Surrey

The area around Reigate was occupied from prehistoric times, although the town owed its origins to William de Warenne, earl of Surrey, who built a castle on his land there at the end of the 11th century. He was lord of the manor of Reigate, or Cherchfelle, as the small agricultural settlement was then known, and his newly built castle, which lay within the confines of the manor but some distance from the existing village, soon attracted a community of tradespeople, labourers and husbandmen from the surrounding countryside.

Although its early history remains obscure, Guildford had clearly achieved considerable importance as a market centre by the mid tenth century, by which time it had become one of the two towns in Surrey to possess a mint. Geographical factors hastened this development and ensured continued prosperity during the later Middle Ages. The original settlement had grown up as a fording place over the Wey and, because of its strategic position in a gap in the chalk uplands, it was able to command the main line of communication across England south of the capital.

Although the site of the medieval borough of Bletchingley was not settled until Anglo-Saxon times, there is evidence of Roman occupation in the neighbouring manor of Pendell and of prehistoric fortifications on the crest of the chalk downs a few miles to the north. The heavy clay and dense forest of the Surrey Weald formed an impenetrable boundary to the south, and may well have deterred the Romans from cultivating the lighter belt of greensand on which Bletchingley stands.

Southwark owed its existence to its situation at the southern end of London Bridge. Its major highways linked the metropolis to Kent and Surrey, and made Southwark a prime location for shops and taverns. Indeed, writing in the late Elizabethan period, John Stow wrote of its ‘many fair inns’.J. Boulton, Neighbourhood and Soc. 62-4, 69; J. Stow, Survey of London (1598), p. 238. The borough was also a convenient location for industries officially discouraged within the City of London itself, such as leather-dressing, tanning and the theatre.

Guildford, the county town of Surrey, is situated on the River Wey 30 miles south of London. It received its first recorded charter in 1257, and was incorporated in 1488. The corporation consisted of the ‘approved men’ who annually elected the mayor from among their number. A self-selecting oligarchy controlled entry to the ranks of the ‘approved men’, who usually numbered around 25, by insisting on previous service as a bailiff, an office chosen by the ‘approved men’.

Situated two miles from Reigate in east Surrey, Gatton was described by William Camden in the late sixteenth century as ‘scarce a small village’. Camden also stated that Gatton had previously been ‘a famous town’, but there is no evidence that the village was considered a borough until it started to return Members to the Commons in 1450. Never incorporated, it had no borough officials and consequently the returning officer was the high constable of Reigate hundred. VCH Surr. iii. 196-7; W. Camden, Britain, trans. P. Holland (1610), p. 29; Nicholas, i. 20.

Although a flourishing market town which returned Members from 1295, Bletchingley was never incorporated and had no governing body other than the manorial court. There was a bailiff but he was not a public officer, being described in 1624 as ‘only a rent-gatherer’ for the lord of the manor. The returning officer was the sheriff, who exchanged indentures with the burgage-holders – the resident owners of property by burgage tenure – who held the franchise. The manor of Bletchingley was purchased by William Howard, 1st Lord Howard of Effingham, in 1560.

Reigate first returned Members to the Model Parliament of 1295,OR. but received no charter until 1863. Consequently it remained under the jurisdiction of the lord of the manor and all public officers were chosen by the court leet, including the bailiff, who acted as returning officer. It was nonetheless a reasonably prosperous market town, particularly noted for the manufacture of oatmeal. The franchise was vested in the freeholders, returns usually being made in the name of the ‘burgesses’, although in 1620 the term ‘inhabitants’ of the borough was used.

Haslemere was a small market town which owed some of its modest prosperity to the iron and woollen industry in its neighbourhood. It was enfranchised in 1584, and a charter of 1596 confirmed its market and fairs. In 1601 Sir George More* purchased the lordship of the manor from the Crown, together with the hundred and manor of Godalming, of which Haslemere had originally been a tithing. More’s bailiff, who seems to have been the only officer of the borough, acted as returning officer and consequently More dominated the electoral patronage of the borough in this period.

Southwark was a populous business and residential district situated on the south bank of the River Thames, opposite the City of London, in the east of the county. It was notable for its large number of breweries, and other industries included glass making, pottery, printing, hat making, distilling and timber cutting. E.W. Brayley and E. Walford, Surr. iv. 387-8; VCH Surr. iv. 125. The borough encompassed the whole of the parishes of St. George the Martyr, St. John, St. Olave and St. Thomas, and part of St. Saviour, excluding the liberty of the Clink.