Forty Shilling Freeholders

Encyclopedia : F : FO : FOR : Forty Shilling Freeholders

---

In Ireland before 1829 the franchise was restricted to Forty Shilling Freeholders. This gave anyone who owned or rented land that was worth forty shillings (two pounds) or more, the right to vote. As a consequence they were given the nickname, the "Forty Shilling Freeholders". This included many Roman Catholics who obtained the vote under the 1793 Catholic Relief Bill, at first for the Parliament of Ireland and then from 1801 for the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The Catholic Relief Act 1829 raised the franchise to ten pounds, excluding many previous voters, Protestant and Catholic, and this remained until the franchise was widened in 1885.

 

---

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

?