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The Bridgnorth Poll Books

The Poll Books are lists of voters compiled at parliamentary elections, a little like an electoral roll, except that a poll book records who they actually voted for. From 1696 up to 1872 returning officers were required to compile these records and make them publicly available. Later Poll Books were sometimes published in printed volumes, but earlier records were simply written by hand.

Historically, the voters of Bridgnorth Borough were responsible for electing two members to Paraliament, and were each allowed to cast votes for two people. This continued until 1868, when the number of members was reduced from two to one. Finally, in 1885, Bridgnorth was absorbed into Ludlow constituency.

For information on how the electorate in Bridgnorth was affected by the Great Reform Bill, see the section on the 1832 Electoral Register, near the bottom of this page.

Who was included in the Poll Books?

Any man who was listed in the Bridgnorth Burgess Book (a.k.a. The Freemen’s Book) could vote in the parliamentary elections, provided that he was over twenty-one. According to the 1793-1798 British Universal Directory:

This borough sent members [to Parliament] ab origine. The right of election is in the burgesses and freemen, within and without the borough. The number of voters is about 700; returning-officers, the bailiffs.

This is a wider extension of the franchise than some other boroughs, but it is still only a small proportion of the population - and in fact contains a significant proportion of voters living well outside the borough.

Those owning a freehold worth more than £2 per year could also vote in the county elections, but this was a comparatively small percentage. Women, of course, were still not allowed to vote in the 18th and 19th centuries, and do not appear in the Poll Books.

What information is contained in the entries?

This varies from poll book to poll book. As they were compiled by different people over the years, there is no standard layout or format for the entries. They may only contain the person’s name, or they may mention his father, brothers, occupation, title, place of residence or nickname.

The votes in the poll books are usually indicated in the form of initials in the margin, but in some cases the votes do not include all candidates in the known electoral result, so they may perhaps not have been intended to be a complete record. Also, in some of the poll books, only those who cast a vote are included, whilst in others the entire electorate is listed, whether they voted or not.

Which Poll Books have been transcribed?

Several early poll books survive for Bridgnorth:

They are listed individually below to give a better idea of what information is available in each one. In order to see which of these have actually been transcribed, visit the Lists page.

Poll Book: 11 May 1705

This little book lists the burgesses alphabetically by surname, with initials in the right-hand margin indicating how they voted in the parliamentary elections. Many entries contain additional information about occupation or place of residence. All names listed have a vote marked, so burgesses who did not vote will be missing from the list. This poll was taken nine years before the main burgess book was compiled, so it contains names of burgesses who are not in that list, having died before April 1714.

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Poll Book: 1710

This book lists the burgesses alphabetically by surname. The entries almost all contain additional information of some kind - in particular, the date when they were made a burgess is always included if known. This allows them to be cross-checked with entries from the Bridgnorth Burgess Book with much greater accuracy than the 1705 or 1727 poll books, and effectively extends the burgess book to include anyone who died between 1710 and 1714.

Sixty of the entries are marked "m", implying that the burgess is a minor and not yet twenty-one. This can be very helpful in distinguishing between people with the same name.

The entries have initials marked in columns in the left-hand margin to indicate who they voted for. Not all names listed have a vote marked, so this list of 1239 people probably includes the whole electorate at the time. Of these, 228 did not vote, 17 voted for only one person, and the remaining 994 used both of their votes. By my count, votes were cast for the different combinations of candidates as follows:

~	A:	B:	C:	W:	A:C:	B:A:	B:C:	B:W:	W:A:	W:C:
228	3	1	9	4	463	13	21	438	32	27

This led to Whitmore Acton Esq^r. and Rich^d. Creswell Esq^r. being elected as the Members of Parliament for Bridgnorth Borough, ousting the previous incumbents by a very narrow margin. The totals are recorded at the back of the book after the poll, and tally almost exactly with the votes as recorded in the main list. The official result is shown below, with the totals from my own count included in orange:

501	W^m. Whitmore Esq^r. [501]
474	S^r. Hum: Briggs [473]
511	Whitmore Acton Esq^r. [511]
520	Rich^d. Creswell Esq^r. [520]

The count for Humphrey Briggs appears to have been originally written as 473, but the last digit has been changed to a "4".

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Poll Book: 17 Sep 1713 (Shropshire)

This poll book (printed together with the 1722 poll) is for the County of Shropshire, rather than Bridgnorth Borough alone. Only a fraction of those voting in the Bridgnorth elections appear to have voted in it - largely because the franchise is limited to freeholders rather than mere burgesses. The names are listed in random order, by "booth", and are indexed at the end. Initials in the left-hand margin indicate who they voted for, and the places of their freeholds and of their abodes are also listed.

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Poll Book: 12 Apr 1722 (Shropshire)

This poll book (printed together with the 1713 poll) is also for the County of Shropshire, rather than Bridgnorth Borough alone, and is also limited to freeholders. It includes the places of their freeholds and of their abodes, as with the 1713 list, but the names are organised first by Hundred and then by town.

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Poll Book: 30 Aug 1727

This book lists the burgesses alphabetically by surname, regardless of where they lived. Some entries contain additional information about occupation or place of residence which was not mentioned in the Bridgnorth Burgess Book, but this information is not included consistently and it is equally possible for the entry to contain less than the equivalent burgess book entry.

This poll was taken thirteen years after the main Bridgnorth Burgess Book was compiled, so when the two lists are compared it may be possible to see which burgesses have died since April 1714, and which have moved to new towns.

Initials in the left-hand margin have been used to indicate how people voted in the parliamentary elections. The meaning of the initials is noted at the front of the book as:

A:	S^r. Whitmore Acton Bar^t.
A:A:	S^r. Whitmore Acton Bar^t. and Edw^d. Acton Esq^r.
C:	S^t. John Charlton Esq^r.
W:	John Weaver Esq^r.
B:	Edward Bridgen Mercant

Not all names listed have a vote marked, so this list of 1280 people probably includes the whole electorate. Of these, 172 did not vote, 18 voted for only one person, and the remaining 1090 used both of their votes. Votes were cast for the different combinations of candidates as follows:

~	A:	A:A:	A:B:	A:C:	A:W:	C:	C:W:
172	15	310	94	66	20	3	600

This led to S^t. John Charlton Esq^r. and John Weaver Esq^r. being elected as the Members of Parliament for Bridgnorth Borough. The totals are recorded at the back of the book after the poll, but they do not quite tally with the votes as recorded in the main list. The official result is shown below, with the totals from my own count included in orange:

666	S^t. John Charlton Esq^r. [669]
621	John Weaver Esq^r. [620]
507	S^r. Whitmore Acton Bar^t. [505]
316	Edw^d. Acton Esq^r. [310]
94	Edward Bridgen Mercant [94]

This book also includes a list of payments and gratuities for the election before the main list of voters, and many names in the poll itself have sums of money listed next to them.

To see a transcription of the accounts at the front of the 1727 Poll Book, click .

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Poll Book: 14 May 1741

This little book lists the burgesses by street within Bridgnorth itself, and by town outside of it. Listing the names in this way ensures that virtually all the entries have a place of residence included, although as a side-effect, only about 10% mention an occupation.

Nicknames were used in a few places to distinguish between two people of the same name. Those who were made burgesses shortly before the election (i.e. April or May 1741) were often inserted later in a different hand, and this can also be an aid to identification.

The book appears to be a complete listing of the electorate, as the compilers have even gone to the trouble of separately listing those who they had lost track of, or who were in the army, abroad or at sea. Minors are also listed, even though they couldn't vote - in some cases, their date of baptism was actually noted in their entry in order to confirm their age!

Initials in the left-hand margin indicate how the person voted, and the meaning of the initials appears to be:

WW	Thomas Whitmore Esq^r. and William Whitmore Esq^r.
W-	Thomas Whitmore Esq^r.
L-	Lanc^t: Lee Esq^r.

There are 1563 people listed in the poll book. Of these, 191 did not vote (in some cases, because they were minors/incapable/abroad/mad/dead/in gaol), 500 voted for only one person, and the remaining 872 used both of their votes. Votes were cast for the different combinations of candidates as follows:

--	WW	L	WL	LW	W-
191	817	498	46	9	2

This led to Thomas Whitmore Esq^r. and William Whitmore Esq^r. being elected as the Members of Parliament for Bridgnorth Borough. The totals for each candidate were recorded at the back of the book after the poll, but the numbers do not quite tally with the votes as recorded in the main list. The official result is shown below, with the totals from my own count included in orange:

878	Thomas Whitmore Esq^r. [865]
829	William Whitmore Esq^r. [826]
552	Lanc^t: Lee Esq^r. [553]
30	S^r. Rich^d. Acton [0]
2	Henry Mitton Esq^r. [0]
1	S^r. Walter Bagott [0]
1	William Lacon Child Esq^r. [0]

The official total number polled is given at the back of the book as 1371. For some reason, although votes for the four less popular candidates were clearly counted, the individual votes for them are simply not noted in the main list. I have no idea why. There are also slight discrepancies in the vote totals for the first three candidates.

Initials also appear in the right-hand margin, and these are exclusively WW's or W's. This confused me at first, but it appears that this is the result of the 1747 election which was written in later. At this election, Sir Thomas Whitmore and Arthur Weaver Esq^r. were elected unopposed. The two sets of initials are both shown in the database record, separated by a slash, i.e. WL/WW.

To see a mock-example of the types of entries seen in the 1741 Poll Book, click .

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Poll Book: 5-10 Apr 1784 (A)

This book lists the burgesses alphabetically by surname within Bridgnorth, and then within other towns and villages. It not only lists those who were polled in the election, it also lists those who were not polled but had promised to vote. It has additional columns for unspecified extra information, such as profession, and for the date when they were made a burgess.

This date is very useful, as it links each entry back to a specific entry in the burgess book - but it must be pointed out that, whilst some of the dates were clearly written in at the time, the majority have been added in later in a different hand. It also seems that, where there were two similar entries in the burgess book, the compilers have sometimes picked the wrong one by mistake.

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Poll Book: 5-10 Apr 1784 (B)

This is the second poll book for this date. It seems to list only the burgesses not living in Bridgnorth itself, and groups them according to the first letter of their surname. It has been copiously corrected and edited in red ink, to the point where it is very difficult to be sure what was actually intended, although the original black ink is still clearly visible.

The book has columns for place of residence and an additional description (usually their profession), so this information is generally included.

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Poll Book: 10 Jun 1826 (A)

This book lists the burgesses voting at the election alphabetically by surname, and then goes on to add the names of those made burgesses after the election - "Their names being inserted from time to time as they are inroll^d." This makes it a little like a cross between a burgess book and a poll book. The book has columns specifically for place of residence and trade or occupation, so this information is almost always included.

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Poll Book: 10 Jun 1826 (B)

This is the second poll book for this date, and appears to be a copy of it. However, it does not include the burgesses added after the election.

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Poll Book: Aug 1830

This book simply lists the poll as taken, over three days, with the burgesses listed in the order in which they turned up. There are also columns specifically for the place of residence and occupation, so this information is included far more consistently than in other poll books and the Bridgnorth Burgess Book.

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Electoral Register: Nov 1832

Strictly speaking, this book is not a poll book as it does not record the results of an election. Instead, it simply lists those eligible to vote in parliamentary elections. The names are divided into two sections: the burgesses, and those electors eligible "in right of occupation".

The need for the two separate lists is a result of the Great Reform Bill, which was passed by Parliament earlier in the year. Previously, the right to vote in Bridgnorth Borough had been confined to the burgesses (or freemen), regardless of where they lived. Afterwards, male residents of the borough were allowed to vote provided that they could fulfil certain property requirements. However, existing burgesses retained their right to vote, provided that they were resident in the borough. Future burgesses not yet made would also be able to vote, provided that they became burgesses by right of birth or apprenticeship, and that they were resident in the Borough.

The information for the burgesses consists of surname, forename, place of residence and occupation, and it is notable that places of residence from further afield (like Birmingham, for example) no longer appear on the list. The information for those electors "in right of occupation" is grouped by place (e.g. Saint Leonard, or Astley Abbotts) and includes name, nature of qualification (such as "House and Land"), and the place where the property is situated.

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Poll Book: 29 July 1847

This booklet lists the burgesses in approximate alphabetical order. The entries are typically written in the format "surname forename, occupation, place of residence... vote". Listing the names in this way ensures that the vast majority of the entries (though not all) have both place of residence and occupation included. Places of residence are usually given as street names for those living in Bridgnorth, and as town or village names for those living elsewhere.

The 1847 poll book is typeset and printed, rather than being handwritten as the earlier poll books are, which means that there is a limited amount of space on each line. In a few places, this has led to additional forenames being abbreviated to initials, and one or two entries are referred to by title only.

Each person had two votes, although not all people used both of them. Three columns on the left of each page, headed by W, P and E, have been used to indicate the votes by marking 1's under the appropriate heading. In the database, these 1's have been replaced by the corresponding initial as follows:

W.	Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esquire
P.	Sir Robert Pigot, Baronet
E.	Sir John Easthope, Baronet

The book lists only the 753 people who actually voted in the election, as is made clear by the summary at the back:

"Voters Polled 753—Voters who did not poll, 85—Total on Register 838."

There are 753 people listed in the poll book. Of these, 139 voted for only one person, and the remaining 614 used both of their votes. Votes were cast for the different combinations of candidates as follows:

E.	P.	P.E.	W.	W.E.	W.P.
90	34	17	15	263	334

This led to Thomas Charlton Whitmore and Sir Robert Pigot being elected as the Members of Parliament for Bridgnorth. The totals for each candidate were recorded on the last page of the book, but the numbers do not quite tally with the votes as recorded in the printed list, suggesting either a counting error or a printing error. The official "Declaration of the Poll", made at 5 o'clock on the day of the election, is shown below. The totals from my own count have been included in orange:

611	Thomas Charlton Whitmore, Esquire [612]
388	Sir Robert Pigot, Baronet [385]
368	Sir John Easthope, Baronet [370]

The booklet itself was "published and sold by Gitton, High Street" for the price of one shilling. It describes itself as "an alphabetical list of Freemen and Electors", reflecting the changes to the electorate after the Great Reform Bill was passed in 1832.

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Notes

The following table shows the reference numbers of these Poll Books as used by this site, by Shropshire Archives, and (where known) by the Family History Library:

Record Name	Reference Number
	Shropshire Archives	Bridgnorth Lists	Family History Library
Poll Book 1705	5224/1	PB1705	---
Poll Book 1710	5586/12/1	PB1710	---
Poll Book 1727	BB/B/4/4/3	PB1727	---
Poll Book 1741	5224/2	PB1741	---
Poll Book 1784(A)	BB/B/6/1/2	PB1784A	---
Poll Book 1784(B)	BB/B/6/1/1	PB1784B	---
Poll Book 1826(A)	BB/B/6/1/3	PB1826A	---
Poll Book 1826(B)	BB/B/6/1/3	PB1826B	---
Poll Book 1830	BB/B/6/1/4	PB1830	( Film 1911883 )
Electoral Register 1832	055.7	PB1832	---
Poll Book 1847	2095/34	PB1847	---

Note: The film numbers I have listed for the Family History Library may not be correct, as I have not seen the films myself. They are taken from the online catalogue, and appear to be referring to the same sources that I have used.

To see a list of MP’s from 1626 to 1784 for Bridgnorth, click .

To see which Poll Books have been transcribed, look at the Lists page .

To search those Poll Books which have already been transcribed, click .

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