The marriage of the 1st Earl of Newburgh to the daughter of Sir Henry Poole of Sapperton in or about 1660 brought him the manor of Cirencester. His bailiff normally acted as returning officer for the borough. Most of the rest of the Poole estate, including the Seven Hundreds of Cirencester, was bought by Robert Atkyns between 1661 and 1667. The other principal interest was enjoyed by the Masters of Cirencester Abbey.
In the eyes of Samuel Pepys, Bristol was the only provincial centre which could be compared with London, either in the urbanity of its atmosphere or the wealth and dignity of its merchants. Despite its large electorate it was generally amenable to government influence, exercised first by the Duke of Ormonde and later by the Marquess of Worcester (Henry Somerset).
The frequent contests in Gloucestershire elections in this period were due less to political principles than to interest and personalities. Covert rivalry may be suspected between the two leading noblemen of the county, Lord Herbert of Raglan (later Marquess of Worcester and Duke of Beaufort) and Lord Berkeley of Berkeley Castle. In 1660 the successful candidates were both of Presbyterian Royalist views.
Under the charter of 1554 the corporation of Maldon, which controlled the roll of freemen, consisted of two bailiffs, who acted as returning officers, six aldermen, and 18 capital burgesses. At the elections ‘the town clerk calls every freeman by his name, the bailiffs, aldermen, etc. and all the town dwellers... and then the gentlemen of the country, clergymen, and others’. No townsman presumed to stand in this period, and the electorate displayed a marked penchant for lawyers from the Essex gentry families.
At Harwich the franchise was limited to the corporation, consisting of eight aldermen and 24 ‘capital burgesses’. A contemporary observer noted that the extremes of wealth and poverty were both absent from the town. This modest prosperity was founded on the dockyard and the packet station; hence in quiet times the corporation was usually content for the Government to nominate one Member.
Within a notoriously Puritan county, Colchester had a reputation for political and religious turbulence. As a port close to the Netherlands, its sizeable nonconformist element was largely the result of an influx of Dutch weavers from the 16th century onwards. These had played an important part in developing the cloth industry as manufacturers of Colchester bays and says, but a strong rivalry still existed between them and the native clothiers. The town had been badly damaged by the siege of 1648.
Events in Essex during this period are well-reported, thanks to the autobiography of John Bramston, who played a prominent part in Essex politics throughout, and to the nearness of Chelmsford, the county town, to London, which ensured maximum publicity for the hotly contested election to the second Exclusion Parliament. In 1660 Bramston and Edward Turnor stood as Anglicans and Royalists, whose records were beyond the scope of the Long Parliament ordinance against the election of Cavaliers or their sons. According to Bramston’s own account:
Under Bishop Matthew’s charter of 1602, the corporation consisted of a mayor, 12 aldermen and 24 common councilmen, all of whom were to hold office during good behaviour. The mayor’s oath included a promise to make no orders ‘against the privileges of the Bishop of Durham’. Admission to the freedom, however, was controlled by the city companies.
As the bishop’s palatinate, Durham had never been represented in the Commons before the Protectorate. A bill for its enfranchisement was introduced into the Convention by Sir Thomas Widdrington, who had acted as chancellor of the county during the Interregnum. It passed the Commons with one amendment on 8 Aug. 1660, and was carried to the Lords by Robert Ellison, but there it was rejected, even though the bishops had not yet resumed their seats.
During the Civil War neither Royalists nor Parliamentarians could claim a monopoly of support in Weymouth. The main features of the Restoration period were the increasing strength of the country party and of government influence. These apparently conflicting tendencies were both reconciled and fostered by Shaftesbury (Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper), first in order to undermine the interest of his local rivals, the Strangways family, later for broader political purposes.
