Wilton, a corporate town since the reign of Henry I, was dominated by successive earls of Pembroke, whose seat adjoined the borough. All the identified Elizabethan MPs were nominees of the 1st, 2nd or 3rd Earl. Return at parliamentary elections was made by the mayor and burgesses.
Although not a corporate borough, Westbury had a mayor who was the returning officer at parliamentary elections. The 6th Lord Mountjoy had estates near Westbury, and promoted the returns of Anthony Carleton, his relative by marriage (1559), and his elder brother, Francis (1571). It is not known how either Ralph Skinner, a Durham ecclesiastical official, or John Dyster, a clerk in Chancery, came to be returned. Hugh Ryley (1563), steward of Bishop Jewel of Salisbury, may have owed his seat to his mother’s family connexions with the borough.
The corporation of Salisbury during this period consisted of the mayor, the twenty-four (later known as aldermen) and the forty-eight. Until the grant of James I’s charter, the city had no recorder, but it employed a counsel. Up to his death in 1587 Salisbury’s legal adviser was Giles Estcourt, one of the twenty-four. He was succeeded by John Penruddock at a fee of 53s. 4d., and he in turn in March 1601 by Giles Tooker, who later became the first recorder.
Old Sarum was already deserted by the end of Henry VIII’s reign. The manor, or, strictly, the adjoining manor of Milford, was owned by the bishop of Salisbury, and leased to the earls of Pembroke. With the possible exception of John Frenche (1572), an Inner Temple lawyer, and Henry Baynton (1589), a Wiltshire country gentleman, all Old Sarum Members had Pembroke connexions. Frenche died in 1579, before the last session of his Parliament, but no record of a by-election to replace him has been found.Hoare, Wilts. Salisbury, passim; E134/14 Wilts., 39/40 Eliz.
Most of the identified MPs for Marlborough were connected with Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, constable of the castle, master forester of Savernake forest and in James’s reign, high steward of the town. Among them was Hertford’s servant Lawrence Hyde (1601), uncle of the Earl of Clarendon. There are problems of identification over John Young II (1559) and Edmund Hungerford (1586). All that is known for certain about Hungerford is that he is described as of Marlborough on the return.
Malmesbury was a centre of the wool industry, and after the dissolution of the monasteries the abbey and a good deal of property in the town came into the hands of William Stumpe, a clothier, whose son John continued the family business there. His niece married into the gentry in the person of Henry Knyvet who now settled at Charleton, nearby, and Stumpe and Knyvet together represented Malmesbury in 1584.
Ludgershall was a non-incorporated borough granted in 1539 to Richard Brydges for 40 years at a rent of £15 per annum. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign the widowed Lady Jane Brydges lived there but only the 1563 MPs can be said to have owed their returns to her: Griffin Curteys, servant of the Seymours, a neighbour, and George Cope, who married Lady Brydges’ niece.
A non-incorporated borough, Hindon was owned by the bishop of Winchester,Hoare, Wilts. Mere; VCH Wilts. v. 118-19. who controlled the patronage there, entirely in the early part of this period, less so later. At the time of the elections to Elizabeth’s first Parliament the Marian bishop, White, had not yet been deprived, though he was under house arrest, and two civil lawyers, relatives, were returned. The 1563 Members were Bishop Horne’s agent (Foster) and his chancellor and son-in-law (Acworth).
This borough, which was not incorporated, formed part of the manor of Heytesbury, owned by the Hungerford family until the attainder of Walter, Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury in 1540, when it came into the hands of the Crown. Granted in 1553 to Henry Wheeler (d.1567), a gentleman of the privy chamber, it passed to Hugh Hawker of Heytesbury, who died about 1574 and, as far as is known, never stood for Parliament in this period. Hawker went to some lengths to oblige the Thynnes of Longleat. On 20 Feb.
Great Bedwyn was a non-incorporated borough owned by the Seymour family, whose seat, Wolf Hall, lay within the parish. It appears to have been among the first properties restored to the family after the Duke of Somerset’s attainder. The precise composition of the Elizabethan electorate is not known, but return was made by the bailiff and burgesses.Wilts. Colls. 373; Wilts. IPMs (Brit. Rec. Soc. xxiii), 20-31; Wards 2/Box 5/22/1; C2l9/26/127; C219/31.
