Content deleted Content added
|
|
==History==
Burgage was the basis of the franchisefight to vote in many boroughs sending [[Member of Parliament|members]] to the [[unreformed House of Commons|House of Commons]] before 1832. In these boroughs the right to vote was attached to the occupation of particular burgage tenements. These burgages could be freely bought and sold, and the owner of the tenement was entitled to [[conveyancing|convey]] itthe right vote, for the duration of the election, to a another person, their "nominee", who could then vote. ThusThe byvote of each person entitled to the franchise was a matter of public record. Therefore the owner could monitor their nominees' votes. By purchasing the majority of the burgages one rich person could acquire the right to nominateelect thea MembersMember of Parliament. Most of theSuch burgage boroughs becamewere called [[pocket borough]]s. Most of the burgage boroughs had become pocket boroughs in this way. Theby practicethe wastime abolished byof the [[Reform Act 1832|Great Reform Act 1832]]. The practice was abolished by the Act, which applied a uniform franchisevoting right to all boroughs.
In medieval England and Scotland, and some parts of the [[Welsh Marches]], '''burgage plots''' or '''burgage tenements''' were [[inclosure|inclosed fields]] extending the confines of a town, established by the lord of the manor, as divisions of the 'open' manorial fields. The [[Burgess (word)|burgesses]] (equivalents of "burghers") to whom these tracts were allotted, as tenants of the enclosed lands, paid a cash rent instead of, as previously, feudal service. In 1207, for instance, Maurice Paynell, the Lord of the Manor of Leeds, granted a charter to 'his burgesses of Leeds' to build a 'new town', and so created the first borough of Leeds, Briggate, a street running north from the River Aire.<ref>[http://www.leodis.org/discovery/default.asp Discovering Leeds]</ref>
|