Westbury

Although not a corporate borough, Westbury had a mayor who was the returning officer at parliamentary elections. The 6th Lord Mountjoy had estates near Westbury, and promoted the returns of Anthony Carleton, his relative by marriage (1559), and his elder brother, Francis (1571). It is not known how either Ralph Skinner, a Durham ecclesiastical official, or John Dyster, a clerk in Chancery, came to be returned. Hugh Ryley (1563), steward of Bishop Jewel of Salisbury, may have owed his seat to his mother’s family connexions with the borough. Thomas Long, a simpleton, who has not been certainly identified, went to extreme lengths to obtain his seat in 1571, bribing Anthony Garland, the mayor, and a Mr. Wat of Westbury £4 for his seat. The matter was brought to the notice of the House of Commons, however, which on 10 May 1571 ordered the two men to repay the money, and imposed a fine of £20 upon the town. The following day a pursuivant was sent to Westbury, summoning Garland and Wat before the House, but no record survives of their making an appearance.

From 1572 onwards, Westbury returned for the most part local gentlemen and their associates. William Brouncker of Erlestoke, who had succeeded to property in Westbury, secured his own returns for the borough in 1572 and 1584. He was responsible also for that of his brother Henry in 1572, and probably also for Henry Fanshawe II in 1589 and 1593. Fanshawe’s father was an Exchequer official and William Brouncker had married the daughter of the chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Walter Mildmay. Robert Baynard (1586), Henry Whitaker (1586) and William Jordyn II (1593) were all local landowners. The 1597 Parliament marks the beginning of the Ley family’s career in Parliament. Joint owners of the manor of Bembridge, Matthew and James Ley took both seats in 1597. Matthew sat again in 1601, this time with Henry Jackman, a London merchant who had trading connexions in Wiltshire. Edward Midwinter (1584) and John Bennett (1589) remain unidentified.1C219/31; VCH Wilts. viii. 151, 158; Hoare, Wilts. Westbury; Wilts. Borough Recs. (Wilts. Arch. Soc. recs. br.) v; CJ, i. 88, 89.