Borough

Throughout the Elizabethan period, and for 200 years afterwards, the lords of the manor and borough of Midhurst were the Browne family, Viscounts Montagu. The first Viscount, though a Catholic, remained loyal to the Crown and was a prominent figure both at court and in Sussex. His grandson, who succeeded him in 1592, was not so judicious in the exercise of his religion and was later implicated in the Gunpowder Plot. Guy Fawkes had, in fact, been one of the 1st Viscount’s servants at Cowdray, the family seat adjoining Midhurst.

By the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign the ownership of Lewes was divided between Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk; Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby; Lord Bergavenny, and a Mary Everard of Lewes, who married twice, her husbands being Richard Bellingham (father of Edward Bellingham, the 1572 MP) and George Goring I, the 1559 and 1563 Member, whose son, George Goring II, sat in 1593 and 1601. Goring’s cousin, the lawyer Edward Fenner, sat in 1571.

The manor of the borough of Horsham formed part of the larger manor of Horsham, owned by the Duke of Norfolk. It was held by the bailiff and burgesses as mesne land, directly of the lord of the manor. Local government was in the hands of the bailiffs and burgesses. The two bailiffs were chosen annually at a court leet by the lord’s steward. Election returns were made by the bailiffs, burgesses and commonalty. In 1586, 17 burgesses and 17 commoners were named on the original return.W. H. Albery, Horsham, 39-43, 50-58; C219/30; PCC 42 Woodhall.

The borough of East Grinstead, part of the duchy of Lancaster since the reign of Edward III, formed a ‘liberty of itself without any intermeddling of the hundred’ of that name. According to a 1563 survey of duchy lands in Sussex, the borough had about 50 burgages, six of which were held by Sir Richard (‘Fillsack’) Sackville. Among other Sackville property in the neighbourhood was the manor of Brambletye, which became the residence of Henry Compton II, whose mother married into the family.

Elizabethan Chichester, a city of about 2,000 people, was still governed by a body formed around the medieval merchants’ guild. This was made up of the mayor, the aldermen, and the free citizens. The guild nominated the bailiff, recorder, customer and portreeve and conducted the city’s affairs. The rest of the inhabitants, the commoners, were occasionally summoned to general meetings in the guildhall, including those for mayoral and parliamentary elections, but their influence appears to have been slight.

The borough of Bramber, never incorporated, was owned by the dukes of Norfolk. A constable was chosen at the court leet, and he, with a few burgesses, made the return. Nine of these wrote to the sheriff on 26 Jan. 1559:

The borough of Arundel was controlled by the earls of Arundel. Its officers, including the mayor and coroner, were elected at an annual court leet. Election returns were made in the name of the mayor, burgesses and commonalty. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, elections were in the hands of Henry Fitz Alan, the 12th Earl of Arundel, who brought in two fellow-courtiers, Sir Francis Knollys and Thomas Heneage, in 1559; Michael Heneage, a brother of Thomas, in 1571; a civil lawyer, William Aubrey, recommended by the 1st Earl of Pembroke, in 1563; and three relatives, Sir John St.

Southwark, noted in this period for its playhouses and brothels, had a special relationship with the city of London, which appointed its steward and bailiff. In 1571 the instructions to hold the election were sent to Southwark by the common council of the city, and in 1584 the London recorder was present at the election. The right to vote at Southwark was vested in the inhabitants, 20 of whom signed the 1559 return, and 22 that of 1584.

The Howards of Effingham owned a moiety of the manor of Reigate and leased the other from the earls of Derby. Election returns were made in the name of the burgesses (usually about a dozen), and the other inhabitants.VCH Surr. iii. 231-7; C219/29/144.

Haslemere was a ‘tithing’ in the manor of Godalming, which came into the hands of the Crown in Edward VI’s reign. Anthony Browne Viscount Montagu was its steward from 1553 until his death in 1592. Though a Catholic, Montagu was trusted and rewarded by the Queen, being one of the commissioners for the trial of Mary Stuart in 1586, serving against the Armada in 1588, and entertaining the Queen at Cowdray in 1591.