Buckingham

In this period Buckingham was governed by 12 principal burgesses, a bailiff and a steward, in accordance with the charter of incorporation granted to the town in 1554. The corporation chose John Fortescue I of Salden as steward by 1584. The electorate consisted of the bailiff and the capital burgesses. The Carey family, former lords of the manor of Buckingham, maintained a residual interest in the borough, and exercised the dominant patronage there, securing one seat in each Parliament except that of 1559 for their family or followers. Carey influence was no doubt behind the returns of the Robert Newdigates I and II, father and son, Robert Newdigate I being a follower of (Sir) Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon, whose three sons were also returned for Buckingham. Another influential family was that of the Fortescues of Salden. John Fortescue I was steward of the borough when he took the senior seat in 1586, and a Privy Councillor by 1589, when his son was returned for the borough. Francis Fortescue sat again in 1593 and 1597. It is likely that John Fortescue I also secured the return of Christopher Hatton II. Of the remaining seven MPs five were returned through their local standing (Robert Drury, William Riseley, Paul Wentworth, Thomas Wenman and Michael Harcourt). Lawrence Holinshed (1572) was a follower of Lord Grey of Whaddon, near Buckingham, and Christopher Edmonds (1586) was an Oxfordshire gentleman, having no known connexion with the borough.4VCH Bucks. iii. 471, 476, 477, 479, 481; Buckingham recs., corp. bk.