After the dissolution of the monasteries Leominster became Crown property and various appurtenances were leased out. During Elizabeth’s reign the tithes were leased to Sir James Croft, and the site of Leominster priory to the Coningsby family. In 1554 Leominster had been granted a charter which placed the government of the town in the hands of a self-perpetuating corporation of 25 capital burgesses, who annually chose a bailiff from their number.
The composition of the governing body of Hereford was set down in a charter granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1597. It is evident, however, that the charter merely confirmed a framework in existence from at least the early part of the sixteenth century. The corporation, or common council, was made up of the mayor, six aldermen and 24 councilmen. They had the power to elect ‘famous and discreet’ men as stewards of the city, who, in turn, could appoint deputies ‘learned in the law’. There was also a common or town clerk, appointed for life.
Whitchurch was owned by the dean and chapter of Winchester, to whom the inhabitants paid a yearly rent of £10. A mayor and bailiff were elected annually. It is not clear how or why enfranchisement was secured—perhaps the Kingsmills had a hand in it. They were a local landed family with long-standing connexions with the diocese of Winchester. At any rate the 1584 and 1586 MPs were John Cooper, a courtier, nephew of John Kingsmill, chancellor of the bishop of Winchester, and Henry Audley, an official of the diocese.
Winchester’s principal officials in this period were a mayor, recorder, aldermen, two bailiffs, two coroners, two constables and the major’s ‘assistants’, known as the ‘24’ although their number varied. Sir Francis Walsingham, high steward of Winchester since 1588, procured a new charter for the city in 1588.
Having once elected MPs in conjunction with Newport in 1295, Yarmouth had allowed its representative status to lapse, until in 1584 this was restored at the instance of Sir George Carey (from 1596 2nd Baron Hunsdon), captain of the Isle of Wight. Returns were made by the mayor and burgesses, who, at any rate in 1584, 1597 and 1601, sent them blank to Carey. Only Dillington (1593) was a local man and he must have been acceptable to Carey when he was returned, though he quarrelled with him later, accusing him of tyranny.
Southampton was a corporate town and formed a county of itself. Its principal officers were a mayor, a sheriff, two bailiffs, a steward or treasurer, a recorder or town clerk, and his deputy, aldermen and 12 or more ‘assistants’.
The borough of Stockbridge formed part of the duchy of Lancaster honour of King’s Soreborne, which was ‘farmed’ throughout Elizabeth’s reign by the Gifford family. The borough officials (a bailiff, serjeant and constable) were elected annually at a court leet held before the steward. This officer was formerly chosen by the bailiff but in Elizabethan times was appointed by the duchy at the nomination of the farmer. George Kingsmill, a relation of the Giffords, became steward in 1579. William, 3rd Lord Sandys, held the manor of Stockbridge on a long lease from the duchy.
Newtown was a borough or fee farm held of the manor of Swainstone, formerly owned by the bishop of Winchester, and now in the hands of Sir Thomas Barrington. It received its first charter in 1393 and this was said to have been confirmed on 7 July 1598. Though not incorporated, the borough annually elected a mayor. In Tudor times it was completely decayed.
Petersfield was a non-incorporated borough, owned by the Weston family until they sold it in 1597 to Thomas Hanbury, an Exchequer official.VCH Hants, iii. 114-17. Sir Henry Weston sat for Petersfield in 1559, 1563 and 1584, and his son, Richard Weston I, sat in 1593. They used their influence to return a relative by marriage, Benjamin Tichborne, in 1589, and two outsiders, Ralph Bourchier, a Yorkshire gentleman, in 1572, and (Sir) Walter Covert, a Sussex landowner, in 1593.
Portsmouth was a dockyard town, and the captain of the dockyard was frequently the parliamentary patron. Sir Adrian Poynings was responsible, in all probability, for the return of ‘Customer’ Smythe in 1563. Poynings’s successor, Sir Henry Radcliffe, came in himself in 1572, brought in his relations Thomas and Edward in 1584 and 1593 respectively, and may have been responsible for the return of the gentleman pensioner Robert Colshill in 1572.
