Lesson Y8-U05-L01

Y8-U05-L01 Who Could Vote in 1800 Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 11

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U05-L01, Who Could Vote in 1800: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 11: Year 8: Suffrage, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What does 'suffrage' mean?

    • A petition sent to the King asking for lower taxes
    • A type of constituency that elects two MPs at the same time
    • The right to vote in elections
    • A law that limits who is allowed to stand as an MP

  2. What is a 'constituency'?

    • A signed request asking Parliament to change a law
    • An area that elects its own MP to Parliament
    • A rule that every MP must own property before taking a seat
    • A group of voters who are paid to attend every election

  3. What is the 'electorate'?

    • The money that MPs were paid for their work in Parliament
    • All the people who are allowed to vote
    • The group of ministers chosen by the Prime Minister each year
    • The MPs who sit together in the House of Commons

  4. What was a 'rotten borough'?

    • A tiny or empty place that still elected MPs
    • A borough where the government banned all elections for a century
    • A large industrial city that had been given too many MPs by law
    • A town whose houses had been damaged by a flood or a fire

  5. Why was Old Sarum famous in 1800?

    • It was a factory town whose workers refused to vote in elections
    • It was a grassy hill with no residents, yet it elected two MPs
    • It was a busy port with thousands of voters who chose two MPs each year
    • It was a royal palace where the King chose the MPs for the whole country

  6. What was a 'pocket borough'?

    • A seat where the MP was elected by a secret vote of all the residents
    • A town that kept its own purse of money to fund local elections
    • A seat controlled by one rich landowner, who could choose the MP
    • A small borough where the voters were paid in coins for each vote

  7. Roughly how many people could vote in 1800, in a country of about 8 million people?

    • About 40,000 people
    • About 400,000 people
    • About 4 million people
    • About 8 million people

  8. How many MPs did Manchester have in 1800, despite having more than 100,000 people?

    • None of its own
    • Two MPs chosen by the local council
    • One MP shared with a neighbouring town
    • Four MPs chosen by the factory owners

  9. What was the 'hustings'?

    • A wooden platform where voters announced their choice out loud in public
    • A secret room where votes were counted in a locked box
    • A court where disputed election results were argued before judges
    • A printed list of candidates posted outside the church door

  10. What was 'treating' in eighteenth and early nineteenth century elections?

    • Holding a public feast to thank the voters for their support of the King
    • Using drink, money and even violence to win votes
    • Paying for voters to receive free medical treatment in the local hospital
    • Giving every voter a printed copy of the election rules

  11. Why was the lack of a secret ballot a problem for ordinary voters?

    • Voters could vote only once in their whole life, so they had to choose carefully
    • Voters had to pay a fee to a clerk before they could cast their vote
    • Landlords and employers could threaten, bribe or sack voters who disobeyed them
    • Voters were not allowed to read the names of the candidates on the ballot paper

  12. What did the Great Reform Act of 1832 do?

    • It gave the vote to every man over 21 in every town, and set up a secret ballot in all constituencies
    • It introduced a secret ballot and gave the vote to all women over 21, so every adult could vote in private
    • It removed the worst rotten boroughs and gave MPs to big new cities such as Manchester and Birmingham
    • It abolished Parliament and replaced it with a council of workers, which then ran the country for twenty years

  13. How did the electorate change after the Great Reform Act of 1832?

    • It fell from about 650,000 to about 400,000
    • It rose from about 400,000 to about 4 million
    • It rose from about 40,000 to about 65,000
    • It rose from about 400,000 to about 650,000

  14. Which of these did the 1832 Act NOT do?

    • Give MPs to big new cities such as Manchester
    • Remove the worst rotten boroughs such as Old Sarum
    • Give the vote to any women or introduce a secret ballot
    • Give more middle-class men the vote as £10 householders

  15. Which demand in the People's Charter of 1838 called for voting in private?

    • Annual elections
    • The secret ballot
    • Equal constituencies
    • Payment for MPs

  16. Which Chartist demand would allow a poor man to become an MP?

    • Annual elections for every seat in Parliament
    • No property qualification for MPs
    • Payment for MPs so that they could afford to serve
    • Equal constituencies with a fair number of voters

  17. Why was the Great Reform Act of 1832 described as a 'small change'?

    • It helped the middle classes but gave no vote to working-class men or to any women
    • It abolished the monarchy and gave the vote to every adult in the country
    • It only changed the names of the constituencies and nothing else
    • It was repealed a year later, so it had no effect on voting at all

  18. The People's Charter of 1838 (Source A) says: 'The man who has no vote is a slave to those who have.' According to Source A, why do the Chartists say they should have the vote?

    • Because it is their right, and a man without a vote is a slave to those who have it
    • Because the factory owners have agreed to pay for every vote cast by a worker
    • Because the rich landowners have promised to share their votes with the poor
    • Because the King has ordered that every man must be given a vote in 1838

  19. An MP speaking in Parliament in 1842 (Source B) opposed giving the vote to all men. Why does he want to keep the vote for property owners only?

    • He believes that property owners are better at running the factories and mills
    • He is paid by the landowners to keep the voting rules exactly as they are
    • He thinks women should be allowed to vote before working-class men are given the vote
    • He fears the ignorant and poor would outnumber the wise and propertied, and that ruin would follow

  20. Source B was made by a wealthy MP in 1842 who opposed the Chartists. Why should a historian be careful when using it?

    • It was written in 1838, so it cannot tell us anything about the 1840s
    • It was printed by the Chartists themselves to spread their message, and circulated in every factory town in the north
    • It was written by a wealthy MP who opposed the Chartists, so it may reflect his own bias
    • It was written in a language no longer used in Britain today, so no historian has been able to read it since 1842

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