Borough

Midhurst was a borough by prescription in which the Viscounts Montagu of Cowdray, as lords of the borough, exercised a considerable interest. Their steward nominated the ‘homage’ or jury at the annual meeting of the capital court baron, and the homage in turn elected the bailiffs, the senior of whom acted as returning officer. As the Cowdray family was recusant its interest had to be discreetly exercised, and from Elizabethan times it was the Lewknors of West Dean who most frequently represented the borough.

Lewes was an ancient borough by prescription. The returning officers were the two constables, appointed annually by a group of prominent inhabitants called ‘the Twelve’, after 1666 ‘the Jury’, but elections to Parliament were evidently arranged by the local landowners, and only one contest is recorded during the period. In 1660 John Stapley of Patcham, a royalist conspirator, was returned with Nizel Rivers, a member of a puritan family, whose brother James Rivers of Combe had represented the borough in the Short and Long Parliaments.

As lords of the manor the Howards of Arundel Castle enjoyed a strong potential interest in Horsham. In their court the returning officers, the two bailiffs, were chosen, and the tenants admitted to the burgages from which they derived their franchise. The number of burgages fluctuated, but tended to increase slightly through splitting. Except in the by-election of 1669, there is no indication of patronage in this period, and in this political vacuum a number of minor gentry families resident in the town or the neighbourhood found seats.

In East Grinstead, a borough by prescription, the franchise was in dispute between the burgage-holders and the scot and lot payers. A rental of 1683 enumerates 48 burgages in the borough, held by 32 tenants. The returning officer was nominated by the Earl of Dorset as lord of the borough, who easily controlled the narrower franchise, especially since the establishment of a magnificent set of alms-houses under the 2nd Earl’s will; but the town valued its position as seat of the Sussex assizes, which gave the judges on the home circuit an interest.

In 1660 the ‘commonalty’ of Chichester elected two royalist sympathizers, Henry Peckham and John Farrington, both resident in the city. But the mayor sealed an indenture for Peckham and William Cawley, the son of a notorious regicide, on the grounds that they had the majority of the freemen. Cawley was seated on the merits of the return, but unseated on the merits of the election. The House found that the mayor had ignored 21 precedents in limiting the franchise to the freemen, and sent for him in custody for his wilful error.CJ, viii. 9, 40.

Bramber had no municipal institutions, the constable acting as returning officer. During this period the dominant interest passed from the Bishopp family of Parham to the Gorings of Highden. In 1660 John Byne and Edward Eversfield were returned. The former was the brother-in-law and the latter the cousin of Henry Goring I. In the double return of 1661 Byne was unopposed, but Percy Goring was returned by the constable and 13 ‘inhabitants and burgesses’ and John Parsons, an aspiring lawyer from Steyning, by 15 ‘burgesses’.

Arundel had been represented in the Model Parliament. Its customary privileges were confirmed by letters patent in 1586. The governing body consisted of the mayor and an indefinite number of ‘burgesses’, while returns ran in the name of mayor, burgesses and commonalty. During this period the borough slipped from aristocratic to gentry control. The Howard family, who took their second title from the town and normally resided in the castle, may have been responsible for the return of Lord Falkland at the general election of 1660, and more certainly for his replacement, John Trevor, in May.

Under a charter of 1551 the borough of Southwark was a mere dependency of London, although the Surrey justices exercised a concurrent jurisdiction. The corporation appointed the aldermen of Bridge Without, the steward, who kept the court of record, and the bailiff, who acted as returning officer. But public order was always at risk in so densely populated an area, and the militia was entrusted to the lord lieutenant of Middlesex. The parish of St.

At the Restoration the principal manor of Reigate was held in moieties by the regicide Viscount Monson and the scarcely less enthusiastic republican John Goodwin. The bailiff, who acted as returning officer, was chosen in their court leet. Other important property interests were in the hands of the royalist conspirator John Mordaunt, John Hele of Flanchford, and Roger James, who owned the Rectory manor. Most of the indentures bear the names and signatures of between 40 and 50 ‘burgesses’.

The Mores of Loseley were lords of the manor of Haslemere, and their bailiff acted as returning officer. Sir William More was under age at the first two elections of the period, and the family interest was managed by his uncle James Gresham, who lived outside the borough but within the tithing of Haslemere. In 1660 he stood as a Royalist with Roger Heath of Shalford, the recorder of Guildford, and obtained from the bailiff Yalden an indenture duly signed and sealed, and witnessed by seven other ‘burgesses’.