Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, in 1843
Yarmouth is a small town. The population of the town and parish, according to the returns for 1841, is only 567. It is situated at the mouth of the estuary of the western Yar. It, has an excellent roadstead, and there is communication by steam-boat twice a day with Lymington. It has a town-hall and market-house, a church, a Methodist chapel, and a Baptist chapel. The castle is a small fort. The market, is on Wednesday. Yarmouth is a corporate town, which was not affected by the Corporations Act of 1835. It consists of a mayor and eleven other chief burgesses, who are self-elected. The governing charter is 7 James I. Previous to the Reform Act it was a parliamentary borough, and returned two members. The elective franchise was in the mayor and corporation. The largest number who had voted at any election for the thirty years preceding 1831 was nine. It had sent representatives as early as 1304, but did not send them regularly till 27 Elizabeth 1584. It was disfranchised by the Reform Act.
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