Rotten and pocket boroughs
![Old Sarum in Wiltshire, an uninhabited hill which until 1832 elected two Members of Parliament, the most notorious pocket borough. It was a possession of the Pitt family from the mid-17th century to 1802, and one of its Members of Parliament was Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder. In 1802 the Pitt family sold it for £60,000, even though the land and manorial rights were worth £700 a year at most. Painting by John Constable, 1829](/Images/godic/202501/01/Ac.oldsarum5158.jpg")
A rotten or pocket borough, more formally known as a nomination borough or proprietarial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom in existence prior to the Reform Act 1832 which had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain unrepresentative influence within the Unreformed House of Commons. The same terms were used for similar boroughs represented in the 18th century Parliament of Ireland.