Rotten and pocket boroughs
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A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom that had very few
Old Sarum in Wiltshire, abandoned since the 13th century, continued to elect two Members of Parliament until 1832.
William Pitt the Younger in 1783, by George Romney
Old Sarum (constituency)
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Old Sarum was from 1295 until 1832 a parliamentary constituency of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was a so-called rotten borough, with an extremely sma
Rotten and pocket boroughs
…major centre of secular and ecclesiastical government for about 150 years, but notes that the cathedral was moved to nearby Salisbury in 1226 and that Old Sarum nonetheless continued as a 'rotten borough' electing MPs until 1832. A Historic England listing similarly records that the site was totally abandoned…
Old Sarum in Wiltshire, an uninhabited hill which elected two Members of Parliament. Old Sarum by John Constable, 1834.