Poll Books

Poll Books list who voted at elections and who they voted for. The earliest ones are from around 1700 and they continued until 1872 when the secret ballot was introduced. While all poll books record the name of the voter, some also record other information such as occupation and/or address.

The order of names also vary, sometimes by address, sometimes by name, sometimes by the order in which their vote was cast, and of course since they are a record of votes cast, some do not include the name of those, while eligible to vote, did not in fact cast their vote. Other do list separately those who did not vote.

This is an example from the Dorset General Election Poll Book of 1857

The name and residence of each voter is given, then their Qualification, (F Freehold, L Leasehold, C Copyhold or O Occupier) and then who they voted for, one column for each candidate.

In this example from the Newcastle, Town and County Poll Book of 1832 occupations are listed.

Poll Books Available Free Online

Many poll books are available on line for free:

1760s
Leicester Poll Book 1768
Norfolk Poll Book 1768

1780s
Bedford Poll Book 1784

1790s
Southampton and Hampshire Poll Book 1790
Kent Poll Book 1790
Hertford Poll Book 1796

1800s
Middlesex Poll Book 1802 - this lists the voters in alphabetic surname order
Rochester Poll Book 1806 - this one includes some voters crossed out marked "dead"
Liverpool Poll Book 1806

1810s
Chester Poll Book 1818

1820s
Sussex Poll Book 1820
Warwickshire Poll Book 1820
Leicester Poll Book 1826
Dover Poll Book 1826
Northumberland Poll Book 1826

1830s
Chichester Poll Book 1830
Dorset Poll Book 1831
Newcastle, town and county Poll Book 1832
Norfolk Poll Book 1832
Sheffield Poll Book 1832
Leicester Poll Book 1832
Whitehaven Poll Book 1832
Cambridge Poll Book 1832
Norfolk Poll Book 1835
Peterborough Poll Book 1837

1840s
Northumberland (Northern Division) Poll Book 1841 - this also includes at the end a copy of the poll books for 1722 and 1734
South Nottinghamshire Poll Book 1846
Fife Poll Book 1847

1850s
Northumberland (Southern Division) Poll Book 1852
Northumberland (Northern Division) Poll Book 1852
North Lincolnshire Poll Book 1852
Dorset Poll Book 1857
East Norfolk Poll Book 1858

1860s
South Shropshire Poll Book 1865
South Warwickshire Poll Book 1865
South Shropshire Poll Book 1868

1870s
Isle of Wight Poll Book 1870

Poll Books Available Online by Subscription

Other poll books can be viewed with subscriptions to one of the genealogy sites.

Poll Books at The Genealogist

The Genealogist site has poll books for ...

Bath 1855,

Bristol 1810 and Bristol 1832,

Kent 1832,

London, Westminster 1774 and London, Westminster 1818 and London, Westminster 1841,

Monmouth 1852,

Newcastle 1774,

Norfolk 1768 and Norfolk 1806 and Norfolk 1817,

Northamptonshire 1702-1831,

Suffolk 1710 and Suffolk 1790,

Yorkshire 1741,

Yorkshire, Kingston-upon-Hull 1835,

Yorkshire, West Riding 1835,

Yorkshire 1741, York (County) 1807 and Yorkshire, York, 1868.

Poll Books at Ancestry

Ancestry has poll books for the following counties ...

Bristol 1812 and Bristol 1830

Kent (Eastern Division) 1832 and Kent (Eastern Division) 1857

Lincolnshire 1818

Newcastle 1777-1780

Norfolk 1768

Norwich 1818

Nottingham 1846 to 1850

Tewkesbury 1832 and 1835

Westmorland 1820

You can do a simple search for free but to see any useful results you will need a subscription. A 14 day free trial with Ancestry is usually available.

They also have the UK Poll Book and Electoral registers 1538-1893 Collection, a large searchable collection.