Ludgershall was a non-incorporated borough granted in 1539 to Richard Brydges for 40 years at a rent of £15 per annum. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign the widowed Lady Jane Brydges lived there but only the 1563 MPs can be said to have owed their returns to her: Griffin Curteys, servant of the Seymours, a neighbour, and George Cope, who married Lady Brydges’ niece.
A non-incorporated borough, Hindon was owned by the bishop of Winchester,Hoare, Wilts. Mere; VCH Wilts. v. 118-19. who controlled the patronage there, entirely in the early part of this period, less so later. At the time of the elections to Elizabeth’s first Parliament the Marian bishop, White, had not yet been deprived, though he was under house arrest, and two civil lawyers, relatives, were returned. The 1563 Members were Bishop Horne’s agent (Foster) and his chancellor and son-in-law (Acworth).
This borough, which was not incorporated, formed part of the manor of Heytesbury, owned by the Hungerford family until the attainder of Walter, Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury in 1540, when it came into the hands of the Crown. Granted in 1553 to Henry Wheeler (d.1567), a gentleman of the privy chamber, it passed to Hugh Hawker of Heytesbury, who died about 1574 and, as far as is known, never stood for Parliament in this period. Hawker went to some lengths to oblige the Thynnes of Longleat. On 20 Feb.
Great Bedwyn was a non-incorporated borough owned by the Seymour family, whose seat, Wolf Hall, lay within the parish. It appears to have been among the first properties restored to the family after the Duke of Somerset’s attainder. The precise composition of the Elizabethan electorate is not known, but return was made by the bailiff and burgesses.Wilts. Colls. 373; Wilts. IPMs (Brit. Rec. Soc. xxiii), 20-31; Wards 2/Box 5/22/1; C2l9/26/127; C219/31.
The manor and borough of Downton was leased by the earls of Pembroke from the bishops of Winchester. The borough was administered by the bailiff for the borough and hundred, who was the returning officer. The franchise was vested in the owners of the burgage tenements. The advowson, which belonged to Winchester College, was leased to the Queen, and by her to Thomas Wilkes in 1582. Electoral patronage was divided between the bishops of Winchester and the earls of Pembroke.
Devizes was a corporate town, the majority of whose MPs in this period comprised either townsmen or neighbouring gentry. Edward Heynes (1559, 1563), George Reynolds II (1572) and Henry Grube (1572) were members of the corporation and sometime mayors of the borough. John Kent (1597) was town clerk. Both Reynolds and Grube had promised to serve without wages, but in 1578 Grube sued the borough in respect of wages for the second session. In Chancery he claimed that his promise to serve without wages applied to the first session of the Parliament only.Waylen, Hist.
The borough of Cricklade, which was not incorporated, was in the hands of the Crown throughout Elizabeth’s reign. In 1557 the stewardship of the borough, together with that of other neighbouring properties, was granted to Edmund Brydges, and Baron Chandos. His son Giles, who succeeded him in March 1573, was granted the same office the following June, and in 1594, his brother, William, was granted the stewardship of Cricklade and held it until his death. Evidence of the family’s interest in Cricklade is to be found in Edmund Brydges’ will.CPR, Ph. and M. iii.
A charter of incorporation granted to Chippenham by Queen Mary on 2 May 1554 and confirmed by Elizabeth on 29 Jan. 1560 placed the government of the town in the hands of a bailiff and 12 aldermen with power to co-opt new members. By Mary’s charter, the corporation was granted lands in Chippenham, formerly the possessions of Lord Hungerford, to provide for the upkeep of the bridge and for the expenses of the town’s burgesses in Parliament. The town appointed a high steward, although the office was not mentioned in the charter, and its holder in 1567 was the first Earl of Pembroke.
The borough of Calne was not incorporated until the late seventeenth century but its privileges were confirmed by Elizabeth in 1569. Government of the borough was in the hands of two guild stewards, two constables and about twenty capital burgesses. One third of the borough lay within the manor of Calne, owned at the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign by Thomas Long, who sold it by 1579 to Sir Lionel Duckett. The other two thirds of the borough was within the prebendal manor held by the treasurer of Salisbury cathedral.
In Elizabethan Wiltshire there were two noble families whose influence was felt in county as well as borough elections. The Herberts, earls of Pembroke, with their seat at Wilton were the more important. The 1st Earl was a man of great qualities, who had eased his way to fortune, first by marrying the sister of Catherine Parr, and later by a switch of loyalties from Protector Somerset to the Duke of Northumberland.
