Even today residency is an essential qualification to be registered on the electoral roll. 180 years ago it also depended on the ownership of land. The oldest franchise was the "40 shillings freehold" dating back to the 15th Century. There was also a much later condition imposed limiting the right to vote to those who had paid their rates, which meant that dissenters who refused to pay church rates for a church they did not support lost the right to vote. (check information)

The franchise was first limited in 1413 during the first year of the reign of Henry V which granted the right to vote to resident freeholders to elect the knights of the shires. About 25 years later during the reign of Henry V1 this right was limited to freeholds of a yearly value of 40 shillings.

The reason given in the Act for restricting the franchise to what at that time were probably wealthy freeholders is that the elections of members of parliament were now being made by the "great unwashed". In the words of the Act, elections "have now of late been made by very great outrageous and excessive numbers of people dwelling within the same counties of the realm of England, of which the most part is people of small substance and of no value, whereof every one pretended a voice equivalent as to such elections to be made with the most worthy knights and esquires dwelling in the same counties, whereby manslaughters, riots, batteries and divisions among the gentlemen and other people shall very likely rise and be unless convenient and due remedy be provided in this behalf."

Even during Cromwell’s revolution, which failed to end the monarchy for ever, one of the major unresolved disputes was the question of the franchise. The Army agitators - the democratic and radical levellers - campaigned for the franchise to be extended to all men except paupers and servants whilst Cromwell and Parliament sought to uphold the existing property based franchise.

An Act passed in about 1695 during the reign of William of Orange, added a further limitation on the right to vote which declared void and of no effect all conveyances of land and buildings "in order to multiply voices or to split and divide the interest" in any houses or lands among several persons to enable them to vote at elections.

This change was made only a short time after the 1688 rebellion had usurped the Crown from King James and the Jacobite succession. An interesting area of investigation could be the political motives which sought to restrict the extension of the franchise through the transfer of land to non voters. Sadly, we do not have the time to investigate this area of history.

By the time we come to the Industrial revolution nothing has changed in the democratic settlement of Britain. A few wealthy interbred land barons have controlled the Kingdom for centuries. Their power is now threatened by the new wealth of the manufacturing class -few of whom have much sympathy for extending the franchise.

The Victorian debate about the franchise was essentially a debate about which men should exercise power. Whilst an original demand of some Chartists was universal suffrage of both men and women, this was soon compromised to votes for men. Outside of Chartism the real debate was between protecting the existing limited "freeholders" vote or choosing between household suffrage - a vote for the male head of the house.

In heritage terms we often talk about our Parliament being the "mother of all parliaments" but it is easy to forget that it was not until the election of 1929 that the franchise was exercised by men and women on equal terms. Parliament may be an ancient institution but democracy is only 70 years young.