Eighteenth-Century

Political Participation
& Electoral Culture

Eighteenth-century Britain is notorious for its corrupt and restrictive politics, when few could vote and bribery and debauchery were commonplace. But it was also an age when modern democracy was being shaped. Parliamentary elections could be fiercely contested. Campaigns were fought at public meetings and entertainments, in print and song, through dress and decoration. Men and women, rich and poor, voters and non-voters, all participated – as consumers, but also as active makers of these unique cultural and political experiences.

Eighteenth-Century Political Participation & Electoral Culture collects in one place a wealth of information on English parliamentary elections from 1695 to the Reform Act of 1832. This includes a complete list of all surviving poll books, transcribed and searchable data on how people voted, and wonderful examples of the visual, material and musical culture that elections generated.

Election Directory
Search Data

Interactive directories of all eighteenth-century elections and all surviving poll books, as well as tools allowing you to interrogate the data through our Data Explorer and API.
Data Explorer
Explore Constituencies

Detailed information and full voting data from 1929 pollbooks our 20 case study constituencies
API
View Artefacts and Exhibitions

Carefully curated selections of electoral culture, including documents, artefacts and newly-recorded election songs
Explore Election Data
The data can be explored in the following ways, through the elections directory, the poll books directly, through our data explorer or the ECPPEC API.
Election Directory
Election Directory

This directory is based on a survey of the [11,672] parliamentary elections which took place in England between 1695 and 1832. In addition to providing information about whether each election was contested, the directory records whether a corresponding poll book survives.
Poll Book Directory
Poll Book Directory

This directory lists [1,867] surviving individual poll books for the period 1695–1832, corresponding to [1,379] separate elections, and provides information about where they are held.
Data Explorer
Data Explorer

This Data Explorer allows you to search the entirety of our data, including elections and results, as well as candidates and individual electors for the nineteen case study constituencies for which we have digitised polling data.

API
Developer API

Use the ECPPEC APIs to access the entirety of our data for the nineteen case study constituencies for which we have digitised polling data and power your own interactive visualisation.
Learn About Eighteenth-Century Elections
The short articles here offer introductions to some of the main features of eighteenth-century elections, and data-driven analysis of particular aspects of electoral history.
Child Voters
Child Voters

‘Minors’, under 21 years old, were not allowed to vote. But did they? [15-minute read] ...

Bedford 1830
Bedford 1830

The Bedford election of 1830 provides an example of both riot and respectability [20-minute read] ...

Poll Books and the Reading Public
Poll Books and the Reading Public

Why were poll books printed, and how were they used? [10-minute read] ...

see all features
Learn more…
Case Study Constituencies
Nineteen Eighteenth-Century case study constituencies have been selected as being representative of different kinds of constituencies in terms of their size and their franchise, as well as having a geographical spread, and a good amount of surviving data, particularly poll books.
Bath
Bath

Bath was eighteenth-century England’s most fashionable spa town, teeming with aristocrats, gentry ...

Cambridge University
Cambridge University

The University of Cambridge was a unique constituency, as its voterate was confined to the male grad...

Liverpool
Liverpool

Liverpool expanded rapidly during the eighteenth century to become the second largest town and port ...

See all 20 case study constituencies
See all 20 case study constituencies…
Electoral Culture
Eighteenth-century election contests were multi-media events, playing out in print and aurally, as events in private and public spaces, and manifesting in a huge variety of material culture. Some aspects of this extensive material culture are presented here in a series of online curated exhibitions on particular themes. Items can also be searched for individually using the Cultural Artefacts Explorer.
The Soundscapes of Eighteenth-Century Elections
The Soundscapes of Eighteenth-Century Elections
In and Around the Polling Place
In and Around the Polling Place
Displaying Partisan Identity: The Material Culture of Elections
Displaying Partisan Identity: The Material Culture of Elections
Explorer Cultural Artefacts
Explorer Cultural Artefacts…