Kent Electoral Registers 1570-1907

This record set contains both parliamentary and local voters’ lists (electoral registers) for the county of Kent between 1570 and 1907.

The following information may be found in these records, depending upon the date and type of voters’ list:

• Name of each individual entitled to vote

• Address

• Nature of qualification to vote

• Period during which they were entitled to vote

The earliest records are from the Boroughs of Faversham and Dover – countywide coverage does not really begin until the 1830s when electoral reform widened the franchise.

For parliamentary purposes, from 1832 the County was divided into the two constituencies of Eastern Kent and Western (later West) Kent. In 1885, the constituencies were reshaped and renamed as the Eastern or St Augustine’s Division; the Isle of Thanet Division; the Mid or Medway Division; the North Eastern or Faversham Division; the North Western or Dartford Division; the Southern or Ashford Division; the South Western or Tunbridge Division; and the Western or Sevenoaks Division. These Divisions remained in place till the Great War.

The individual Boroughs returned their own Members to Parliament. Kentish Boroughs include, for example, Ashford, Canterbury, Deal, Dover, Faversham, Gravesend, Maidstone, New Romney and Sandwich. However, it is important to note that, excluding those now part of metropolitan London, Kent has three major archives (at Canterbury, Maidstone and Medway), which hold their own collections. Those electoral registers for which records are published here relate only to the Maidstone county record office, which means that there is a bias towards i) countywide and ii) Maidstone’s catchment area voters’ lists.

The index is only a basic finding aid enabling you to locate persons of interest. The original registers are held at the Kent History and Library Centre in Maidstone.