The name given to certain British parliamentary boroughs before the Great Reform Act of 1832. These had few voters, had lost their original economic function, and were usually controlled by a landowner or by the Crown. Elections were rarely, if ever, contested. Examples were Gatton, Dunwich, and Old Sarum. Most rotten boroughs were disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832.
The term "rotten borough" refers to a parliamentary borough or constituency in the Kingdom of England (pre-1707), the Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1801), the Kingdom of Ireland (1536–1801) and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (from 1801 until their final abolition in 1867) which due to size and population, was "controlled" and used by a patron to exercise undue and unrepresentative influence within parliament. Typically rotten boroughs were boroughs which once had been flourishing cities with remarkable population, but which had deteriorated, declined and deserted during the centuries (see ghost town).
The true rotten borough was a borough of an extraordinarily small electorate.
Rotten boroughs
For many years, constituencies did not change to reflect population shifts, and in some places the number of electors became so few that they could be bribed. A member of Parliament for one borough might represent only a few people (or even just one — the buyer), whereas entire cities (such as Manchester) might have no separate representation at all (eligible city residents were, however, able to vote in the corresponding county constituency — in this case Lancashire). For example, in 1831:
Old Sarum in Wiltshire had 3 houses and 11 voters East Looe in Cornwall had 167 houses and 38 voters Dunwich in Suffolk had 44 houses and 32 voters (the bulk of the settlements in the borough having fallen into the sea) Plympton Earle in Devon had 182 houses and 40 voters Gatton in Surrey had 23 houses and 7 voters Newtown on the Isle of Wight had 14 houses and 23 voters Bramber in West Sussex had 35 houses and 20 voters Callington in Cornwall had 225 houses and 42 votersAll of these boroughs could elect two MPs. Many such rotten boroughs were controlled by peers who 'gave' the seats to their sons, thus having influence in the House of Commons while also holding seats themselves in the House of Lords. Prior to being awarded a peerage, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, served as MP for the rotten borough of Trim in County Meath in the Irish House of Commons.
Rotten boroughs were usually places which had once played a major role in England's politics, but had fallen into insignificance.
Pocket boroughs
In addition, there were boroughs where parliamentary representation was in the control of one or more 'patrons' by their power to either nominate or other machinations, such as burgage. In some cases, wealthy individuals could "control" multiple boroughs — the Duke of Newcastle is said to have had seven boroughs "in his pocket".
The pocket boroughs were seen (particularly by their owners) in the early 19th century as a valuable method of ensuring the representation of the landed interest in the House of Commons.
End of the rotten boroughs
In the 19th century measures began to be taken against rotten boroughs, notably the Reform Act 1832 which disenfranchised the 56 rotten boroughs listed below and spread the representation across parliamentary seats aligning to population centres and significant industries.
| Aldborough, North Riding of Yorkshire Aldeburgh, Suffolk Amersham, Buckinghamshire Appleby, Westmorland Beeralston, Devon Bishop's Castle, Shropshire Bletchingley, Surrey Boroughbridge, North Riding of Yorkshire Bossiney, Cornwall Brackley, Northamptonshire Bramber, Sussex Callington, Cornwall Camelford, Cornwall Castle Rising, Norfolk Corfe Castle, Dorset Downton, Wiltshire Dunwich, Suffolk East Grinstead, Sussex East Looe, Cornwall Fowey, Cornwall Gatton, Surrey Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire Haslemere, Surrey Hedon, East Riding of Yorkshire Heytesbury, Wiltshire Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire Hindon, Wiltshire Illchester, Somerset | Lostwithiel, Cornwall Ludgershall, Wiltshire Milborne Port, Somerset Minehead, Somerset New Romney, Kent Newport, Cornwall Newton, Lancashire Newtown, Isle of Wight Okehampton, Devon Old Sarum, Wiltshire Orford, Suffolk Plympton Erle, Devon Queenborough, Kent Saltash, Cornwall Seaford, Sussex St Germains, Cornwall St Mawes, Cornwall St Michael's, Cornwall Steyning, Sussex Stockbridge, Hampshire Tregony, Cornwall West Looe, Cornwall Wendover, Buckinghamshire Weobley, Herefordshire Whitchurch, Hampshire Winchelsea, Sussex Wooton Bassett, Wiltshire Yarmouth, Isle of Wight |
Pocket boroughs were finally abolished by the Reform Act of 1867.
Modern usage
Today, "rotten borough" is sometimes used to refer to a parliamentary constituency in which one particular political party has such massive support that its candidate is effectively uncontested;
Rotten boroughs in fiction
In the episode Dish and Dishonesty of the BBC comedy Blackadder the Third, Edmund Blackadder attempts to bolster the support of the Prince Regent in Parliament by having the incompetent Baldrick elected to the rotten borough of Dunny-on-the-Wold.
In the Aubrey–Maturin series of seafaring tales, the pocket borough of Milport (also known as Milford) is initially held by General Aubrey, the father of protagonist Jack Aubrey.
In George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series, the eponymous antihero, Harry Flashman, mentions in the first novel that his father, Sir Buckley Flashman, had been in Parliament, but "they did for him at Reform," implying that the elder Flashman's seat was in a rotten or pocket borough.
In the satirical novel Melincourt, or Sir Oran Haut-Ton (1817) by Thomas Love Peacock, an orang-utan named Sir Oran Haut-ton is elected to parliament by the "ancient and honourable borough of Onevote". "The borough of Onevote stood in the middle of a heath, and consisted of a solitary farm, of which the land was so poor and intractable, that it would not have been worth the while of any human being to cultivate it, had not the Duke of Rottenburgh found it very well worth his to pay his tenant for living there, to keep the honourable borough in existence."
In the parliamentary novels of Anthony Trollope rotten boroughs are a recurring theme. The writ will be issued very soon.' The Borough of Queen's Crawley in Thackeray's Vanity Fair is a rotten borough eliminated by the Reform Act of 1832: "When Colonel Dobbin quitted the service, which he did immediately after his marriage, he rented a pretty country place in Hampshire, not far from Queen's Crawley, where, after the passing of the Reform Bill, Sir Pitt and his family constantly resided now.
User Comments Add a comment…