Old Sarum

Old Sarum was already deserted by the end of Henry VIII’s reign. The manor, or, strictly, the adjoining manor of Milford, was owned by the bishop of Salisbury, and leased to the earls of Pembroke. With the possible exception of John Frenche (1572), an Inner Temple lawyer, and Henry Baynton (1589), a Wiltshire country gentleman, all Old Sarum Members had Pembroke connexions. Frenche died in 1579, before the last session of his Parliament, but no record of a by-election to replace him has been found.4Hoare, Wilts. Salisbury, passim; E134/14 Wilts., 39/40 Eliz. Mich. The 1597 MPs obtained their seats in the following circumstances. There had been a dispute between two of the Old Sarum ‘free tenants’, and just before the election, an Exchequer commission was sent down to determine it. The commissioners, who included William Blacker and Robert Hyde, heard evidence at Stratford, near Old Sarum, on 30 Sept. Blacker and Hyde’s brother, Nicholas, returned themselves to the ensuing Parliament, with or without the approval of the 2nd Earl of Pembroke, with whom Robert Hyde at least had a previous connexion. In 1601 Hyde’s brother, Henry, was returned, together with Robert Turner, a Pembroke nominee.