Freedom of a borough, the right to enjoy the privileges of a freeman. Before the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, these privileges, in many cases valuable either from conferring, especially before the Reform Act, 1832, a limited parliamentary franchise or from other causes, could be sold or given away; but the Act of 1835, s. 3, enacted that no person should be admitted a freeman by gift or purchase, and s. 202 of the (English) Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, repeats this enactment, which is, however, qualified by the Honorary Freedom of Boroughs Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 29), in favour of the admission to be honorary freemen of persons of distinction and persons who have rendered eminent services to the borough (see now (English) Local Government Act, 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5, c. 51), ss. 259-265, which reproduces the provisions of the former Acts). The right of a freeman, as such, to a vote at parliamentary elections was abolished by the (English) Representation of the People Act, 1918, which repealed ss. 32 and 56 of (English) R.P. Acts, 1832 and 1867, which had preserved this privilege.
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