Borough

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.

There was no predominant influence at Wallingford, and most candidates were nearby residents. There were three known contested elections. In 1660 Hungerford Dunch was returned, son of a Cromwellian ‘peer’ whose family had frequently represented the borough, along with the former recruiter Robert Packer, a Presbyterian. Dunch chose to sit for Cricklade, and the ensuing by-election was contested by the Cavalier, Sir Humphrey Bennet, and Thomas Saunders, whose earlier political career is obscure.

Reading had previously been a corporation borough, but the extension of the franchise to the freemen was confirmed in 1659. There was no predominant interest either within or without Reading to control one of the country’s largest borough electorates, and five elections are known to have been contested. Of the ten Members, John Blagrave, Nathan Knight and Thomas Coates were townsmen, and most of the remainder had strong local connexions. In 1660, Thomas Rich, a cautious Royalist, and Blagrave, a moderate Parliamentarian, were unanimously returned by over 1,000 electors.

Though there were precedents both for a corporation franchise and for the prescriptive right of the inhabitant householders to vote, the disputed elections at Windsor are chiefly attributable to unscrupulous efforts by the Opposition to eliminate the castle interest. It was later alleged that in 1660, when this interest was in abeyance, the election was held at the market cross on the wide franchise.

The interest of the Stonhouse family of Radley predominated at Abingdon during the period, though, perhaps because of the practice of scrutinizing qualifications only after the poll, there were a number of disputed returns. In 1660, the seat was contested by the Royalist, Sir George Stonhouse, and John Lenthall, a dexterous complier with every regime. A double return ensued, with Stonhouse’s indenture signed by the two bailiffs and Lenthall’s by the mayor.

Bedford was a borough by prescription, in which the mayor and the two bailiffs acted as returning officers. The corporation had the right to create freemen. Several aristocratic families enjoyed an interest, notably the Wentworths, until the death of the Earl of Cleveland in 1667, the St. Johns of Bletso, and towards the end of the period the Bruces. In the contest between the latter families the recordership was the principal prize at stake. There is no sign of Russell influence during the period.

The population of New Radnor was very small when it was made the shire town of one of the new counties at the Act of Union. In 1562, with the help of Thomas Hoby, a local man in high favour at court, it acquired a charter of incorporation. Borough government was placed in the hands of a self-perpetuating common council of 25, from whom a bailiff and two aldermen were to be chosen each year. There was also a recorder, a common clerk, two chamberlains and a coroner. A residential qualification was imposed upon all councilmen and officials.CPR, 1560-3, pp. 343-6; Trans. Rad.

Elizabethan Pembrokeshire contained a number of towns and villages which had achieved borough status during the medieval period, and were therefore entitled to take part in the elections of the borough Member of Parliament. Haverfordwest, the largest of these, was excluded, however, since, as a county in itself, it chose its own Member. Pembroke, the shire town, was incorporated in 1485, and governed by a council consisting of a mayor, two bailiffs and twelve of ‘the more honest men of the town and precincts’.

Haverfordwest, described by a royal official in 1577 as ‘the best built, the most civilised and quickest occupied town in South Wales’ had the distinction, unique in Elizabethan Wales, of being a county in itself, with its own sheriff and escheator.Arch. Camb. (ser. 6), iii. 46. A royal possession, it had already enjoyed a long history as a borough. The governing body consisted of a mayor, two bailiffs and, probably, a common council.NLW Jnl. ix.