Situated at the west end of the Marlborough downs on the London-Bristol road, Calne was one of the leading north Wiltshire clothing towns, although it ranked behind nearby Chippenham and Devizes in administrative importance. VCH Wilts. xvii. 30, 32, 84. It had sent two representatives to Parliament intermittently since 1295 and regularly since 1425 but, unlike its neighbours, it did not have a formal charter until 1685. VCH Wilts. xvii. 94. None the less, there were many references to some kind of informal substitute, among them a payment to the sheriff in 1640 for ‘allowance of our charter’; this may have been at least partly connected to a royal grant of 1569 conferring toll privileges on local inhabitants. Guild Stewards’ Bk. of the Borough of Calne 1561-1688 ed. A.W. Mabbs (Wilts. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. vii), 59; Marsh, Hist. Calne, 54-7. Tradition underpinned the meetings of and exercise of the franchise by a self-perpetuating oligarchy of about 20 burgesses, from whom two ‘guild stewards’ were chosen annually by rotation. The oligarchy, drawn from leading householders and freeholders, not necessarily resident within the town boundary, met in a house adjacent to the church sometimes called the guildhall; according to the stewards’ accounts, business was normally dominated by the management of town properties at the Marsh and the Alders, of charities, and of markets and fairs. Guild Stewards’ Bk. passim; VCH Wilts. xvii. 94-5, 100; Marsh, Hist. Calne, 38. The stewards were also supposedly responsible for election returns, but, as in the early seventeenth century, in March 1640 (the only occasion for which the indenture is complete), this duty was fulfilled by the constable, chosen by the hundred court, albeit once again a member of the privileged inner circle. HP Commons 1604-1629; Guild Stewards’ Bk. pp. xiv-xv; VCH Wilts. xvii. 95; C219/42, pt. ii, no. 64.
The trade depression of the 1620s created unemployment in Calne as elsewhere in the area. Ramsay, Wilts. Woollen Industry (1965), 76, 82. It is difficult to gauge the extent of continuing distress in the 1630s. In 1631 justices of the peace reported to the privy council that the price of corn was reasonable, but two years later they complained of the unwillingness of clothiers to take on poor apprentices. CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 183; 1633-4, p. 273. By the mid-seventeenth century some had adapted to changing markets by diversifying into serge-making and an estimate that there were as many as 2,000 paupers in 1640 seems incompatible with an enumeration of about 667 families in 1657. VCH Wilts. xvii. 32, 84, 98. Other, non-industrial crises were weathered. The arrival of plague in 1637 was addressed by setting up a ‘pesthouse in the Marsh’ and the employment of a physician from London who stayed for two months and was paid extra for medicine given to the poor. Guild Stewards’ Bk. 56; Marsh, Hist. Calne, 108. Sometime over the decade or so following the collapse of the church tower in 1638, sections of the building which had been damaged were reconstructed in classical and gothic styles, suggesting at least a modicum of prosperity locally. VCH Wilts. xvii. 105.
The pattern of early seventeenth century elections had been that one seat went to an outsider and one to a candidate promoted by the holder of one of the two manors. HP Commons 1604-1629. With qualifications, this remained the case. In March 1640 the incomer was William Maynard*, nephew of Sir John Maynard* who had represented the borough in 1628. His father’s estates were in East Anglia and as a youth short of 17 he had no experience of public office, but his aunt had been the first wife of Sir Edward Bayntun* of nearby Bromham, who owned property within the borough – although relations between the Maynards and Bayntuns had not always been harmonious. VCH Wilts. xvii. 71, 75. The insider in March, Walter Norborne*, not only had a small estate locally and was a son-in-law of Henry Chivers, the most prominent clothier, but was also close to the Duckett family, owners of Calne manor. VCH Wilts. xvii. 72, 75; Ramsay, Wilts. Woollen Industry, 41, 83.
Among developments over the summer and autumn which may have affected the election on 27 October 1640 was the report in June by the controversial commission which had investigated the state of cloth industry. Calne was among the Wiltshire towns where an industrial corporation was proposed. Ramsay, Wilts. Woollen Industry, 98. The influence of Sir Edward Bayntun, who had spearheaded resistance to the early stages of the commission, may have been greater than in the spring. At any rate, this time he secured the return of his son-in-law of five days, Somerset gentleman Hugh Rogers*. The successful local candidate was George Lowe*, whose family leased the prebendal estate and whose uncle and namesake had sat in 1628. Not only had he been instrumental in the organisation of plague regulations in 1637 but by the will of his mother, proved in August 1640, he inherited further property in the borough, rendering him the highest taxpayer in 1642. Guild Stewards’ Bk. 56; PROB11/183/685; Marsh, Hist. Calne, 337.
Although entries in the stewards’ book testify to the burden of taxation and gaps there to the disruption to normal administration, during the civil wars Calne was subject to passing raids rather than – as more strategically-important north Wiltshire towns – to prolonged occupation. Guild Stewards’ Bk. 59-65; Accts. Parlty. Garrisons of Great Chalfield and Malmesbury, 86. In June 1644 troops under Colonel Edward Massie* on their way to Devizes captured, among others, George Lowe, who had returned home to settle his mother’s outstanding affairs after attendance at the Oxford Parliament. SP23/177, pp. 343, 347; Marsh, Hist. Calne, 46-7. Over the succeeding winter Pinnell House, just outside the town, which had been garrisoned for Parliament, was ‘rendered uninhabitable’ following surrender to forces under Colonel George Goring*, Lord Goring; royalist sorties wrought further destruction in the area. Accts. Parlty. Garrisons of Great Chalfield and Malmesbury, 19; Marsh, Hist. Calne, 47; VCH Wilts. xvii. 67. In March 1645 fighting in the streets between royalists from Devizes and parliamentarians under Sir William Waller* resulted in the latter gaining the upper hand and investing the town briefly with up to 5,000 men. Marsh, Hist. Calne, 45-6 It was still not secure when voters belatedly met on about 23 December to choose a replacement for Lowe, who had been disabled since 5 February 1644: a party of royalist horse from Faringdon who had heard what was afoot took prisoners and succeeded in postponing the election. CJ iii. 389b; Exact Diurnall no. 85 (18 Dec-24 Dec 1645), 8 (E.313.19); Accts. Parlty. Garrisons of Great Chalfield and Malmesbury, 27. More than five months elapsed before the return of the new Member, Rowland Wilson*. A godly London vintner with no known personal connection to the town, his return may well have been a reward for service to Parliament, but it is not clear whether his sponsors were local grandees like the Bayntuns or the lord lieutenant Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke, or Sir Edward Hungerford* (whose family had land in the town), or instead fellow Independents in the capital. VCH Wilts. xvii. 66, 68, 73, 74.
Calne was not represented in the 1654 and 1656 Parliaments. The 1655 accounts reveal that the borough took the opportunity to renew its charter in the meantime. Guild Stewards’ Bk. 67 In 1657 the oligarchy also decided to award its stewards 6s 8d for their trouble. Marsh, Hist. Calne, 63. However, the experience of Members who had apparently done little for their constituents, and indeed had generally been invisible in Parliament, appears to have been behind the imposition of a bond disclaiming any financial remuneration on one of the candidates elected in December 1658. On that occasion burgesses chose Edward Bayntun*, Sir Edward’s eldest son, and William Duckett*, heir of John Duckett† who had sat in 1621 and 1624, and now lord of the manor. Duckett may have been considered reliable as one of their own, although in practice this former royalist had no higher profile than his predecessors, but Bayntun had to sign an undertaking that he appear at Westminster ‘for the whole time and term of the … Parliament’ and ‘perform for us the said burgesses and commons … all such lawful and reasonable … acts as shall be agreed upon’, yet without claiming ‘fees, wages [or] other charges’. Marsh, Hist. Calne, 341-2. He at least was an experienced Member of some stature, but he was notably less active in the Commons on this occasion than he had been in the 1640s. Notwithstanding this, both men were re-elected to the Convention, and although Bayntun was unsuccessful in gaining a seat in 1661, Ducketts sat in most Parliaments for the remainder of the century. ‘Calne’, HP Commons 1660-1690.
