Commons 1558-1603

The population of New Radnor was very small when it was made the shire town of one of the new counties at the Act of Union. In 1562, with the help of Thomas Hoby, a local man in high favour at court, it acquired a charter of incorporation. Borough government was placed in the hands of a self-perpetuating common council of 25, from whom a bailiff and two aldermen were to be chosen each year. There was also a recorder, a common clerk, two chamberlains and a coroner. A residential qualification was imposed upon all councilmen and officials.CPR, 1560-3, pp. 343-6; Trans. Rad.

The representation of Radnorshire was divided between the two leading county families, the Prices of Monaughty and the Lewises of Harpton and Gladestry, except in 1572, when the election was successfully contested by Roger Vaughan of Court of Clyro. The sheriff in 1572, Edward Price, was a relative of Vaughan’s and an enemy of the unsuccessful candidate, Thomas Lewis. Vaughan also contested the 1597 election, but failed to be returned since this time the sheriff, Richard Fowler, was on his opponent’s side.Neale, Commons, 80-81. 94-96.

Elizabethan Pembrokeshire contained a number of towns and villages which had achieved borough status during the medieval period, and were therefore entitled to take part in the elections of the borough Member of Parliament. Haverfordwest, the largest of these, was excluded, however, since, as a county in itself, it chose its own Member. Pembroke, the shire town, was incorporated in 1485, and governed by a council consisting of a mayor, two bailiffs and twelve of ‘the more honest men of the town and precincts’.

Haverfordwest, described by a royal official in 1577 as ‘the best built, the most civilised and quickest occupied town in South Wales’ had the distinction, unique in Elizabethan Wales, of being a county in itself, with its own sheriff and escheator.Arch. Camb. (ser. 6), iii. 46. A royal possession, it had already enjoyed a long history as a borough. The governing body consisted of a mayor, two bailiffs and, probably, a common council.NLW Jnl. ix.