Overseers Returns, 1863-1894 for London
What Are Overseers’ Returns?
The Reform Act of 1832 instructed parish overseers to prepare electoral registers compiled from returns. These returns were the ‘raw material’ from which electoral registers were produced
Ancestry.co.uk have now added the returns for London which are arranged in annual bundles by polling district. The electors names are listed alphabetically within each parish giving the place of residence and the address by which the elector has gained his vote.
The Overseers’ returns are particularly useful for dates for which there are no surviving electoral registers.
Restrictive property requirements denied the vote to much of the population for years, though restrictions were eased somewhat in 1867 and 1884 through the Second and Third Reform Acts. They were finally removed, for men, in 1918, when most males age 21 and older were allowed to vote. The franchise was extended to some women over the age of 30 in 1918, but it was not until 1928 that the voting age was made 21 for both men and women.
With reference to Ancestry.co.uk