Prepared by Dr John Dawson of Abacus Genealogy Research.

This is a transcript of the Pollbook (record of voting) taken on 7-19 April 1784 in Bedford, for elections in Bedfordshire.

It must be used with care!!

It is a transcript of a printed copy of a handwritten copy of the recorders' handwritten notes, taken at a time when spelling was not formalized, and many people could scarcely write their own names. It was printed in London, probably by people who did not know the local village names.

It is undoubtedly full of errors. Just as one example, John Bliss, voting in Eaton Bray, is recorded as residing in Elderboro, Bucks [presumably Eldesborough, Bucks].

The transcription is intended to be almost a letter-for-letter copy of the original, spelling errors and all. But one or two minor changes have occurred: forenames of voters have been expanded (where unambiguously possible); full stops after abbreviations (especially of forenames) have been removed, so the forename "Tho" is presumably an abbreviation for "Thomas" etc. Commas have mostly been inserted between a place of residence and the county.

Page 6 of the original is missing. This means that the names in a few places are not recorded here. Placenames that are probably missing include HARLINGTON, HEATH AND REACH, HOCKLIFFE. I do not know if any other placenames are missing.

Beware of placenames that may be written, for example, either as BARFORD PARVA or as LITTLE BARFORD.

District names are not in alphabetical order.

In the original, the "Occupier" column has been heavily abbreviated, to save space. This means that some surnames in that column are incomplete.

There are many instances of two men with the same name voting in the same district, usually labelled "Sen" and "Jun" (often, but not necessarily, father and son).

Cl is used to abbreviate Clergyman or Reverend.

The document is (unavoidably) rather large, and may take some time to load.

The column headings are as follows, and it is hoped that the colouring will help in reading the table.