Boundaries, franchise and boundary changes
New Shoreham is a part of Shoreham-by-Sea, located around its port. The borough, in 1800, had about 1,000 electors. The qualification for the vote before 1832, unusually for a borough, was the possession of a 40 shilling freehold which was the normal franchise for a county constituency.
The explanation for the franchise qualification was the result of a disputed by-election in 1770. At that time all the electors qualified by paying scot and lot, a local property tax. Stooks Smith provides two notes on what happened, following a result in which Thomas Rumbold received 87 votes and John Purling had 37 votes (a third candidate, William James, received 4 votes).
The Returning Officer on the ground that nearly all the 87 were bribed declared Mr. Purling elected, but Mr. Rumbold was seated on petition. On the 14th Feb. 1771, Mr. Roberts the Returning Officer was brought to the Bar of the House, and on his knees received a very severe reprimand from the Speaker for having taken upon himself to return Mr. Purling.
However, as a result of Mr. Robert's action there had been an investigation.
| Parliamentary Elections, New Shoreham Act 1771 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to incapacitate John Burnett, Charles Hannington, Thomas Haselgrove, Ralph Moor, Thomas Parsons, Thomas Snook Junior, Thomas Hannington, John Hannington, John Robinson, William Cheeseman, George Browne, John Parsons, John Curl, Frederick Bean, William Bean, Samuel Tuppen, John Sawyers, Thomas Crowter, Thomas Pockney, Joseph Dedman, John Dean, John Whning, William Stevens. John Bawcomb, Robert Parker, John Hogsflesh, John Purse, John Dean, Thomas Jennings, John Snook Junior, Richard Tilstone, William Turner, Walter Sawyers, Charles Mitchell, John Jarmand, John Wood, Friend Baniel, William Gratwick, Nathaniel Hillman, Thomas Roberts, John Ashman, William Cooter, Thomas Frost, Michael Smith, Richard Carver, Michael Burrant, Emery Churcher, Walter Broad, Richard Stoneham, James Bennett, Clement Freeman, William Jupp, Thomas Crowter, John Barnard, James Mitchell, James Millar otherwise Miller, William Newnham, Jeffery Carver, Randall Button, James Carver, John Martin, John Dedman Senior, William Jennings, William Hards, Thomas Gear, William Rusbridge, Henry Robinson, and Henry Hannington, from voting at Elections of Members to serve in Parliament, and for the preventing Bribery and Corruption in the Election of Members to serve in Parliament, for the Borough of New Shoreham, in the County of Sussex. |
| Citation | 11 Geo. 3. c. 55 |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 8 May 1771 |
The evidence given by the Returning Officer, Mr. Hugh Roberts, before the Committee, was the means of bringing to light a most singular system of wholesale bribery, carried on by a body of Electors, who styled themselves, the "Christian Society", and who had for some time being in the habit of selling seats to the highest bidders. By 11th Geo. III. C. 55, [lower-alpha 1] the whole of the members, amounting to 81, were deprived of the right of again voting at any Parliamentary Election, and the old class of voters disfranchised, the right of election being extended to the 40s. freeholders of the Rape of Bramber.
The rapes were traditional subdivisions of Sussex. The six rapes each consisted of a strip of territory from the northern border of the county to its southern coast, so the area involved was considerably larger than that of the normal parliamentary borough.
As a result of the extension of the boundaries the constituency became more like a county one than a typical borough of the era.
When an electoral register was first compiled, before the 1832 election, the 1,925 electors included 701 freeholders and 189 scot and lot voters. The remaining electors would have qualified under the occupation franchise introduced for all boroughs by the Reform Act 1832, which also preserved the ancient right franchises of the existing electors. The twentieth century parliamentary historian Lewis Namier said that "New Shoreham was the first borough to be disenfranchised for corruption". [1]
