1829 Freeholders in Limerick City and Environs

The forty-shilling freehold was the qualification under which Catholics obtained the right to vote following Hobart's 1793 relief act. It was a short-lived concession.

“The emancipation act of 1829 – which permitted Catholics to sit in parliament – abolished the forty-shilling franchise by raising the threshold to ten pounds and at a stroke reduced the county electorate from over 200,000 to 37,000.”

“Freehold land was, and is, a parcel of land held for an indefinite time, as distinguished from a leasehold which is held for a specific period. It generally required the payment of a fixed sum…and attendance at the manor court…”

both quotes from Byrne’s dictionary of Irish Local History by Joseph Byrne (Mercier Press, 2004).

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