Although little more than an agricultural village lying in the northern ‘cheese’ district of Wiltshire, Wootton Bassett returned Members to the Commons from 1446, at which time it was held by the dukes of York. In 1631 the residents produced a copy of an alleged charter of 1561 which vested authority in a mayor, two aldermen and 12 capital burgesses.
Described by Thomas Fuller in the early 1660s as ‘but the suburbs at large of London’, Middlesex was a small county, ‘scarce extending east and west to eighteen miles in length, and not exceeding twelve north and south in the breadth thereof’. Except near the Thames, where livings were made either by ferrying or fishing, the county’s inhabitants were mainly farmers for, despite its size, Middlesex boasted some of the most fertile soil anywhere in the country.
The ancient market town of Malmesbury, sited on a defensive position on the upper reaches of the Avon, grew up in the shelter both of its castle and a Benedictine abbey founded in the mid-seventh century. The development of the town’s clothing industry, which processed wool produced in north Wiltshire and south Gloucestershire, was facilitated by its good trade links, for the main road between Bristol and Oxford ran through Malmesbury, while other routes linked it to nearby Chippenham and Tetbury.
Located five miles inland on the River Parrett, Bridgwater owed its early prosperity to the manufacture and export of cloth, principally lightweight broad cloths known as Bridgwaters, but also coarser, narrow cloths, or kerseys, which were exported to France, Spain and Ireland.
Minehead probably derived its name either from a Celtic phrase meaning ‘the haven under the hill’ or from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘main head’, which alluded to its location on one of Somerset’s most prominent coastal headlands. Following the Norman Conquest, the settlement enjoyed manorial status, and became part of the honour of Dunster. Although well placed for trade with Wales and Ireland, Minehead played only a limited role as an outport. F. Hancock, Hist.
Once the heart of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Kent, by the early seventeenth century Canterbury was the unofficial capital of East Kent and a staging post for princes and ambassadors travelling between London and Dover. It also boasted more lawyers than any other part of the county. P. Clark, Eng. Prov. Soc. 275, 287. Successive archbishops of Canterbury preferred to reside at Lambeth, and it was five years before Archbishop Abbot even visited the city. CSP Dom. 1611-18, p.
Situated on a promontory overlooking the Severn, Bridgnorth was chartered in 1157 and returned two Members to the Commons from 1295. While regarded as ‘the second town of Shropshire’, its economic base was surprisingly modest: the medieval cloth industry declined under the Tudors, particularly after knitted caps, a local speciality, fell out of fashion, and in the 1630s the town’s Ship Money assessment of £50 was only half that of the comparably sized borough of Ludlow.J.F.A. Mason, Bridgnorth, 10-17; T. Rowley, Salop Landscape, 187-91; J.
Wilton was the seat of the Wessex kings until the ninth century, and thereafter the administrative centre of Wiltshire, although the rise of nearby Salisbury restricted its economic growth. R.C. Hoare, Hist. Wilts. ‘Branch and Dole’, 55, 117. Originally a borough by prescription, the town was governed by a merchant guild until 1350, when a charter appointed a mayor, recorder, town clerk, five aldermen, three capital burgesses, 11 common councilmen and other minor officials. VCH Wilts. vi. 1, 9; Hoare, 131. Wilton first returned MPs to Parliament in 1275.
Chipping Wycombe was a small town located in a sheltered, well-watered valley on the important route between Oxford and London, and was linked to Great Marlow.VCH Bucks. iii. 113. Its long-established market, particularly in corn, drew in traders from the capital, Berkshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire, as well as from Buckinghamshire itself. Cloth-working and lace-making provided employment for a significant section of the population.L.J. Ashford, Hist. of Bor. of High Wycombe from its Origins to 1880, pp.
Westminster’s economy revolved largely around the retail trades, beer-brewing and the letting of residential property. Cf. G. Rosser, Medieval Westminster, 43-165. The law courts in Westminster Hall, and the king’s Court at Whitehall, brought a steady stream of people to the city. Whenever Parliament met business also boomed, as Members of both Houses, along with their wives and servants, descended on Westminster’s numerous inns and hostelries, Croft estimates the number to have been at least 1,000: P.
