A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act of 1832, which had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain unrepresentative influence within the House of Commons. The same terms were used for similar boroughs represented in the 18th-century Parliament of Ireland. The Reform Act abolished the majority of these rotten and pocket boroughs.
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👉 Rotten borough in the context of William Blackstone
Sir William Blackstone (10 July 1723 – 14 February 1780) was an English jurist, justice, and Tory politician most noted for his Commentaries on the Laws of England, which became the best-known description of the doctrines of the English common law. Born into a middle-class family in London, Blackstone was educated at Charterhouse School before matriculating at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1738. After switching to and completing a Bachelor of Civil Law degree, he was made a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, on 2 November 1743, admitted to Middle Temple, and called to the Bar there in 1746. Following a slow start to his career as a barrister, Blackstone was involved heavily in university administration, becoming accountant, treasurer, and bursar on 28 November 1746, and Senior Bursar in 1750. Blackstone is considered responsible for completing the Codrington Library and the Warton Building, and for simplifying the complex accounting system used by the college. On 3 July, 1753, he formally gave up his practice as a barrister, and embarked on a series of lectures on English law, the first of their kind. These talks were massively successful, earning him £453 (£94,000 in 2025 terms); they led to the publication of An Analysis of the Laws of England in 1756, which sold out repeatedly. It was used to preface his later works.
On 20 October, 1759, Blackstone was confirmed as the first Vinerian Professor of English Law, immediately embarking on another series of lectures and publishing a similarly successful second treatise, A Discourse on the Study of the Law. With his growing fame, he successfully returned to the bar and maintained a good practice, also securing election as Tory Member of Parliament for the rotten borough of Hindon on 30 March 1761. In November 1765 he published the first of four volumes of Commentaries on the Laws of England, considered his magnum opus; the completed work earned Blackstone £14,000 (£2,459,000 in 2023 terms). After repeated failures, he gained appointment to the judiciary as a justice of the Court of King's Bench on 16 February 1770, leaving to replace Edward Clive as a justice of the Common Pleas on 25 June. He remained in this position until his death, on 14 February 1780.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Rotten borough
- 👉 Rotten borough in the context of William Blackstone
- Rotten borough in the context of Ilchester (UK Parliament constituency)
- Rotten borough in the context of Retford
- Rotten borough in the context of Mitchell (UK Parliament constituency)
- Rotten borough in the context of Cinque ports parliament constituencies
- Rotten borough in the context of William Cobbett
- Rotten borough in the context of Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)
Rotten borough in the context of Ilchester (UK Parliament constituency)
Ilchester was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England, then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Members of Parliament until 1832. It was one of the most notoriously corrupt rotten boroughs.
Rotten borough in the context of Retford
Retford (/ˈrɛtfʊd/), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterfield Canal. Retford is located 26 miles (42 km) east of Sheffield, 23 miles (37 km) west of Lincoln and 31 miles (50 km) north-east of Nottingham. The population at the 2021 census was 23,740. The town is bypassed by the A1 road.
The borough of East Retford was enlarged in 1878 to include Ordsall, West Retford and part of the parish of Clarborough. The East Retford constituency was a noted example of a rotten borough, being effectively controlled by local landowners the Dukes of Newcastle until reformed in the early nineteenth century. Retford and the surrounding area was also a centre of Nonconformism.
Rotten borough in the context of Mitchell (UK Parliament constituency)
Mitchell, or St Michael (sometimes also called St Michael's Borough or Michaelborough), was a rotten borough consisting of the town (or village) of Mitchell, Cornwall. From the first Parliament of Edward VI, in 1547, it elected two members to the unreformed House of Commons.
Rotten borough in the context of Cinque ports parliament constituencies
Until the Reform Act 1832, there were eight constituencies in the Parliament of England and its successors related to the Cinque Ports. The cinque port constituencies were slightly different from parliamentary boroughs. The 1832 Act abolished most such distinctions, and disfranchised some of the cinque ports as rotten.
Rotten borough in the context of William Cobbett
William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restrain foreign activity, and raise wages, with the goal of easing poverty among farm labourers and small land holders. Cobbett backed lower taxes, saving, reversing commons enclosures and returning to the gold standard. He opposed borough-mongers, sinecurists, bureaucratic "tax-eaters" and stockbrokers. His radicalism furthered the Reform Act 1832 and gained him one of two newly created seats in Parliament for the borough of Oldham. His polemics range from political reform to religion, including Catholic emancipation. His best known book is Rural Rides (1830, in print). He argued against Malthusianism, saying economic betterment could support global population growth.
Rotten borough in the context of Hindon (UK Parliament constituency)
Hindon was a parliamentary borough consisting of the village of Hindon in Wiltshire, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1448 until the borough was abolished by the Reform Act 1832. It was one of the most notoriously corrupt of the rotten boroughs, and bills to disfranchise Hindon were debated in Parliament on two occasions before its eventual abolition.