Commons 1558-1603

Throughout this period Cambridgeshire was dominated by Sir Roger North, and Baron North from 1564, and lord lieutenant from 1569 to his death in 1600. North was himself the senior knight of the shire in the first Parliament of the reign and the first session of the second; his first son John occupied the senior seat in 1584, 1586 and 1589; and his third son Henry did so in 1597. His three deputy lieutenants also had county seats: Sir John Cutts of Childerley in 1584, 1586 and 1601; John Cotton in 1593 and 1601; and John Peyton II in 1593.

All the Members for Cambridge in this period were townsmen, with the exception of the two North brothers, who were sons of the high steward, the 2nd Lord North, and Robert Shute the recorder, who lived outside the town. Indeed, an ordinance made in the fifteenth century to ensure that only inhabitants could be returned to Parliament, was modified in 1571 to provide for an exception in the case of the recorder. Shute had been chosen on 20 Mar., ‘resigned’ as MP on the 26th, and subsequently withdrew his ‘resignation’.

Throughout Elizabeth’s reign the Pakington family were lords of Aylesbury. Although the town was incorporated in 1554, there is no evidence that the corporation challenged Pakington control over elections in this period. The original returns testify to the completeness of that control. In 1572, when the borough was under the lordship of Dame Dorothy Pakington, widow of Sir Thomas Pakington, the return reads: ... know ye, me, the said Dame Dorothy Pakington to have chosen ...

In this period Buckingham was governed by 12 principal burgesses, a bailiff and a steward, in accordance with the charter of incorporation granted to the town in 1554. The corporation chose John Fortescue I of Salden as steward by 1584. The electorate consisted of the bailiff and the capital burgesses. The Carey family, former lords of the manor of Buckingham, maintained a residual interest in the borough, and exercised the dominant patronage there, securing one seat in each Parliament except that of 1559 for their family or followers.

The borough of Wallingford was governed by a mayor, three aldermen and 12 assistants. Parliamentary returns were made by ‘the mayor, burgesses and commonalty’. The royal property in the borough was attached to the manor of Ewelme, Oxfordshire, and the constableship of Wallingford castle was in the hands of the stewards of Ewelme, who were, certainly until 1596, Sir Francis Knollys and his son Henry Knollys II.

Only three Buckinghamshire gentlemen obtained a county seat on more than one occasion during Elizabeth’s reign. The first of these was Sir Henry Lee, who at Elizabeth’s accession was a young man of about 25, of good pedigree and with powerful friends. He had sat for the county in Mary’s last Parliament as junior knight of the shire; in the Parliaments of 1559, 1571 and 1572, he assumed the senior seat, and did not stand for election again.

A charter of 1556 made Abingdon ‘a body corporate and politic by the name of the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses’, and granted it the right to return one Member to Parliament. The town was to be governed by a mayor, two bailiffs, 12 principal burgesses and 16 secondary burgesses, and was to have a court leet. ‘The mayor, bailiffs and burgesses’ made the parliamentary returns.

Returns at New Windsor were made by ‘the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses of the Queen’s Majesty’s borough of New Windsor’, and the MPs were often royal servants. Electoral patronage was controlled by the constable of the castle, appointed by the Queen, and by the high steward, appointed by the borough. The two posts were sometimes held by the same man.

With the accession of Elizabeth the influence of the Catholic Sir Francis Englefield lapsed, and the borough returned two townsmen to the first Parliament of the reign. The independence of the borough was, however, shortlived, for a new charter of 1560 provided for the appointment of a steward (a high steward as the office soon came to be called), the first being Robert Dudley, later Earl of Leicester, who succeeded Englefield as constable of New Windsor in 1562, and was soon high steward there also.

The charter of 1559 confirmed that the government of Bedford was in the hands of a mayor, recorder, two bailiffs, two chamberlains and a steward. Choice of MPs was made by the ‘one consent’ of all the burgesses at a meeting in the council chamber. It is probable that some dissension arose at the election of 1588, for on 18 Dec. of that year it was suggested that canvassing prior to the meeting should be forbidden.