Edward Atkyns and Sir Thomas Spencer, both local residents and moderate Royalists in 1660, were returned to the Convention. Although Atkyns ‘gave unto this borough the first bell of the ring here, which cost £27’, he lost his seat to Sir William Fleetwood, the ranger of Woodstock Park, in 1661. The corporation was purged in 1662 and a new charter granted on 23 Aug. 1664, under which crown sanction was required for the appointment of high steward, recorder and town clerk.

The freemen of Banbury claimed the franchise in this period on only one occasion, and though the assistants were reckoned part of the corporation they voted only at mayoral elections. On this narrow franchise the borough showed little sign of its notorious Puritanism in its representation, though John Fiennes was reported elected in 1660.

Apart from the elections of 1660 and 1661, about which evidence is lacking, all the general elections were contested, though the poll survives only for 1689. There was apparently no dominating aristocratic influence in the earlier part of the period. In 1660 the county returned two moderate Parliamentarians in James Fiennes (whom Anthony a Wood described as ‘an honest Cavalier and a quiet man’) and Lord Wenman.

Seventeenth century Nottingham was among the most attractive of English provincial towns. Consequently there was little difficulty in finding gentry, resident or formerly resident, to represent it in Parliament, though they were never admitted to the corporation. Under Colonel John Hutchinson, it had been a parliamentary stronghold during the Civil War, and after the Restoration it was a notable centre for Presbyterianism. The dominant interest lay in the Pierreponts, a cadet branch representing the borough with very short intervals from 1640 to 1706.

The Earl of Rutland sought to make Newark a parliamentary borough in 1579, but the clause was struck out of the charter by Queen Elizabeth. The town was one of the principal Cavalier strongholds during the Civil War, and at the Restoration petitioned for enfranchisement and an enlargement of its boundaries in recognition of its loyalty. There seems to have been little pressure behind it, for not until three years had passed was it referred to Lord Treasurer Southampton.

No contested elections are known to have occurred in this period, and all the Members, except John Millington, seem to have retained their seats, once elected, until they died, left the country or chose another constituency. But the Retford freemen, if politically unsophisticated, were well able to set a value on their votes. Sir William Hickman, son of a local Royalist, had established a strong personal interest in the borough even before the Restoration. His colleague in 1660, Lord Kildare, was a stranger to the county who had married into the Holles family.

Nottinghamshire was not yet entitled to be called ‘The Dukeries’, but for a small county it was already remarkably well favoured with resident peers. The Cavendishes of the junior line (successively marquesses and dukes of Newcastle) held the lieutenancy and enjoyed the principal interest for all except the opening and closing months of the period. Their steadfast royalism, with that of the Byrons, the Chaworths and the Suttons (Barons Lexinton), was counterbalanced by the Holles earls of Clare and, less consistently, by the Pierreponts.

The corporation of Newcastle consisted of the mayor, the recorder and the sheriff, who acted as returning officer, with ten aldermen and a common council of 24. Both the corporation and the Members of Parliament were elected by the freemen, though the complicated indirect method in use in municipal elections favoured control by the merchant oligarchy. All the successful candidates in this period came from this class, and all except William Calverley were themselves in trade.

The corporation of Morpeth consisted of two bailiffs, who acted as returning officers, and seven aldermen, one for each of the trading companies crafts or guilds. New freemen were presented by the companies at the court leet of the manor in batches of 24, the proportions of the various companies being fixed.

The most important interest at Berwick was in the corporation, which controlled the roll of freemen. It remained a garrison town despite the union of the crowns, but the interest which thus accrued to the Government was counterbalanced by the strength of Presbyterianism in the town. Most of the candidates were Northumberland gentry by birth or residence, the chief interests belonging to the Presbyterian Greys of Warke and the Roman Catholic Widdringtons.