In the seventeenth century Lewes was one of the most populous towns in Sussex. Situated six miles from the coast on the river Ouse, between the Weald and the South Downs, it was important both as a port and a centre of civil and ecclesiastical administration. Like Chichester, another venue for the quarter sessions, Lewes was a social centre for the county’s gentry; many of the most prominent had houses there. VCH Suss. vii. 1-31; J. Goring, ‘The fellowship of the Twelve in Elizabethan Lewes’, Suss. Arch. Coll. cxix. 157. Traditionally, the most influential of these were the Sackvilles, earls of Dorset, and the Nevilles, barons Abergavenny, and to an extent this was continued, for example in the elections to Parliament of Christopher Neville and his brother-in-law Sir George Goring† (later 1st Baron Goring), but in the 1620s local gentry like the Pelhams and Stapleys became more influential, Anthony Stapley I being elected for the borough to Parliament for the first time (on a double return) in 1628. HP Commons 1604-1629.
Lewes was a ‘mesne’ borough, nominally subordinate to the lords of the town. In practice, however, the jury had achieved a degree of autonomy, with some local jurisdiction, if not the legal power of a corporation. At the annual court leet two constables and two headboroughs were elected from ‘the Twelve’, a ‘society’ or ‘fellowship’ of between 12 and 24 senior townsmen, who governed the town alongside another body, ‘the Twenty-four’. The senior constable chose his deputy, who acted as returning officer, and who signed election returns on behalf of the ‘greatest part of the burgesses and inhabitants’. The right of election lay in those inhabitants paying scot and lot, of whom there were up to 150 in 1628. W.H. Godfrey, The Bk. of John Rowe (Suss. Rec. Soc. xxxiv), 120; Goring, ‘The fellowship of the Twelve’, 157-8; VCH Suss. vii. 24-6, 31; CJ i. 877a; Harl. 2313, ff. 8v-9. The town’s population may have been in excess of 2,000. Fletcher, Suss. 9. The Compton census of 1676 recorded 860 names in the five parishes of St Michael, Southover, All Saints, St John’s and St Mary (some of which lay partly outside the town), of which a high proportion, 173, were non-conformists. Compton Census, 148. There had long been a strong Protestant presence, reflected in the high number of Marian martyrs (17) from the town and in the arrival of Protestant refugees from the continent. Fletcher, Suss. 62. Sir Thomas Pelham* and Anthony Stapley I helped establish a lectureship – a position held by Anthony Lapthorne until he was deprived in May 1623 for contravening royal preaching instructions. ‘Anthony Lapthorne’, Oxford DNB; Fletcher, Suss. 71-2; Add. 33145, f. 27v.
As soon as the elections were called for what became the Short Parliament, the determination of the godly elite to secure seats at Lewes became clear. Writing in January 1640 to William Bray, chaplain to Archbishop William Laud, Dr Edward Burton bemoaned the strength of the ‘puritan faction’ on the county bench, naming as the ringleaders Anthony Stapley I, James Rivers, John Baker* and William Hay*, and mentioned specifically Stapley’s attack on Laudian altar policy. On the subject of the forthcoming elections, he noted that despite ‘letters and intimations’ from the 4th earl of Dorset (Sir Edward Sackville†) and Lord Goring ‘for their creatures to be Parliament men, yet Mr Stapley and Mr Rivers have a strong party in the town, and it is much feared they will be chosen burgesses for the town of Lewes’. ‘God forbid’, he added, ‘the greater part of a Parliament should be of their stamp; if so, Lord have mercy upon our church’. CSP Dom. 1639-40, pp. 386-7. On 11 March his fears were realised when Stapley and James Rivers (whose grandfather George Rivers† had sat for the borough in the 1620s) were duly elected. C219/42ii/30. However, Stapley was also returned as a knight of the shire, and on 16 April he opted to sit for the county. CJ ii. 3b; C231/5, p. 380; C219/42ii/50. It seems likely that Stapley and Sir Thomas Pelham were instrumental in securing the return, on 28 April, of their former ward, Harbert Morley*, but it is not clear if Morley attended Parliament before it was dissolved on 5 May. E. Suss. RO, SAS/D188.
Both Morley and Rivers were re-elected in the autumn to what became the Long Parliament. The grip in which the godly held the town may be evident from the absence of any evidence of a contest; courtiers like the earl of Dorset wielded their influence in other boroughs. The grip held in the summer of 1641, when a new election was necessitated by the death of Rivers. A new writ was ordered on 9 June, and was delivered by Harbert Morley. CJ ii. 172a; Harl. 163, f. 303v; Harl. 478, f. 46. Pelham, Morley and Stapley then exerted their influence to place another close friend and associate, Henry Shelley. Shelley had signed the indenture for the election of Pelham and Stapley as knights of the shire in November 1640, and although not as wealthy or as influential as Pelham, was still among the powerful gentry of the eastern rapes. Add. 33084, f. 67; PROB11/241/346; Suss. Arch. Coll. xxiv. 223; Suss. Rec. Soc. xxix. 37; Add. Ch. 30913. His own indenture was signed by many men who later became prominent Sussex parliamentarians, including Morley, Herbert Hay*, John Baker*, John Busbridge*, Peter Farnden and Henry Peck*. C219/43ii/213. Morley and Shelley both sat for the remainder of the Long Parliament and during the Rump, although the latter was more active in the county than at Westminster, and achieved neither Morley’s political influence and nor his notoriety.
Under the terms of the Instrument of Government, Lewes was only a single-Member constituency in the 1654 Parliament. Morley contested for one of an increased number of county seats, while Lewes again returned Shelley. Like his old friend Sir Thomas Pelham, however, Shelley died before the opening of the parliamentary session. W. Suss. RO, Add 2302, f. 14. Nevertheless, he was named in error to a committee on 28 September. CJ vii. 371b; CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 241. A writ for the election of a replacement was ordered on 26 October, and it seems that an election was duly held on 2 November, but no trace of the successful candidate has come to light. C231/6, p. 299; C219/44ii; CJ vii. 377b.
The influence of the godly gentry remained dominant in 1656, when the borough returned Anthony Stapley II*, son of its previous MP of that name. However, while Anthony the younger may have benefited from his family’s connection with the borough, his political views differed from those of his father. In June 1648 he had signed the Sussex petition, calling for a settlement with the king on lenient terms. PA, Parchment Coll. Box 11. During the government of the major-generals (1655-6), to which his father was opposed, Stapley convinced William Goffe* of his loyalty to the protector, and received appointments to local commissions as a result. TSP iv. 151, 190. Yet while the 1656 Parliament was in session, both Stapley and his elder brother, John Stapley*, planned an (ultimately abortive) royalist rising in Sussex.
In the elections for the 1659 Parliament Lewes reverted to returning two Members. Since the number of county places was reduced from nine to the more traditional two, many of those who had represented Sussex in the two previous Parliaments pursued insurance places in boroughs where they had influence. Among these, Harbert Morley (who had opposed the protectorate) sought and gained election at Lewes, as well as a county seat. In contrast, the second Member elected at Lewes was probably a ‘court’ candidate. Richard Boughton had served the parliamentarian cause in Sussex during the civil war and been active under the protectorate, and had recently moved to the town. Mercurius Politicus no. 550 (13-20 Jan. 1659), 176 (E.761.6); C54/3995/11. When Morley, predictably, chose to sit for the county (11 Feb.), a new writ ordered for the election of a replacement, but once again there is no evidence that it was implemented. CJ vii. 602a.
