In 1377 Bristol, with an estimated population of over 9,500, rivalled York as England’s second largest town after London. Bristol’s greatness was built on its commerce; it could boast no ancient reputation as a cathedral seat, as a military station or as a shire town.
In 1377 Maldon, a small port, had a taxable population of 542, as compared with nearly 3,000 in Colchester. The burgesses had first been granted a charter in 1171, but in the late 14th century their independence was still curtailed by the bishops of London, who had acquired a moiety of the lordship of the town in 1284, and by the Lords Fitzwalter, who held the other moiety.
A busy port, which had a taxable population of 2,995 in 1377, Colchester was a royal borough, paying fee farm to the Crown. The charter granted by Richard I was confirmed by successive monarchs with little alteration and the borough sent Members to Parliament from 1295. The return to Chancery was always endorsed on the parliamentary writ, and there is no indication of the method of election in the local records. Ordinances for the conduct of municipal elections, made in 1372, limited the right of election to sworn freemen, who nominated a selecting body of 24.
In the medieval period there were two boroughs facing each other across the narrow entrance to the estuary of the river Wey: Melcombe Regis (in the parish of Radipole) on the north bank, and Weymouth (in that of Wyke Regis) on the south. That their histories remained separate and distinct stemmed initially from the grant of the port of Weymouth by Henry I to St. Swithin’s priory, Winchester. It was to St. Swithin’s too, that, in 1248, a market and fair were granted to be held at Weymouth, and it was the prior who in 1252 conceded to the inhabitants their first charter.
There was a settlement at Wareham in Roman times, but the main development of the town took place between the seventh and tenth centuries. Situated on a peninsula with the river Piddle to the north and the river Frome to the south, it then occupied a position of great strength. In the early tenth century Wareham was one of the West Saxon fortified boroughs; and the massive ramparts which still enclose the town on three sides are the remains of the defences of that period.
Shaftesbury, ‘a great market toune stondinge on a highe hille’, occupies a prominent position with precipitous slopes on all but the north-eastern side. Its name suggests that it was a fortified settlement from its beginning, some time in the ninth century. Situated in the northern extremity of Dorset, close to the border with Wiltshire and on the great road from Cornwall to London, it attracted considerable traffic, which was augmented by pilgrims visiting the tenth-century shrine of King Edward the Martyr in the Benedictine abbey.
Melcombe Regis, which is situated on the north bank of the Wey estuary and in the parish of Radipole, was founded in the 13th century. Unlike Weymouth, which lies on the opposite bank, it became a crown borough, receiving its charter from Edward I in 1280. This entitled the inhabitants to all liberties enjoyed by the citizens of London. Other privileges followed: in 1314 the burgesses were granted a weekly market and a fair at the feast of the Translation of St.
The history of Lyme Regis in the later Middle Ages is one of decline and depopulation. The town had been fairly prosperous in the 13th and early 14th centuries, with an economy based on fishing and the sale of cloth and salt.
Despite its status as the county town of Dorset, Dorchester failed to keep abreast of other market towns in the shire not only in size and prosperity, but also in terms of progress towards administrative independence. Whereas in 1253 Bridport had received a royal charter of incorporation, and the men of Wareham had long held their town at farm, the royal borough of Dorchester appears to have gained little in the way of privilege from the Crown until the 14th century.
The size of the population of Bridport in this period is not recorded, but the town may have been bigger than Dorchester. Although it had but one parish church, and in 1319 there were living there only 180 burgesses, of whom the richest held possessions worth no more than £4 8s., Bridport seems to have grown in prosperity subsequently.
