Output details
30 - History
Newcastle University
London Electoral History, 1700-1850
This portfolio output has three parts: the LEH website – http://www.londonelectoralhistory.com/; the London Electoral Database (LED), accessible through the website; the two volume book Elections in Metropolitan London published by Bristol Academic Press (2013: ISBN 978-0-95444138-0-4). (1) The LED includes all extant poll book (voting) records (340,000) for metropolitan London 1700 – 1850, containing data on residence and occupation, plus rate book records (133,000) containing tax and other data. The LED focuses upon London’s solid citizens of the ‘middling sort’ but the breadth of the franchise means that numerous small craftsmen, labourers, servants, and other relatively humble ‘plebeians’ are also featured. It is the largest database of its kind in the world, supporting the research of political, social, urban and economic historians, and members of the public seeking genealogical information. (2) The website contains 45 original, downloadable psephological texts relating to evidence, context, source analysis, classification and interpretation. In addition, summary results are presented for 873 contested elections across London between 1700 and 1852 at all levels of politics, parliamentary to civic, most previously unknown. (3) The book Elections in Metropolitan London includes all texts on the LEH website. The project was funded by ESRC and AHRC. It reveals that metropolitan voters led the way in popular political participation, in marked contrast to the inactivity of England’s notorious rotten boroughs. The developing tradition of constitutional participation, electors declaring their choices publicly, paved the way for the later extensions of the (adult male) franchise and eventually full democracy. The project points to significant revisions to existing interpretations of the oligarchic constitution of Georgian Britain. Alongside the ‘high politics’ of court and parliament, there were a handful of open constituencies with large, engaged electorates. Those of metropolitan London were the largest, most regularly polled. Together, they created a new tradition of ‘proto-democracy’.
