Once a mesne borough of the earls of Northampton, Northampton had long been in the lordship of the crown. The town had lost its military importance and although it was still the venue for the county court its wool and cloth trades were in decline and had not yet been succeeded by the leather industry. The fee-farm due to the crown, once £120, was fixed in 1514 at £98.
Higham Ferrers, a small market town on the main road from London to Leicester, lay within a duchy of Lancaster lordship. The borough had been founded in 1251 by two charters from William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby, but the second of these, together with later documents, had been lost when on 14 Mar. 1556 Queen Mary granted incorporation as the mayor, aldermen and burgesses. The new charter was ostensibly granted, first, because ‘the mayor, burgesses and commonalty ...
By the early 16th century Brackley, once prosperous as a wool staple, was small and poverty-stricken. Leland noted ‘divers rows of housing ... about the quarters of the castle, now clean down’; he found the ‘castle plot’ but could not see ‘any piece of a wall standing’ and the former Wednesday market was ‘now desolated’. On the other hand, the dissolution of the monasteries and chantries did not seriously affect the town, since the lands and buildings of the most important chantry, the hospital of St. James and St.
Centrally situated so that it was but two days’ journey from London, and traversed by two navigable rivers in the Welland and the Nene, Northamptonshire was a fertile county suitable for both arable and pasture farming. The report of Wolsey’s commission in 1517 showed at least 9,000 acres already enclosed, 7,000 of them for pasture, the abbeys of Peterborough and Crowland were accused of depopulating villages on their estates.
The manor of Thetford belonged to the duchy of Lancaster and was administered by a bailiff, sometimes called a steward, and a deputy steward. In July 1548 Edward VI leased the ‘dominion and manor’ to the Protector Somerset, and not long afterwards the remainder of the duchy property there to Richard Fulmerston. The priory was dissolved in 1540 over the objection of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk, who was founder’s kin.
The constitution of Tudor Norwich was based on two early 15th-century charters, one of 1404 incorporating it as a county under the name of the citizens and community, and another of 1417 setting out the arrangements for civic elections. The mayor and two sheriffs were assisted by 24 aldermen and by a common council of 60, chosen annually by the city’s four wards. There were a town clerk, a recorder and several lesser officials, and a number of lawyers of local birth were retained as counsel. The civic records for the period survive almost intact.Recs. Norwich, ed.
The town of Bishop’s Lynn had been founded in the late 11th century by the bishop of Norwich at the suit of traders settled on the western border of his manor of Gaywood. In 1204 Bishop John de Gray gave the town a charter by which its burgesses were to enjoy the same liberties and privileges as those of residents of Oxford.
Henry III’s charter to Yarmouth of 1272 underwent later revision and the version of 1494 was confirmed in 1518 and 1554. Although not incorporated, the borough was governed by two bailiffs assisted by an inner council (the Twenty-Four), a common council (the Forty-Eight) and several municipal officers. The two councils made up the assembly, of whose proceedings the town clerk kept a minute book which partially survives for the early 16th century, with other borough records.
The castle, manor and chase of Rising had belonged to the duchy of Cornwall until 1544, when Henry VIII exchanged them and two other manors with the 3rd Duke of Norfolk for lands in Suffolk. On the duke’s attainder in 1547 they escheated to the crown but after his restoration in 1553 he recovered them by Act (1 Mary st. 3, no.14). On his death a year later the lordship passed to his widow, who survived until 30 Nov. 1558 when the 4th Duke inherited it.
The elections for the knighthood of the shire for Norfolk were held at meetings of the county court in the shire house at Norwich castle. In 1542 the forthcoming election was announced at the previous meeting of the county court and at the markets at Great Yarmouth and Thetford. Indentures survive for all the Parliaments between 1542 and 1558 save that of November 1554. All are in Latin and the contracting parties are the sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk and the electors, whose names number between 20 and 80; in 1542 and 1555 two of the Norfolk coroners are also mentioned.
