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.
Montgomery, shire town of one of the new counties created at the Act of Union, had long been an English outpost on the Welsh border. In 1562 Queen Elizabeth confirmed privileges which had been enjoyed since the reign of Henry III, including the right of the burgesses to choose two bailiffs each year. The town’s independence was greatly reduced by the presence in Montgomery castle of the important Herbert family, stewards of the crown lordship of Montgomery and the most powerful influence in Montgomeryshire politics.
The political life of south-east Wales in the Elizabethan period was dominated by the earls of Pembroke. By a series of grants between 1547 and the early 156os William Herbert, the 1st Earl, acquired most of the former lordship of Glamorgan, together with the power to fill many important offices. Neither he nor his son Henry (2nd Earl from 1570 to 1601), lived in the area, but they exercised their influence through relatives and allies. Their Glamorganshire possessions included at least six of the county’s medieval boroughs, headed by the shire town of Cardiff.
The small county of Flint contained five boroughs whose burgesses claimed to take part in elections for the borough Members. Of these, Flint, the shire town, and Rhuddlan were settlements established with royal charters, at the Edwardian conquest. Each was governed by the constable of its castle, who was also mayor ex officio, and by two annually elected bailiffs. A similar charter was granted by Edward the Black Prince, to Caergwrle (also known as Hope, after an English township within its boundaries).
This group of boroughs comprised Denbigh, Chirk, Holt and Ruthin. Denbigh, shire town of the new county created at the Union, belonged to the Crown in 1558. The governing body included two aldermen, two bailiffs and a recorder, and its privileges were confirmed by charter in 1597. Ruthin, in the Vale of Clwyd, was also in the charge of two aldermen. The small village of Holt, in the crown lordship of Bromfield and Yale near the Shropshire border, had a mayor and two bailiffs. Its baronial charter, granted early in the fifteenth century, was confirmed by Elizabeth in 1563.
The borough of Cardigan, a royal possession, was governed by a mayor, a body of aldermen and two bailiffs. It also had a recorder, town clerk and coroner. Although the county court met alternately at Cardigan and Aberystwyth, ‘the most populous town in the whole county’, the borough elections were usually held at Cardigan and presided over by the mayor.
Caernarvon, shire town of Caernarvonshire and setting for the parliamentary elections for the county and borough seats, was prospering in the sixteenth century. John Wynn of Gwydir put this down to expanding trade and to the fact that the ‘exchequer, chancery and common law courts for all North Wales were there continually residing’. In accordance with the charter of Edward I, the town was governed by the constable of the castle (ex officio mayor) and two bailiffs chosen annually by the burgesses.
Brecon, shire town of a new county created by the Act of Union, received a charter of incorporation in 1556. A common council of 15 capital burgesses was created, from which a bailiff and two aldermen were to be chosen annually. The councilmen were authorized to meet in the guildhall at Brecon, and to elect a recorder and a common clerk. The first councilmen, chosen from the ‘better and honester burgesses’, are named in the charter.
In 1562 Beaumaris was granted a charter, which was unique in North Wales although common enough in English boroughs. It established a governing body of 24, comprising a mayor, two bailiffs and 21 capital burgesses. Provision was also made for a recorder, a common clerk and coroner, and the borough was to have its own j.p.s. Two factors contributed to the granting of the charter, the burgesses’ offer to keep the town’s defences in repair at their own cost, and the influence at court of the leading local family, the Bulkeleys.
By the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign Winchelsea had ceased to be of any maritime importance, for the sea had receded. The government of the town, nominally in the hands of the corporation, was increasingly influenced during this period by the neighbouring gentry families. This shift of power was reflected in the parliamentary elections, when Winchelsea returned local gentlemen rather than townsmen and merchants. These were held by the mayor, jurats and common assembly. At the time of the elections for the 1559 Parliament, the wardenship of the Cinque Ports was vacant.
