LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS FOR FAMILY HISTORIANS
Throughout the ages administration has generated lots of paperwork and of all the records compiled, none can offer a greater or more fascinating insight into the everyday lives of a community than local government records.
You'll be able to find information on local bye laws and regulations, the general maintenance, or not, of local facilities and highways, and reports on matters of public health.
Minutes of meetings show how and by whom, decisions affecting a neighbourhood were made while licensing records could lead to the discovery of an address and trade for an ancestor. Rent and rates records and electoral registers too, may help with fitting in an extra piece of your family history jigsaw.
Early electoral registers can tell you about a person's address and monetary status in a community and if you can track down when they first voted, you'll also have an idea of their age. In later registers, if you know roughly where your ancestor lived, you'll be able to find an address (useful for census searches) and the names of other family members living in the same house who were eligible to vote.
You may be able to find your ancestor as a named person in the records, but even if you can't, you'll be able to bring your ancestors to life through the discovery of the conditions of the neighbourhoods in which they lived.
THE HISTORY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT
From around 13th century there was no real distinction between local government administrations and the judicial system. Justices of the Peace or other officials sitting in assize and leet courts would deal with criminal acts, nuisances, disputes and the regulation of lands, commons and grazing.
Their administrative powers stretched to the regulating of markets, weights and measures, sales of bread and ale and to the maintaining of roads, bridges, fences, ditches and waterways. They were also empowered to grant licenses to public houses and to collect taxes and the poor rate, administer goals, lunatic asylums, the county militia and the police.
The 1888 Local Government Act created 66 county councils, plus a London County Council, all being run by elected councilors. These councils were responsible for general local government business plus the management of roads, bridges and drains.
A certificate of rateable qualification.
Northwich Hundreds.
Image courtesy of Cheshire Record Office. Reference QDL/6/12
Within the county councils the parish was the basic unit of administration and the Local Government Act of 1894 separated the administrations of community from that of the church at parish level. Included amongst these civic parish council's responsibilities were allotments, burial grounds, drainage, lighting, planning, recreation, street furniture and village halls.
Further Acts changed the specific functions of local government but essentially it remained a separate administration from the church and court systems.
Amongst the various kinds of local government records, dating from early times until today, may be found the following:
QUARTER AND PETTY SESSIONS RECORDS
As mentioned previously, early courts had wider powers of administration so the
records of almost every area of local administration may be found in these
records. For more information see: QUARTER SESSIONS
ELECTORAL REGISTERS
Electoral Registers are lists of people eligible to vote in government elections at every level from Parish Council to European Union. They are compiled by local authorities and divided into 'Polling Districts' They may also be called electoral rolls or lists.
A page from the Burgess Roll (Electoral
Register) for the Bolton ward of Bradford.
Image courtesy of Bolton Archives and Local Studies (ref B352-04 BOL)
Before 1872 poll books recorded the names and votes of individuals and noted the individual’s address if different to the qualifying property. Poll books weren't printed in all constituencies.
Some notable dates are:
1832 Reform Act.
Every male who paid more than £10 a year in rates or rent was eligible to vote, provided he lived in a Borough. In the Counties, there was a 40 shillings freehold, and many other qualifications, allowing propertied men to vote. Around 720,784 men were now able to vote out of a population of 10m people of voting age.
1867 Reform Act
Extended the franchise to more men, again this only applied to Boroughs. This Act denied the vote to anybody who had claimed poor relief in the qualifying period.
1884 Reform Act
Equalised the voting discrepancies between Counties and Boroughs. Over 50% of men were now eligible to vote, in fact, most men over the age of 21, providing they'd lived in the same place for a year.
1918 Representation Of The People's Act
Gave the vote to women over the age of 30 and reduced the residency restriction to six months.
1928 Equal Franchise Act
Lowered the age of women eligible to vote to 21.
1969
Voting age for men and women lowered to 18. With effect from 1970.
PUBLIC HEALTH RECORDS
Public Health officials dealt with living conditions and infectious diseases and their meetings minutes and reports can make fascinating reading.
Download Health Inspector's Report (3419KB) Courtesy of Rochdale Local Studies (ref LA/D/2/2/3/9)
Disease and overcrowding in growing urban areas inspired the Public Health Acts of 1848 and 1875 which gave Borough Councils, or the Board of Guardians in rural areas, the responsibilities for initiating local Sanitary Authorities to deal with water supplies, drainage and street cleansing. The appointment of a Medical Officer of Health became compulsory in 1909.
Further powers to deal with housing schemes and insanitary dwellings came with the 1890 Housing of the Working Classes Act and the 1909 Town Planning Act.
COUNCIL MINUTES BOOK
Here you will find documentation of the meetings where decisions affecting a community were made, and who was involved in making those decisions.
PLANNING APPLICATIONS
These provide a history of the growth of villages, town and cities by showing when and how homes and businesses were built, extended or altered. Objections to applications could show the concerns of a community.
HOUSING RECORDS
The allocation of housing, the collecting of rents from individuals and businesses, together with any disputes over housing, all provide information on a person's living conditions.
EMPLOYEE RECORDS
Much personal information could be found here together with information on
wages, sickness records, any disciplinary actions taken or references given. You
may even be able to find photographs. More recent records may have access
restrictions.
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A police certificate of discharge. Image courtesy of Cheshire and Chester Archives and Local Studies (ref CJP/20/1/2) |
These will include lists of the names and addresses of rate and tax payers. Early records may only contain information on those who owned property.
LICENSING RECORDS
Licensing sessions would often be held at Petty Sessions and Quarter Sessions where Licensing Justices made decisions on the licensing of alehouses, cinemas, theatres, music halls, institutes and public halls for performances, the playing of music and the sale of alcohol.
Plans of some premises were kept, together with Registers and minutes of application meetings. Justices also dealt with the issuing of licenses connected with bye-laws relating to such as market trading and hire vehicles.
The name of the person applying for a license and their address would have been recorded.
Download licensing register example
LOCAL BYE-LAWS
These records reveal many of the things a community felt were in need of guidelines or restrictions. Some bye laws for Chester in the 19th century for example, related to markets, hackney carriages and other hire vehicles, tramways, nuisances, obstructions, weights and measures inspections, dairies, cowsheds, milkshops and the sale of coal.
20th century records for Padiham Urban District Council on the other hand show bye laws concerning common lodging houses, the preventing of the 'occurrence of nuisances from snow, filth, dust, ashes and rubbish,' and bye laws referring to 'fish frying and offensive trades'.
WHERE TO FIND LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS
Access to Archives. You can search by name, place or type of record.
The National Archives have some records dating from the 1870s
Family Record Centre holds some records for England and Wales from about 1998 http://www.familyrecords.gov.uk/frc/default.htm
Society of Genealogists holds some poll books
British Library holds Electoral Registers for whole of the United Kingdom
http://www.bl.uk/collections/social/spis_er.html
Current records may be kept at local town halls, sometimes with earlier copies. Some libraries may also hold earlier records. There may be access restrictions or a closure period on some records.
Local Authority archive services may hold Local Government Records for their area.
