Portsmouth

Portsmouth, located at the south-west corner of Portsea Island, lay at the mouth of a large natural harbour. The town’s strategic significance was reflected in the fact that it was walled, and contained Portchester Castle, situated across the bay from the equally important Southsea Castle. To the north of Portsmouth lay the vital royal dockyard. J. Webb, The Siege of Portsmouth in the Civil War (Portsmouth, 1977), 3. The military character of the town was much commented upon by visitors: John Leland claimed that it was ‘bare and little occupied in time of peace’; while William Camden suggested that the inhabitants were ‘more attentive to war than to trade’. M.J. Hoad, Portsmouth as Others Have Seen It (Portsmouth, 1972), 5-6. The town’s status was reflected, moreover, in its size: the Compton Census recorded the presence of 2,560 communicants. Compton Census, 87. The population was temporarily swelled in times of war by the presence of billeted soldiers, like those who awaited embarkation for the ill-fated campaigns of George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, in the 1620s. In February 1626 these numbered 4,000. CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 249.

Portsmouth had received a charter in 1194, but was not incorporated until 1600. Although it had sent MPs to the Model Parliament, its representation thereafter lapsed until 1529, after which one seat was usually at the disposal of the town’s governor. The charter granted in 1627 vested the town’s government in a mayor, 12 aldermen and 25 burgesses, who also constituted the electorate. Portsmouth Recs. ed. East, 585-607; HP Commons 1604-1629.

In the spring election of 1640 the borough returned two outsiders, who owed their positions to the patronage of James Hamilton, 3rd marquess of Hamilton, and Algernon Percy†, 4th earl of Northumberland, both of whom were freemen of the borough. C219/42ii/143; Portsmouth RO, PE 7, unfol.; CE 1/5, p. 11. On 10 December 1639 the mayor and burgesses had written to Hamilton, asking him to nominate their senior burgess for the forthcoming Parliament, and on 5 March 1640 Hamilton wrote accepting their offer, and nominating his brother William Hamilton, 1st earl of Lanark, with a promise of the latter’s good performance for both the town and the commonwealth. NAS, GD406/1/798, 882. Why Hamilton, a cousin of the king, was approached does not immediately appear, but it is possible that the broker was the town’s governor, George Goring*, who in January had become a member of the council of war for the campaign against the invading Scots, and who had strong court connections. The return to the second seat of Henry Percy, Northumberland’s younger brother, is more easily accounted for, the earl being the lord admiral.

In the autumn election of 1640, held on 25 October, Percy took the senior seat, while the second place went to George Goring, who had been made a burgess on 6 October. C219/43/150; Portsmouth RO, CE 1/5, p. 39. However, on 11 November Percy opted to sit as knight of the shire for Northumberland, and the new writ issued two days later resulted in the return of Edward Dowse, sometime before 28 November. CJ ii. 26b; C219/43/129; C231/5, p. 411; Portsmouth RO, CE 1/5, p. 39; Northcote Diary, 13. Dowse, who had been made a burgess of the borough on 3 November, was returned on Northumberland’s interest, as he had been at Chichester in the Short Parliament. Portsmouth Recs. ed. East, 352. From a prominent and well-connected family, he had been employed by the Percys from at least 1615, eventually becoming Northumberland’s secretary, pensioner and creditor, and the occupant of chambers at both Petworth and Syon. Alnwick, Northumberland MS U.I.4; Household Pprs. Northumberland, ed. G. R. Batho (Cam. Soc. 3rd ser. xciii), 93, 96, 129, 141, 152, 166; HMC 6th Rep. 230-1.

Goring’s position as governor of Portsmouth – an obvious route to safety for the conspirators – made his participation in the ‘Army plot’ of 1641 particularly sensitive, but although complicit in the escape of at least two culprits, he managed to evade retribution from Parliament by turning informer. LJ iv. 236b; CJ ii. 136b; Procs. LP iv. 362, 365; v. 37, 44, 55-6. 62; CSP Dom. 1640-1, p. 571. His office was a boon for the royalists as civil war approached, and Goring declared for the king on 2 August, for which he was disabled as a Member of the Commons a fortnight later. Clarendon, Hist. ii. 273; True Newes from Portsmouth (13 Aug. 1642), sigs. A2v-A3v (E.112.1); PJ iii. 280; CJ ii. 723a. However, parliamentarian troops quickly laid siege to the town, which surrendered to Sir William Waller* on 7 September. Thereafter, the town was placed successively under the governorship of Sir William Lewis* (1643), William Jephson* (1644), and Richard Norton* (1645). A True Relation of the Passages Which Happened at…Portsmouth (1642), sig. A2 (E.118.22); CJ ii. 723a; Portsmouth Recs. ed. East, 635.

Shortly after Norton’s appointment, plans were made for a recruiter election at Portsmouth to choose Goring’s replacement, although a writ was not issued until 4 April 1646. CJ iv. 322a, 486a; C231/6, p. 43. Sometime before 15 May the borough returned Edward Boate, who had been master shipwright at Portsmouth since 1628, and who had been based there permanently since the late 1630s; by this time a man of substance, long high in the estimation of navy commissioners, he was known both for integrity and irascibility. HMC Cowper, i. 176. Aside from his significant formal duties, which involved contact with Robert Rich, 2nd earl of Warwick, Boate played only a modest part in public life in the region during early 1640s. CJ iii. 468a; CSP Dom. 1644-5, p. 220. Although he can be assumed to have been returned on his own interest, it seems likely that he met with the approval of Norton. He was not made a burgess of Portsmouth until the following September. CJ iv. 546b; Portsmouth Recs. ed. East, 353.

Another by-election was required in late 1648, following the death of Edward Dowse. A new writ was issued on 2 December, but it is not certain that an election took place or that the writ was returned. CJ vi. 80a; C231/6, p. 128. With the the death of Boate in the spring of 1650, the borough lacked formal parliamentary representation during the republic. Nevertheless, as the focal point of naval administration and shipbuilding, the town was assured of a voice at Westminster throughout the period.

Portsmouth was granted only one seat under the terms of the Instrument of Government of December 1653. Potentially this was a problematic development in a constituency where electoral influence had often been shared by the garrison and the corporation. However, the circumstances in which in 1654 the seat went to the governor, Nathaniel Whetham I, are obscure.

The election for the second protectorate Parliament in 1656 was contested, although it is possible that the tension between the corporation and the governor resulted in the ultimate success of a third, compromise candidate. Richard Norton, appointed as governor for the second time in 1655 to succeed Whetham, was certainly mentioned by Major-general William Goffe* as a powerful influence over the election at Portsmouth, and he probably favoured the candidacy of Richard Whithed II*, a clerk of the privy seal and Norton’s kinsman. The corporation’s candidate, on the other hand, was William Stephens*, who in addition to being a judge of the admiralty, was the town’s recorder. In the end, however, the man elected was Thomas Smith II, a former client of the earl of Northumberland, and a commissioner for the navy under the protectorate. Portsmouth RO, CE 1/7, p. 59; TSP v. 329.

In 1659 the borough was restored as a two-Member constituency, which lessened the likelihood of a contest, and on 8 January 1659 it appears to have returned John Child and Francis Willoughby unopposed, thereby satisfying the interests of the town, the governor and the navy. Willoughby, who took the senior place with the ‘unanimous suffrages of the mayor, aldermen and burgesses’, was a navy commissioner and master attendant of dockyard at Portsmouth, both of which positions he had ‘inherited’ from his father. CSP Dom. 1658-9, p. 248. The second place went to Child, who had been admitted as a burgess in December 1658, and who may have been serving as a major in the garrison. Child was also a brother of Josiah Child*, the town’s mayor and deputy treasurer of the navy. Portsmouth RO, CE 1/7, p. 105.

Portsmouth was not represented in the restored Rump and restored Long Parliament in 1659 and early 1660. After the Restoration the governor, and the Nortons, continued to exercise their influence over one of the seats; access to the other, as to the corporation, was more open. HP Commons 1660-1690.