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Help with understanding Electoral Registers

By Gwebb1 |
General Genealogy

Hi everyone.

I have been using the Liverpool Electoral Registers quite a lot recently  and noticed that some years have more than one Register.

For example, I can find Jane Maddox (my grandmother) on the 1920 Register living at 7 Makin Street with James Alfred Hibbins and his son, Walter (the Hibbins are related to Janes's step-mother).

However, there is another 1920 Register showing James, his wife (Elizabeth) and Walter living at this address - no Jane.  I know Elizabeth Hibbins died in September 1919 and I assume Jane moved in after the death of EH to support her step-uncle but how do the dates tally and why 2 Registers?  I assume they were taken at different times. 

All advice gratefully received as ever.

Glen

Glen,

The 2 registers you are interested in are the Spring Registers, dated 15th May 1920, but that doesn't mean they were compiled in the Spring, just when produced.  If you go back to the first ward page, you will see the above information.

Do you have Jane Maddox on a previous Electoral Roll? 

Thanks, Bert - this seems to have been the 1st Register appertaining to 1920 as JA's wife is still on it.  She actually died Sept 1919 so I guess it was compiled before then.  Walter is JA's brother.

The other Register for 1920 shows Jane Maddox  but no sign of Elizabeth.

Following on from your comments, I looked up William Gordon (Jane's father) for 1920.  His wife (another Elizabeth and the sister of JA) died in Oct 1919 - she is on one Register for 1920 living at 9 Butterfield St but not on the other.

Any idea why and what times of the year they were taken? 

I do not know the official reason why twice a year, perhaps it had something to do with servicemen sporadically returning after the war, also the high rate of Spanish flu victims may have been considered.

Hi John and Bert,

The twice yearly registers were introduced by the 1918 Representation of the People Act (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1918/64/pdfs/ukpga_19180064_en.pdf ), and the requirement is set out in section 11, although no explanation for it is given. Bert's theory may be right, although section 5 already makes provision for servicemen, in the form of the absent voter lists.  Provided a soldier or sailor has the necessary gender/age and property owning qualification he may pre-register to vote but can only vote once he has been de-mobbed.

I suspect the main purpose was just to keep the lists as up to date as possible, which obviously includes Bert's point. And in answer to John's 'when' question, the qualifying date was 15 January for the spring register which came into force on the 15 April following, and 15 July was the qualifying date  for the autumn register which came into force on 15 October. After the 1928 RoP Act, the dates slipped back to 1 Dec and 1 May for the spring register, and 1 June and 15 October for the autumn register. The 1945 RoPA set out a slightly changed schedule after WWII, there having been no registers during the period 1940-44. Owners of certain qualifying businesses got two votes - one for their business premises and one for their home, and graduate university students were also entitled to two votes, one at their home address and one for their university's parliamentary seat. The university vote was not abolished until 1948.

Thanks. Andy.  Lots of useful information there.  So easy to make errors of judgement when you are looking at official records without knowing the requirements behind them.

One further question regarding eligibilty for the Electoral Registers.  I have found Ann Jane Peterson (I think she may just be down as 'Jane') living at 269 Gt Homer St  on the 1894-5 Register.   It was living accommodation and a shop. She had been widowed in 1892 and family folklore says James Alfred Hibbins (her brother) had arranged the shop for her when her husband died.  Actually, Jane and her husband (Nelson Peterson) where at this address on the 1891 Census so the facts do not fully fit the story.

My question is: how would a widowed woman be eligible for the Electoral Registers as early as 1894?

Hope someone can help with another history lesson!

Many thanks,

Glen

 

Hi Glen,

She would probably have been in the register as eligible to vote in borough elections due to her ownership of property, but she wouldn't have been able to vote in parliamentary elections until after the 1918 RPA. Look for an 'L' beside her name. This means (when it was used) that the voter was not eligible to vote in Parliamentary Elections. Not all the registers used these supplementary letters. Others include J meaning eligible for jury service; D means not eligible to vote in borough elections; M means merchant seaman and S means service voter. The eligibility rules changed a couple of times during the nineteenth century. From 1867 the right to vote was given to owners or tenants of buildings worth at least £10 per annum provided that they had occupied them for at least 12 months prior to the registration date (ie the qualifying date mentioned in my previous posting). It also depended on all poor rates having been paid up to date. In 1884 this was extended to include all freeholders of inherited land or land acquired by marriage worth over £2 as well as certain lessees, occupiers and tenants paying rent of £10 or more per annum. From 1870 (the Married Women's Property Act) these eligibility rules applied to most men and all married or widowed women, with the exception that women in general could not vote in parliamentary elections until after 1918. Some earlier registers show the type of eligibilty, such as freehold land, freehold house, dwelling house etc.  

Later  registers usually show eligibility against two separate columns sometimes headed Parl. and LG for parliamentary and local government, and use codes such as O. R, HO and RW where O meant occupational qualification, R meant residential qualification, HO meant qualified by virtue of husband's occupation and RW meant residential (womens) qualification. 'Occupation' in this case means occupation of a premises, not as in a job.

More details here:  https://electoralregisters.org.uk/codes

 

Thanks, Andy.  Your detailed explanation is really useful and very clear - I'll run it off for future reference.

Regards

Glen