Berkshire

Reading was an independent borough with a comparatively large electorate, which was not controlled by any outside influence. The principal interest seems to have lain in the corporation, who on 22 Oct. 1705 passed a resolution that it is the opinion of the board that for the time to come, the mayor, aldermen and burgesses in their common council, in case of members to serve in Parliament for this borough, do first determine and resolve amongst themselves who shall be deemed fit representatives for that purpose.HMC 11th Rep.

Abingdon was an open borough, subject to no predominant influence. The mayor and corporation were Tory, but though they put the strongest pressure on their tenantsElizabeth Pevvy to Walpole, 10 Apr. 1734, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss. they could not prevent the return of Whigs, in the persons of Hucks and Wright, from 1722 to 1747. Only candidates with local interests were returned; ‘as to a stranger’, an authority on Berkshire boroughs warned the Duke of Bedford when he was thinking of intervening and 1753, ‘they only want such a person to pluck and defeat him’.

There was no predominant influence at Wallingford, and most candidates were nearby residents. There were three known contested elections. In 1660 Hungerford Dunch was returned, son of a Cromwellian ‘peer’ whose family had frequently represented the borough, along with the former recruiter Robert Packer, a Presbyterian. Dunch chose to sit for Cricklade, and the ensuing by-election was contested by the Cavalier, Sir Humphrey Bennet, and Thomas Saunders, whose earlier political career is obscure.

Reading had previously been a corporation borough, but the extension of the franchise to the freemen was confirmed in 1659. There was no predominant interest either within or without Reading to control one of the country’s largest borough electorates, and five elections are known to have been contested. Of the ten Members, John Blagrave, Nathan Knight and Thomas Coates were townsmen, and most of the remainder had strong local connexions. In 1660, Thomas Rich, a cautious Royalist, and Blagrave, a moderate Parliamentarian, were unanimously returned by over 1,000 electors.

Though there were precedents both for a corporation franchise and for the prescriptive right of the inhabitant householders to vote, the disputed elections at Windsor are chiefly attributable to unscrupulous efforts by the Opposition to eliminate the castle interest. It was later alleged that in 1660, when this interest was in abeyance, the election was held at the market cross on the wide franchise.

The interest of the Stonhouse family of Radley predominated at Abingdon during the period, though, perhaps because of the practice of scrutinizing qualifications only after the poll, there were a number of disputed returns. In 1660, the seat was contested by the Royalist, Sir George Stonhouse, and John Lenthall, a dexterous complier with every regime. A double return ensued, with Stonhouse’s indenture signed by the two bailiffs and Lenthall’s by the mayor.

The borough of Wallingford was governed by a mayor, three aldermen and 12 assistants. Parliamentary returns were made by ‘the mayor, burgesses and commonalty’. The royal property in the borough was attached to the manor of Ewelme, Oxfordshire, and the constableship of Wallingford castle was in the hands of the stewards of Ewelme, who were, certainly until 1596, Sir Francis Knollys and his son Henry Knollys II.

A charter of 1556 made Abingdon ‘a body corporate and politic by the name of the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses’, and granted it the right to return one Member to Parliament. The town was to be governed by a mayor, two bailiffs, 12 principal burgesses and 16 secondary burgesses, and was to have a court leet. ‘The mayor, bailiffs and burgesses’ made the parliamentary returns.

Returns at New Windsor were made by ‘the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses of the Queen’s Majesty’s borough of New Windsor’, and the MPs were often royal servants. Electoral patronage was controlled by the constable of the castle, appointed by the Queen, and by the high steward, appointed by the borough. The two posts were sometimes held by the same man.

With the accession of Elizabeth the influence of the Catholic Sir Francis Englefield lapsed, and the borough returned two townsmen to the first Parliament of the reign. The independence of the borough was, however, shortlived, for a new charter of 1560 provided for the appointment of a steward (a high steward as the office soon came to be called), the first being Robert Dudley, later Earl of Leicester, who succeeded Englefield as constable of New Windsor in 1562, and was soon high steward there also.