Abstract
The research was principally concerned with a study of the Parliamentary elections in Guildford between 1790 and 1868, in order to ascertain:- (a) whether voting behaviour gave any indication of changing patterns as election issues changed from purely parochial affairs to national questions, and (b) whether social class could be seen as a salient factor underlying voting patterns. Neither of these hypotheses met with positive findings. None of the attempts to arrange the electorate into occupational or social status groups resulted in a correlation between such classes and voting behaviour. Nor did the statistics exhibit any relationship to the changing pattern of issues at Guildford contests, where matters of national interest gradually became more important from the 1830's. Instead of an increased correlation between voting behaviour and social class as the century progressed, what clearly emerged was a lower association after the 1832 Reform Act. Having met with negative results in relation to the original hypotheses, discriminant analysis was utilised to test the significance of other variables. Religion emerged as a factor from which an elector's vote could reasonably be predicted. Nonconformists mainly voted Liberal. Anglicans were predominantly Tories. But more accurate as an indicator of voting behaviour was the partisanship of the parental home. Today the family is perhaps the most important socialising agency in determining an individual's vote. The same was true in 19th century Guildford, where a particularly high congruence existed between a father's vote and that of his son when the latter voted for the first time.