Commons 1558-1603

Shrewsbury was governed throughout Elizabeth’s reign by two bailiffs, 12 aldermen and 25 common councilmen. The borough possessed a comparatively large electorate: in the contested election of 1584, Thomas Owen polled 366 votes, Richard Barker 299, and Thomas Harris II 176. The election of 1601 was again contested, though nothing is known of the circumstances save that it caused ‘much ado’. It was probably to avoid disorderly elections that the town council had, in 1558, forbidden any preliminary canvassing.HMC 15th Rep.

After the dissolution of the monasteries, the lordship and site of Wenlock priory were granted to Thomas Lawley, a Calais merchant, who died in 1559 leaving infant sons. Control of the borough seats then passed into the hands of the neighbouring gentry.

The borough was incorporated as the bailiff, burgesses and commonalty, and the right to vote at parliamentary elections was vested in the burgesses.

Bishop’s Castle, which formed part of the honour of Lydbury North, was for centuries parcel of the possessions of the bishopric of Hereford until sequestered by the Crown in 1559.

Throughout Elizabeth’s reign, Bridgnorth was governed by two bailiffs and 24 aldermen. Elections were made by the bailiffs and aldermen ‘with consent’ of the commonalty.

Ludlow was the headquarters of the council in the marches of Wales. It was governed by two bailiffs, 12 principal burgesses and 25 common councilmen. There was also a recorder. The 1572 return states that the choice of MPs was made by the bailiffs ‘by assent and consent of all the burgesses of the said town to whom the said election doth appertain’. Similarly the 1588 return was made ‘with the consent of all the burgesses’.

The leading Rutland family was that of the Haringtons of Exton, one of whom was in every Elizabethan Parliament except those of 1563 and 1584. James Harington I was by any standards a large landowner, noted in his later days as a ‘knight of great possessions’, fit to be made a baron. Second in importance in Rutland were the Noels of Dalby, Leicestershire and of Brooke, Rutland. Andrew Noel married a daughter of James Harington I, and father-in-law and son-in-law together represented the county in 1586 and 1589.

There was no contested election for Shropshire in this period and such arrangements among the gentry as must have been made were made discreetly. The majority of the MPs, as might be expected in a border county, were members of the council in the marches. Among them was Sir Andrew Corbet of Moreton Corbet (1559), who had represented Shropshire in the previous period, whose uncle Richard (of Poynton) sat in 1563, whose first son Robert sat in 1566 and whose second son Richard sat in 1586.

This borough was incorporated by a charter of 1453 as ‘the mayor and commonalty of the vill of New Woodstock’; only one official other than the mayor, a serjeant-at-mace, was mentioned in the charter. Orders made by the corporation for ‘the quiet and civil government’ of the town in 1580 reveal that by then there were also a high steward, six aldermen (from among whom the mayor had to be chosen) and twenty common councilmen. Parliamentary returns were made by ‘the mayor and commonalty’, and the indenture was occasionally signed by the mayor.A. Ballard, Chrons.

The town of Oxford, granted the title of city in 1546, was governed by a mayor, two bailiffs and a council consisting of four aldermen, the past bailiffs and twenty-four common councilmen elected for life by the whole body of freemen or ‘hanasters’. By 1558 there had appeared an inner council of thirteen ‘associates’ or ‘assistants’ to the mayor. Parliamentary returns were made by ‘the mayor, bailiffs and commonalty’, under which description the city received incorporation in 1605.

Nottingham, with a population of perhaps 3,500 by 1600, continued to flourish throughout the sixteenth century: both Leland and Camden were impressed by its evident signs of prosperity. The charter granted by Henry VI in 1449, which made the town a county in itself with its own sheriffs and escheator, was confirmed, with little or no change, by every Tudor monarch and remained the basis of government until the reign of Charles II.Nottingham Charters, ed. Stevenson, 48-70; CPR, 1446-52, pp.