Wells was made a free borough by royal charter in 1201 and returned Members from 1295, but its liberties and privileges were severely limited by the power of the bishop of Bath and Wells, who was lord of the manor of Wells and of the hundred of Wells Forum: as late as 1492 Bishop Fox unsuccessfully claimed the sole right to admit burgesses. In 1548 Bishop Barlow surrendered his interests in Wells to the crown and to the Duke of Somerset but they were soon restored to the see.
An important centre of the cloth industry, Taunton suffered, like Bridgwater, from the competition of country clothiers; both boroughs were included in the Act for the re-edifying of towns westward (32 Hen. VIII, c.19) and another for the viewing and selling of cloths called Bridgwaters (2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, c.12). A bill for Taunton failed after a single reading in the Lords in 1510.
Bridgwater had been a flourishing seaport and clothing town, but when Leland visited it at about the time of its inclusion in the Act for the re-edifying of towns westward (32 Hen. VIII, c.19) the inhabitants claimed that within living memory over 200 houses had fallen into decay. A later Act for the viewing and selling of cloths called Bridgwaters (2 and 3 Phil. and Mary, c.12) was intended to protect cloth manufacture in Bridgwater, Taunton and Chard from the competition of country clothiers.
As lords of the manor of Wells the bishops of Bath and Wells exercised considerable authority within that city, but by the 16th century all that they retained in Bath (where their palace was let out) was the fee-farm, amounting in 1535 to £8 10 s.2 d., and even this was surrendered to the crown by Bishop Barlow in 1548.
A minor inland port on the Severn, Shrewsbury was the county town, regularly visited by the council in the marches of Wales, but was none the less declining in prosperity with the loss of its strategic importance. Still a centre for fulling and other finishing processes of the cloth trade, its two chief companies being the drapers and the mercers, it was included in the Acts for urban renewal of 1536 and 1544 (27 Hen. VIII, c.1 and 35 Hen.
Wenlock, a market town ‘environed with hills’, was the trading centre of a predominantly agricultural district, with a weekly market and a three-day fair in June. The town had grown up under the lordship of a Cluniac priory, and at least until the mid 14th century it paid a fee-farm to the crown on the ground that the priory was ‘still in the King’s hand’. In 1468, at the instance of John Wenlock, Lord Wenlock, ‘the parish of the Holy Trinity of Wenlock’ was incorporated as the bailiff, burgesses and community.
Ludlow was the headquarters of the council in the marches of Wales and both Prince Arthur and Princess Mary held court there. Apart from some clothmaking, the town depended for its livelihood on the presence of the council, and the most prominent craft guild seems to have been that of the ‘hammermen’, an amalgamation of smiths, armourers, masons, ironmongers, saddlemakers and others. The London merchant Rowland Hill gave the money for a new bridge over the Teme, and the annual St.
Bridgnorth had long been the leading borough in Shropshire after Shrewsbury, but by 1536 so many houses in the town centre were becoming ‘ruinous’ that it was included in the Act for urban renewal (27 Hen. VIII, c.1) and by 1540 the town walls were ‘all in ruin’. An important factor in its prosperity had been trade by the river Severn, navigable from Bristol to Pool Quay in Montgomeryshire, and by the main road linking Bristol, Chester and Shrewsbury.
Oxford, which received its first charter in 1156, was constituted a city in November 1546. At this time municipal authority was exercised by a mayor and two bailiffs, with two chamberlains who were chosen from among 24 common councilmen, and by a number of lesser officials: four aldermen formed an inner council with the mayor and were joined by eight assistants to the mayor in 1554. The customs of Oxford resembled those of the city of London, and its mayor, who was elected annually on the Monday before St.
New Woodstock was incorporated in 1453, when it was granted similar liberties to those of New Windsor but was expressly exempted from the obligation ‘to choose any burgesses from the borough to come to the King’s Parliaments’, although it had done so at least twice in the early 14th century: according to a local historian the charter, with the same concession, was confirmed in 1552. A mayor and a serjeant-at-mace were the only officials mentioned in 1453 but by 1519 there were also four aldermen and 13 councilmen.
