Cambridge was as devoted to Church and King in this period as the older university, but somewhat less prone to elect ‘gremials’, though all the successful candidates except George Monck and James Vernon had been educated there. Monck’s return in 1660 was due solely to the determination of the electorate to reject the unpopular Cromwellian chief justice, Oliver St. John, who had been installed as chancellor of the university in 1651 in place of the 2nd Earl of Manchester.
Cambridge was an open constituency during this period. The only borough in the county, it chose its Members exclusively from the local gentry. The influence of the university was probably indirect, but helps to account for the failure of the country candidates during the exclusion crisis. It was at this time that manipulation of the freeman roll for electoral purposes began, and control of the corporation, consisting of the mayor, 12 aldermen and 24 common councilmen, became essential.C. H. Cooper, Annals of Cambridge, iii. 245-6; VCH Cambs. iii. 68-70.
Cambridgeshire was a strongly political constituency throughout this period, and all but two of the elections are known to have been contested. In 1660 Sir Dudley North I, a Parliamentarian during the Civil War, and Sir Thomas Willys, who had held local office throughout the Interregnum, might have been returned unopposed if they would have pledged themselves for an unconditional restoration of Church and King.
Wendover was a borough by prescription dominated by the Hampden interest. This family, more perhaps than any other, was identified with the country party, and they were always able to command one seat, but not until 1689 did they attempt to claim both. In 1660 Richard Hampden, a Presbyterian, was accompanied by John Baldwin, gentleman porter of the Tower since 1645, who as lord of the manors of Wendover Borough and Wendover Forrens appointed the returning officer.
Marlow was a borough by prescription, with the franchise enjoyed by the inhabitant householders, until a decision in 1680 restricted it to scot and lot payers only, and approximately halved the electorate. Many voters were bargemen, notoriously turbulent at election time. The main interests were those of the royalist Borlases and the Presbyterian Hobys.
Though the right of election was in the whole body of freemen, the franchise was, in effect, controlled by the common council, that is the mayor, bailiffs and aldermen, 15 in number, who had usurped the right to create freemen, granted by charter to the entire freeman body. But two gentry families particularly, Pye of Bradenham and Borlase of Bockmer, exercised a natural interest.L. J. Ashford, Hist. Wycombe, 155-6.
Buckingham was a parish, town and borough, each with a different constitution, but the powers of each were inadequately defined, leading to uncertainty at elections. Under a charter granted by Mary Tudor, the 13 ‘burgesses’ yearly nominated two of their number for bailiff, and the inhabitants chose one of the nominees. Vacancies among the burgesses were filled by co-option.
At Aylesbury, the four constables acted as returning officers. Two were appointed at the court leet of the Pakingtons, lords of the borough, and the others by the lessees of the prebendal manor; but neither interest was active in this period, when both seats were normally controlled by the Lees of Hartwell. Interest apart, it is probable that the moderate ‘country’ politics of the first baronet were congenial to the electorate, about one-fifth of which was nonconformist. Throughout Charles II’s reign he and his step-father (Sir) Richard Ingoldsby represented the borough.
Amersham, a borough by prescription, had been a centre of radical Protestantism since Lollard times, and an 18th century vicar wrote:
General Fleetwood lived at The Vache, and Russell on the opposite hill, and Mrs Cromwell, Oliver’s wife, and her daughters at Woodrow High House, where afterwards lived Captain James Thomson; so the whole county was kept in awe and became exceeding zealous and very fanatical; nor is the poison yet eradicated.
The reputation of Buckinghamshire for political and religious radicalism applied more to the Chilterns than to the north of the county. Hence the rivalry between conservative Buckingham and radical Aylesbury as seat of the county court was of considerable political importance at elections. The only substantial aristocratic interests were held by the earls of Bridgwater, who acted as lords lieutenant for most of the period, and Lord Wharton, though this depended chiefly on the personality of his eldest son, who came of age only in 1669.
