Borough

The corporation of Andover, which had monopolized the franchise since it had been restored in 1586, consisted of the bailiff, who acted as returning officer, the ‘steward’ or recorder, ten ‘approved men’ and 12 ‘burgesses’. Rulers of a market town of only moderate importance, they greatly coveted the revenues of Weyhill fair, the largest and most celebrated in the south of England, to which their Elizabethan charter gave them some claim. There was no dominant interest in the borough, but all the Members in this period except Robert Phelips were Hampshire landowners or local residents.

Elections at Tewkesbury seem to have been successfully managed by the corporation, which consisted of two bailiffs, 24 ‘principal burgesses’, and 24 assistants. The surviving returns are in the name of the ‘burgesses’, presumably the corporation, and freemen, but never carry more than 35 signatures. The representation of the borough was monopolized by the Dowdeswell family, Sir Francis Russell, and Sir Henry Capel. Russell and the Dowdeswells lived in the neighbourhood, while Capel held the Barton manor.

Gloucester’s resistance to Charles I under the governorship of Edward Massey may well have turned the tide of the Civil War, and made the city an object of particular suspicion after the Restoration, when its walls were razed. Elections were largely under the control of the corporation, and usually at least one alderman was returned. No opposition was apparently offered in 1660 to Alderman James Stephens, a zealous Parliamentarian who had represented the city in the two preceding Parliaments.

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).

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.

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.

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.