Swansea only became a parliamentary borough in its own right for Richard Cromwell’s Parliament. Previously it had been a contributory borough to the Cardiff constituency. It subsequently resumed this role until 1832, when it was again permitted to return its own Member under the Reform Act. The privilege of returning an MP was an addition by virtue of a grant of 1658 to a new charter bestowed on the town in 1656.
In this period there seems no certain way of identifying which of the contributory boroughs contributed to the electoral process, or to what extent. Nor is it possible to know which of the minor boroughs were still considered eligible to participate. Marian legislation had stipulated that the county court sessions should alternate between Cardigan and Aberystwyth, thus consolidating the primacy and rivalry of these two towns before 1640, but the fragmentary evidence suggests a weakening of involvement beyond Cardigan.
In the 1530s, John Leland visited Pembroke when it could glory in its fame as the birthplace of Henry VII, and he was evidently impressed by the impregnable castle and the stout town walls. Even then, however, the eastern suburb of the town was in ruins, hinting that prosperity was not easily sustained in south-west Wales. A pattern of decay and depopulation persisted well into the seventeenth century. The Itinerary in Wales of John Leland ed. L.
Set on the confluence of two major navigable rivers, the Severn and the Warwickshire Avon, Tewkesbury should have been a prosperous place. Goods imported at Bristol found their way up-river to Tewkesbury from Gloucester; and carried down in the characteristic river boats, the trows, was the agricultural produce of the vales of Evesham and Tewkesbury. The town served as an entrepôt for grain supplies, sent as far as west Wales. CSP Dom. 1629-31, p.
As the ‘principal grain port on the River Severn’, Gloucester was an important city, albeit one with an economy in transition. VCH Glos. iv. 77. Its previous mainstay had been the weaving of heavy broadcloth, but this industry had collapsed. A weaver in 1634 marvelled at how over 100 looms had been reduced to just six or seven, and other clothing trades were badly affected.
In 1642, had it not been for the national political convulsions, a local annalist might have noted the passing of a century since Bristol had become a city. Bristol Charters 1509-1899 ed. Latham (Bristol Rec. Soc. xii), 5. It had grown enormously since the 1540s. When the diarist John Evelyn visited Bristol in 1654, he described it as ‘emulating London, not for its large extent, but manner of building, shops, bridge, traffic, exchange, market place etc’. Evelyn Diary ed. de Beer, iii.
Cirencester was an important wool town, situated on the southern slopes of the Cotswolds. Its glory was the Friday wool market, in this period still counted the greatest in England. A Monday market in provisions, cattle and grain provided an important focus for trade with the rich agricultural hinterland. Glos. RO, P86/1/IN6/3, f. 80. It was not an incorporated borough. Instead, the town was a hundred of Gloucestershire of itself, and was divided into seven wards, with two high constables and 14 wardsmen appointed at the court leet.
Despite its name, Buckingham was not the major town of Buckinghamshire. That was Aylesbury. Like its old rival, Buckingham had been granted a charter of incorporation in 1554 as a reward for its loyalty to Queen Mary. That corporation, consisting of the bailiff and the 12 capital burgesses, had since then formed the electorate for the parliamentary elections.
Great Marlow was a borough by prescription which had sent MPs to Parliament for a brief period under Edward I and Edward II but whose right to do so had only been revived in 1623. The town had never been incorporated and the right of election was assumed to rest with the inhabitants. Many of them were Thames bargemen, for the town stood on the Thames at one of the major crossing points between Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. The bailiff, who was also known as the constable, acted as returning officer.
Chipping Wycombe, also known as High Wycombe, was one of the larger and more important Buckinghamshire towns, rivalling even Aylesbury. Located on the London-Oxford road, it had long benefited from the extensive commercial traffic along that most important of routes from the capital to the west. Its other source of wealth was the cloth trade, although for much of this period that was stagnating, with adverse consequences for the general prosperity of the town. This would be the root cause of much of the discord that divided the town in the 1650s.