When the Saxon government was first established in England, there
was no distinction of freehold and copyhold; the latter, according
to Blackstone, was a possession acquired by a vassal subsequent to the
Norman feudal system. Copyholders being thus considered as slaves, were,
notwithstanding their possessions, deemed unworthy of the franchise; and
from this refinement, on the arbitrary principles of the Normans, every
copyholder was deprived of a vote, unless he could claim it by some
other tenure.
The term borough originally meant a company consisting of ten families,
which were bound together as each other's pledge. Afterwards boroughs
came to signify a town, having a wall, or some sort of enclosure round;
and all places that, in old times, had the name of boroughs, it is said,
were fortified or fenced in some shape or other.
In the time of the West Saxons, a parliament was holden by King Ina,
by these words: "I, Ina, King of the West Saxons, have caused all my
fatherhood, aldermen, and wisest commons, with the goodly men of my
kingdom, to consult of weighty matters."
William the Conqueror, in the fourth year of his reign, called a
parliament, which consisted of twelve representatives for each county,
and the cities and boroughs were wholly omitted. After the battle of
Lewes, in which Henry III. was defeated by the barons, they called a
parliament, and made the king sign an order to summon four knights to
represent each county, and four for the cities of London, York, and
Lincoln. These representatives were chosen by universal suffrage of
the householders, and although the king regained his authority by the
subsequent defeat of the barons, two members for each county continued
to be elected in the same manner till the 8th of Henry VI. In the
parliament held in the 49th of Henry III., he sent writs to the nobles
and to the sheriffs of several counties, to return two knights for each
county, two citizens for each city, and two burgesses for each borough.
It was contrary to an ancient rule of the constitution, that any person
should be allowed to vote at elections who did not reside in the place
or county where the election was made; that rule says, that "ineddem
comitata commercentes et residentes" only shall vote; and this was
confirmed by an act of parliament, (1 Henry V. c. i.) but recently
repealed.
In 1429, an important change was made as to the qualifications of the
voters for knights of the shires. The voters were obliged to prove
themselves worth 40_s._ per annum. Before this time, every freeholder
might vote, and the vast concourse of electors brought on riots and
murders. Seventy pounds would, in modern days, be barely an equivalent
for our ancestors' 40_s._ The freeholders were, at the same time,
directed to choose two of the fittest and most discreet knights resident
in their county; or, if none could be found, notable esquires, gentlemen
by birth, and qualified to be made knights; but no yeoman or persons of
inferior rank.