from this period:

“What is more rotten than East Looe?”

“West Looe”.

Looe in Cornwall, was essentially two fishing villages either side of the Looe River. In 1831, East Looe had 38 voters and West Looe, 19. Essentially, as the Looes were both Burgage Boroughs (see below); the voters beholden to the local landowner who was effectively able to choose who he wanted to represent the villages in parliament.

Cruikshank's satirical cartoon showing reformers fighting to get rid of the rotten boroughs from 1831

Even the rules about who could vote were not consistent in the run up to the 1832 Great Reform Act. Voting qualifications included:

• Burgage Boroughs where the right to vote relied on having the lease to a burgage tenement. The problem here was that wealthy landowners bought up these burgage tenements and leased them to tenants who would do his bidding. There was no secret ballot in this period and so the landlord would know who his tenant had voted for. As a result, tenants voted for the candidate favoured by his landlord, making for an inherently corrupt system.

• Pot walloper Boroughs where the right to vote depended on having a house big enough to have a hearth which could hold a cauldron (voters often clanged their key in their cauldron on the day of elections to show they were eligible, hence the name!). Again, this implied that prosperity bought you a vote

• Scot and Lot Boroughs where all male rate payers could vote

• Corporation Boroughs where the town’s corporation or council chose the MP and elections were not often held

• Freemen Boroughs  where all freemen could vote but they didn’t have to be resident in the constituency

• And possibly the worst of all – Pocket Boroughs, where the landowner chose the MP and no elections were held at all.

  
Jonathan Cooper's constituency was that of Thirsk - a burgage borough in urgent need of reform.

'How to get made an MP' - a satirical cartoon by Heath from 1830

Thirsk: A burgage borough in need of reform

My 5 x great grandfather, Jonathan Cooper, was born around 1761, near Danby in North Yorkshire. Information on his family is, at present, rather sparse. Even his parentage remains obscure. He was clearly a farmer of some description. He married a local girl, Jane Dowson (born around 1761) whose father, Mark Dowson, sold 15 acres of land near Fryup Danby in 1799 according to an indenture from that time. In the 1830s, Jonathan was clearly based in and around Farndale (a valley in the North Yorkshire Moors) and had been for many years. His daughter, Hannah (my 4 x great grandmother), was christened there in 1802.

Jonathan's house in Farndale - today used as a youth hostel

Farndale fell under the constituency of Thirsk. Pre-1832, Thirsk was one of the burgage boroughs mentioned above, where the right to vote resided with burgage tenants who often voted at their landlord’s bidding. In 1831, there were 50 voters in burgage tenements there, 49 of which were owned by the local landlord Sir Thomas Frankland. Thirsk was able to send two MPs to parliament. Hardly surprising then, given the state of affairs, that one of the two Whig MPs for Thirsk in 1831, was Sir Thomas’ son, Robert. The other MP, William Frankland, hailed from the same family, and was possibly Robert’s younger brother. Rather tellingly, there were no contested elections in Thirsk in the entirety of the period 1715 and 1832.

Sir Robert Frankland, MP for Thirsk between 1815 and 1834

The Great Reform Act and Thirsk

The Great Reform Act of 1832, changed all this. Rotten boroughs were swept away. A number of constituencies lost their second seat. New seats were created for the growing industrial centres such as Manchester, which had been woefully underrepresented up to this point. And finally, the franchise was extended to many more people.

How did the Reform Act transform Thirsk? Firstly, Thirsk increased its boundaries to include the townships of Sandhutton, Sowerby, Bagby and South Kilvington. This brought the number of households up to over a thousand, allowing it to remain a constituency, when others such as Old Sarum disappeared. However, with a population of just over 4000, Thirsk was forced to lose one of its two MPs. Robert’s fellow Whig, William Frankland, lost his seat in parliament as a result. Finally, as a borough constituency, landowners of property worth £10 or more, long term leasers (of 50 years or more) of land worth over £10 and middle term leasers (of 20 years or more) of land worth over £50 gained the vote.

John Bull and the Balance of Power in 1832. The Reform Act enabled lots more people like Jonathan to get the vote

Jonathan Cooper, by now around seventy years old was among that number. In 1834, Robert Frankland (by now Sir Robert Frankland) resigned his seat and a by-election was held. Jonathan can be found on the electoral register for that year, at Oak House Farm in Farndale Eastside. The nature of his qualification to vote being given as an ‘occupier of a farm’. This clearly indicates that he must have been one of the long or mid-term leasers who were enfranchised two years before. Whereas three years before, there had been only 50 voters for Thirsk, there were fourteen in Farndale, Eastside alone in 1834.

1834 Electoral Role for Farndale, Eastside

Another landed Whig, Sir Samuel Crompton, took the seat as a result of the 1834 Thirsk by-election.  Though the 1832 Great Reform Act marked a remarkable change in fortune for Jonathan, there was still much work to be done in the area of parliamentary reform in this period. For example, Jonathan would still have been expected to cast his vote in public, putting him at risk of threats and intimidation. However, the 1832 Reform Act was clearly a momentous step forward in the period towards the universal suffrage we enjoy today - hence fully deserving of the accolade, 'Great Reform Act', in my opinion.

The Polling by Hogarth (1755). Even after the 1832 Reform Act there was still no secret ballot

References

Parliament and Parliamentary Reform by Dr Marjorie Bloy available here

Rotten and Pocket Boroughs available here

Thirsk (Parliamentary constituency) available here