Commons 1558-1603

The borough of East Grinstead, part of the duchy of Lancaster since the reign of Edward III, formed a ‘liberty of itself without any intermeddling of the hundred’ of that name. According to a 1563 survey of duchy lands in Sussex, the borough had about 50 burgages, six of which were held by Sir Richard (‘Fillsack’) Sackville. Among other Sackville property in the neighbourhood was the manor of Brambletye, which became the residence of Henry Compton II, whose mother married into the family.

Elizabethan Chichester, a city of about 2,000 people, was still governed by a body formed around the medieval merchants’ guild. This was made up of the mayor, the aldermen, and the free citizens. The guild nominated the bailiff, recorder, customer and portreeve and conducted the city’s affairs. The rest of the inhabitants, the commoners, were occasionally summoned to general meetings in the guildhall, including those for mayoral and parliamentary elections, but their influence appears to have been slight.

The borough of Bramber, never incorporated, was owned by the dukes of Norfolk. A constable was chosen at the court leet, and he, with a few burgesses, made the return. Nine of these wrote to the sheriff on 26 Jan. 1559:

The borough of Arundel was controlled by the earls of Arundel. Its officers, including the mayor and coroner, were elected at an annual court leet. Election returns were made in the name of the mayor, burgesses and commonalty. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, elections were in the hands of Henry Fitz Alan, the 12th Earl of Arundel, who brought in two fellow-courtiers, Sir Francis Knollys and Thomas Heneage, in 1559; Michael Heneage, a brother of Thomas, in 1571; a civil lawyer, William Aubrey, recommended by the 1st Earl of Pembroke, in 1563; and three relatives, Sir John St.

Sir Richard Sackville of Buckhurst, lord lieutenant of Sussex, was made Privy Councillor at Elizabeth’s accession and took the senior county seat in the first two Parliaments of the reign. He died in 1566, but since his son and heir Thomas was created Baron of Buckhurst in 1567, the family did not represent Sussex again until his grandson Robert came of age.

Southwark, noted in this period for its playhouses and brothels, had a special relationship with the city of London, which appointed its steward and bailiff. In 1571 the instructions to hold the election were sent to Southwark by the common council of the city, and in 1584 the London recorder was present at the election. The right to vote at Southwark was vested in the inhabitants, 20 of whom signed the 1559 return, and 22 that of 1584.

The Howards of Effingham owned a moiety of the manor of Reigate and leased the other from the earls of Derby. Election returns were made in the name of the burgesses (usually about a dozen), and the other inhabitants.VCH Surr. iii. 231-7; C219/29/144.

Haslemere was a ‘tithing’ in the manor of Godalming, which came into the hands of the Crown in Edward VI’s reign. Anthony Browne Viscount Montagu was its steward from 1553 until his death in 1592. Though a Catholic, Montagu was trusted and rewarded by the Queen, being one of the commissioners for the trial of Mary Stuart in 1586, serving against the Armada in 1588, and entertaining the Queen at Cowdray in 1591.

Guildford had been incorporated in the middle ages and was governed by a mayor, ‘approved men’, and the guild of merchants. In 1559 Henry, 12th Earl of Arundel, held the office of high steward. On his death in 1580, Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, was elected but died within five years. The corporation then chose Charles Howard I, Lord Howard of Effingham.

At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign the borough of Gatton was owned by the Copley family and patronage there was in the hands of Sir Roger Copley’s widow. Thomas Copley, her son, who had already represented Gatton in 1554 and 1558, returned himself in 1559 and 1563. It is not known how Thomas Farnham, a Leicestershire country gentleman and a court of wards official, came to be returned for Gatton in 1559. Sir Robert Lane (1563) was Thomas Copley’s brother-in-law from Northamptonshire.