Reigate

The market town of Reigate was a mesne borough controlled by successive lords of the manor. The burgesses had no court of their own but attended the court leet of the manor where their bailiffs, constables and fishtasters were elected. On the death of Lady Anne Mowbray in 1481 the manor was divided between her four coheirs. The 1st Duke of Norfolk’s share escheated to the crown in 1485 but those of the Berkeleys and the Wingfields and that of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, were acquired by his descendants early in the 16th century. The Stanleys took little interest in Reigate, and after the marriage of the 3rd Earl to Dorothy Howard in 1530 the manor was largely administered by the Howards. The escheated portion remained in the hands of the crown until 1542 when it was granted by the King to the dowager duchess for life: she died in 1545. In 1542 Lord William Howard, later created Baron Howard of Effingham, acquired the ex-Augustinian priory which he converted into a residence. It was there that the orphaned children of the Earl of Surrey were educated by the martyrologist John Foxe during the imprisonment of the 3rd Duke in the reign of Edward VI. While he was a prisoner the duke’s own property was leased by the crown to John Skinner I for 30 years on 29 Mar. 1547, and three years later it was granted to Lord William Howard.3VCH Surr. iii. 233-5; LP Hen. VIII, xv. 498; xvii, g. 362(58), g. 443(5); xix(1), g. 278(51); CPR, 1550-3, p. 3; W. Hooper, Reigate, 71, 116.

Despite their vicissitudes the Howards were virtual dictators in the matter of elections. Only in 1542 following the downfall of Catherine Howard and in March 1553 during Lord William Howard’s absence at Calais did their grip weaken, two Skinners being elected in 1542 and two men linked with the Duke of Northumberland in 1553. Apart from the important Skinner family, their kinsman Thomas Ingler also lived in the town, Thomas Michell owned the manor of Redstone there and (Sir) Thomas Saunders held property from the Howards. William More was related to Ingler but his kinship with the sheriff, John Sackville I, perhaps counted most in 1547; Saunders as sheriff may similarly have furthered the return of his brother-in-law James Skinner in 1554. The 3rd Duke listed Reigate with the boroughs where ‘in times past’ he could have made Members, but his observation ‘I doubt whether any burgesses be there or not’ applied not to Reigate but to Gatton which it follows on the list. Indentures written in Latin survive for the Parliaments of 1542, 1547, March 1553 and the last three Parliaments of Mary’s reign, giving the contracting parties as the sheriff of Surrey and Sussex and between 12 and 20 named burgesses (or burgagers) and ‘others of the said town’. Walter Haddon’s name is inserted on the indenture for 1555 in a different hand from the rest of the document.4LP Hen. VIII, x. 816 citing Cott. Calig. B6, f. 319; C219/18B/89, 19/100, 20/124, 23/119, 24/152, 25/111.

A bill introduced in the Parliament of 1547 concerning iron mills failed after only one reading.5CJ, i. 22.