Profiling the Yorkshire County Elector of the early eighteenth century: new material and methods.

Abstract

This article investigates the possibilities for re-examining the political motivations of eighteenth-century county electors in the light of their socio-economic status. It focuses upon the linkage of estate and electoral records for several townships in Yorkshire, with particular attention paid to the deeds registries of Yorkshire as a source for the political historian. Whilst the argument stresses the importance of developing a broader understanding of the voters’ motivations, its key conclusion is that the more one knows about individual electors, the less confidence one can have in generalizations based upon aggregate analyses of poll books.