The story of Oxfordshire parliamentary representation is dominated by the career—unrivalled during this period—of Sir Francis Knollys of Rotherfield Greys, who was returned to the senior county seat unchallenged in seven consecutive Parliaments. Vice-chamberlain of the Household and Privy Councillor from 1559, and lord lieutenant of the county from 1569, Knollys’s last appearance in Parliament was in 1593 at the age of 81.
Banbury, a single Member constituency, was governed by a bailiff, 12 aldermen and 12 capital burgesses, and parliamentary returns were made by ‘the bailiff, aldermen and burgesses’. The names of the Elizabethan high stewards, if any, have not been found, but the 1608 charter appointed William Knollys to that office.
For the first six Elizabethan Parliaments Nottinghamshire was almost exclusively represented by MPs from long-established county families who were either related to, or enjoyed the support of, the 3rd Earl of Rutland. Sir Robert Constable, however, was a Yorkshireman who had settled in Nottinghamshire during Elizabeth’s reign. He owed his election in 1584 to his double connexion with the Earl of Rutland through his mother, who was a Manners, and his brother, who was a member of the Earl’s household.
East Retford did not receive a charter of incorporation until 1607, being governed during Elizabeth’s reign, as for many years past, by two bailiffs. The borough began to send Members to Parliament in this period in 1571. Elections were held in the moot hall in the presence of the bailiffs and an unknown number of burgesses. None of the Elizabethan MPs lived in the town.
Enfranchised Mary in 1553, Morpeth was not incorporated. Municipal affairs were conducted by two bailiffs, appointed annually, seven aldermen, representing the town’s crafts or guilds, and the burgesses. The bailiffs were chosen by the lord of the borough or his steward from burgesses nominated by the seven guilds.Hodgson, Hist. Northumb. ii(2), p. 454 et passim.
Incorporated as a separate county in 1400, Newcastle-upon-Tyne obtained renewal of its charters in 1589 and 1600. The government of the town was in the hands of a mayor, sheriff, aldermen and 24 burgesses. Parliamentary returns were made in the name of the mayor, burgesses and commonalty, following an election at the guildhall.Weinbaum, Charters, 89-90.
The country gentlemen were in a minority among Elizabethan knights of the shire for Northumberland. Robert Lawson (1563) of Rock, a minor landowner who had made a fortunate marriage; Robert Widdrington (1589, 1593) of Plessey and—just—Sir Thomas Grey II (1586) of Chillingham fit into this category, though Grey had been brought up in Cecil’s household, which he left only after attaining his majority when he took up residence on his estates in the north. At the time of his election for Northumberland he had recently married a Catholic.
Although trading guilds existed in the frontier town of Berwick, it was primarily a military centre, and the unusual structure of town government there reflects this fact. The principal officer, appointed by the Crown, was the governor, usually the same person as the warden of the east march. He was assisted by a corporation, including three officials—a mayor, bailiff and town clerk—whose salaries were paid by the government.
Higham Ferrers, a small market town incorporated in 1556, was part of the duchy of Lancaster. During this period, the town was governed by the mayor, seven aldermen and 13 capital burgesses. There was also a steward of the borough, a duchy official, who among other duties, heard each new mayor’s oath of office. The borough had the right to send one burgess to each Parliament.
The government of Northampton consisted of the mayor; his brethren, a body of former mayors who began to be called aldermen during the reign of James I; two bailiffs; the former bailiffs who, as late as the 1590s, were still being referred to as the ‘24’; and the ‘48’, the popular elementin the assembly. As at Leicester, the ‘48’ had been created to replace the general body of commons whose ‘great divisions, dissensions and discords’ had hindered the assembly’s work. The mayor and his brethren could replace individual members of the ‘48’ whenever they wished.
