Bere Alston originated in the late thirteenth century as a small mining settlement within the manor of Bere Ferrers. Granted a market in 1295, and established as a borough shortly afterwards, it passed with the manor into the possession of the lords Willoughby de Broke, and, in 1522, descended to the 2nd lord’s coheirs. Still barely more than a large village, Bere Alston was enfranchised in 1584 ‘at the request of William, marquess of Winchester and William, Lord Mountjoy, chief lords of the town and borough’, who initially divided the electoral patronage between them.

A settlement existed in the Penryn area before the Conquest, but the town itself allegedly owed its origins to the bishops of Exeter, lords of the local manor, who obtained a borough charter in 1236. J. Polsue, Complete Paroch. Hist. of Cornw. ii. 78; R.J. Roddis, Penryn, 13-15. Located at the head of a sheltered creek off the great natural harbour of Falmouth Haven, Penryn in the early seventeenth century traded with markets around the globe.

Bodmin traced its roots back to the sixth century, when St. Petroc founded a monastery which served as Cornwall’s first Anglo-Saxon cathedral. The town achieved borough status by 1190, and secured its earliest recorded charter of privileges in the mid-thirteenth century. The prestige of its medieval priory, combined with the town’s importance as a centre for the tin trade, made Bodmin a focal point for Cornish society, and the western rebellions of 1497 and 1549 both began there. C. Henderson et al., Cornish Church Guide, 59-60; J.

The town of Bury St. Edmunds, having grown up around a Benedictine abbey founded before the Conquest, not only survived but flourished after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, retaining its position as the venue of assizes and quarter sessions and the capital of West Suffolk.R.S. Gottfried, Bury St.

The divided administrative geography of Suffolk reflected the privileges enjoyed in medieval times by two great monastic foundations. The eight-and-a-half hundreds of West Suffolk formed the franchise of Bury St. Edmunds, while the eastern half of the county was divided between the liberty of St. Audrey, or St. Etheldred, and the ‘geldable’. Stowmarket was the most centrally situated town in Suffolk, and it was here that the county’s deputy lieutenants usually met; but, lying off the main roads, it failed to develop facilities for large gatherings. HMC 13th Rep.

Andover, in north-west Hampshire close to the border with Wiltshire, received a charter as early as 1175 and sent Members to Parliament intermittently between 1295 and 1307. Although benefiting from its proximity to Weyhill fair, one of the largest in the region, the borough had no significant industries, and fell into decline in the late medieval period; its parliamentary representation lapsed and was not restored until 1586. VCH Hants, iv. 345-51; Woodward, Hants, iii. 173; D.K.

Whitchurch was described by the antiquarian Thomas Baskerville in the later seventeenth century as a ‘poor thoroughfare town’ in a region devoted mainly to sheep grazing and the clothing industry. HMC Portland, ii. 286. The borough was owned by the dean and chapter of Winchester, but governed by a court leet presided over by an annually elected mayor and bailiff. VCH Hants, iv. 299-304. Members were first returned to Parliament in 1584, and the franchise rested in the freemen.

Situated on the edge of the South Downs, Petersfield was a prosperous market town and centre for the local clothing and leather tanning industries. VCH Hants, iii. 111-16. A borough by prescription, its government was vested in a mayor, constable, bailiff and two aldermen and tithingmen, and it regularly sent Members to Parliament from 1547. The franchise was confined to the burgage-holders, with the mayor acting as returning officer. R.S. Atcheson, Rep. of Case of Petersfield, 10-11. A handsome town mace survives, dated 1596. E.M.

Often referred to as the county of Southampton, Hampshire was of great strategic importance, both for its port and naval base at Portsmouth, and for its extensive forests which supplied timber for the dockyard. Its chalky soil and heath land provided for a local economy based on pasture and arable farming. The cloth industry of Winchester, erstwhile capital of England following the Conquest, declined after the Black Death, but the cathedral city remained the regional centre for local government and administration. D.A Hinton and A.N. Insole, Hants and I.o.W., 1-16; J.S.

Situated in north Wiltshire, near the border with Gloucestershire, and lying strategically on both the Thames and Ermine Street – the principal road connecting Gloucester and Cirencester with Winchester – Cricklade was originally developed as a Saxon royal borough. It received its first charter in the twelfth century and was represented in Parliament from 1275. However, it was never incorporated and it continued to be governed by the annual manorial court leet. T.R. Thomson, ‘Early Hist. and Topography’, Materials for a Hist. of Cricklade ed. T.R. Thomson, 63-80; T.R.