Commons 1604-1629

New Romney lost its access to the sea after the violent storm of 1286, and dwindled into a mere market town, often at odds with its ‘limb’ of Lydd. It nevertheless served as the meeting place of the Cinque Ports’ two representative assemblies, the Brotherhood and the Guestling, received a charter in 1352, and in 1563 was incorporated under a governing body consisting of a mayor and a maximum of 12 jurats. E. Hasted, Kent, viii. 447; W. Holloway, Romney Marsh, 81; CPR, 1560-3, p. 499; M. Teichman Derville, Annals of New Romney, 5, 10; K.M.E.

The little town of Corfe was dominated by its castle, which Elizabeth I granted to her favourite Sir Christopher Hatton†. At his request the town was enfranchised in 1572 and incorporated four years later. The corporation consisted of a mayor and a bailiff, elected annually, and an uncertain number of ‘barons’, the title given to all those who had served as mayor. The Isle of Purbeck, in which Corfe is situated, still provided excellent sport, including red deer, and there were a number of resident gentry families, notably the Dackombes.

Poole received its first charter in 1248, and was represented in Parliament from 1362, though the borough did not return Members regularly until the mid-fifteenth century. Under its 1568 charter of incorporation, Poole also achieved administrative independence from the county of Dorset, the lord lieutenant alone retaining authority over the town. British Bor. Charters 1307-1660 ed. M. Weinbaum, 31-2; OR; J.

Melcombe Regis received its earliest known charter in 1280, and returned Members to Parliament from 1319. Weymouth, which lay just across the estuary of the River Wey, was a somewhat older settlement. However, it developed municipal structures more slowly, and did not regularly achieve a voice at Westminster until Richard II’s reign. The two boroughs were united by Act of Parliament in 1571, and incorporated under a mayor and two bailiffs, six aldermen, and 24 common councilmen.

A staple town, Northampton received its first charter in 1189, and sent Members to Parliament in 1283. Northampton Bor. Recs. ed. C.A. Markham, i. 25. Elections were originally popular, but an Act of 1489 vested the government of the town in a mayor, two bailiffs, the ex-bailiffs (usually numbering about 12) and 48 ‘burgesses’ chosen by the mayor and his brethren, and confined the franchise to this assembly. VCH Northants. iii. 9-13; Northampton Bor. Recs. ed. J.C. Cox, ii.

Leicester, the only parliamentary borough in Leicestershire, had returned Members since 1301. OR. The population at the beginning of the seventeenth century was about 3,500. In the late 1620s the corporation described the borough as ‘consisting principally of manual trades … very populous … [with] many poor and standeth far from the sea or any navigable river is maintained chiefly by the fairs and market’. Trade in wool and textile production were important elements of the local economy. VCH Leics. iv. 76, 78; Recs. of Bor. of Leicester ed. H.

Chartered by the Crown as Kingston-upon-Hull in 1299, the borough regularly returned MPs thereafter. A charter of incorporation in 1440 conferred jurisdiction independent of the East Riding. D. Hey, Yorks. from AD 1000, pp. 48-9; E. Gillett and K.A. MacMahon, Hist. Hull, 1-6, 24-5, 85-6; VCH Yorks. (E. Riding), i. 13-21, 39-40; Charters of Hull trans. J.R.

Remote from London and dominated by the barren Pennines, Derbyshire boasted great natural beauty but little tillage, deriving most of its wealth from coarse wool and minerals. The Cavendish and Manners families had extensive interests in the lead mines, which by 1600 supplied nearly half Europe’s needs, while the Freschevilles profited on a lesser scale as ironmasters. Although the duchy of Lancaster covered more than half the shire, the Crown exerted little political influence.J.R. Dias, ‘Lead, Soc. and Pols. in Derbys. before the Civil War’, Midland Hist. vi.

There was a settlement at Liskeard by around AD 1000. The town received its first charter from Richard, earl of Cornwall in 1240, and like many of the earl’s possessions it was absorbed into the duchy of Cornwall in 1337, along with Liskeard manor, castle and park. The borough was important enough to be enfranchised in 1295, and ten years later it was designated as one of Cornwall’s five coinage towns, where tin could be assayed.

Devon, England’s third largest county, was noted in the early seventeenth century both for the wildness of its upland moors and the enterprise of its inhabitants. The population at this time has been estimated at around 234,000. At least 5,000 of the adult males engaged in fishing, the fleets bringing in rich catches of pilchards and herrings from coastal waters, and regularly venturing as far as Newfoundland. Arable farming was concentrated on the southern lowland region, with great efforts made to maximize yield through enclosure and the intensive use of fertilizers.