The Reform Act 1832 was passed in 1832. It disenfranchised 56 boroughs in England and Wales and reduced another 31 to only one. It broadened the franchise's property qualification in the counties, to include small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers. It excluded women from voting, as a voter was defined in the Act as a male person. But it had been proved that change was possible and over the next decades the call for further parliamentary reform continued. The Act was passed due to Lord Grey's plan to persuade King William IV to consider using his constitutional powers to create additional Whig peers in the House of Lords. On hearing of this plan, Tory peers abstained from voting and the Bill was passed. The Representation of the People Act 18 32, known as the first Reform Act or Great Reform Act, extended the franchise to all householders who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more and some lodgers. It also created a uniform franchise in the boroughs.
