Banbury, a small market town, was enfranchised as a single member constituency and incorporated by a charter of 1554.A. Beesley, Banbury, 219-22. Twelve aldermen, one of whom served as bailiff, and 12 capital burgesses together constituted both the common council and the electorate. VCH Oxon. x. 73-4; R.K. Gilkes ‘Banbury: the Pattern of Local Govt.’, Cake and Cockhorse, v.
Although dominated by its university, Oxford was a thriving city under the early Stuarts, and hosted royal visits in 1605 and 1629 as well as the Parliament of 1625. R. Fasnacht, Hist. City of Oxf. 92-3. It was governed by a mayoral council known as the Thirteen, but was aided by a common council. A new charter of incorporation, granted in 1605, added two bailiffs to the mayor’s council and limited the size of the common council to 24. Royal Letters to Oxf. ed. O.
Writs were issued to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge for the Parliament of 1301, and after the failure of several petitions during the reign of Elizabeth they were re-enfranchised by letters patent on 12 Mar. 1604, exactly a week before the meeting of the first Parliament called by James I.OR; K. Fincham, ‘Oxf. and the Early Stuart Polity’, Hist. Oxf. Univ. iv: Seventeenth-Cent. Oxf. ed. N. Tyacke, 196-9; M.B. Rex, Univ. Representation in Eng. 1604-90, pp.
New Woodstock, a small market town that had grown up near the royal manor and park, was incorporated in 1453, but did not return Members to Parliament until a century later. In this period it was governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and 20 common councillors, who together with a slightly larger body of freemen formed the electorate. Ballard, 26-7, 35, 37, 61. Returns were made by the mayor and commonalty. It had become ‘ever usual with them’ to reserve one seat for the recorder and to prove amenable to the wishes of the high steward for the other. Liber Famelicus of Sir J.
The thriving university and market town of Oxford, whose freeman electorate, reflecting a rapidly growing population, increased by about half in this period, was contested at nine of 13 elections between 1790 and 1831. From 1819 to 1831 there were 1,035 new admissions: 348 (34 per cent) by apprenticeship, 522 (50) by birth, and 155 (16) by purchase. In the election years of 1820, 1826 and 1830 there were 171, 127 and 283 admissions respectively; while in 1825, when the office of town clerk was contested, there were 237. In non-election years, the average number of admissions was 24.
The dominant electoral interest at Woodstock, one of the smallest of the Oxfordshire market towns, was that of the Spencer Churchills, dukes of Marlborough, whose imposing residence at Blenheim Palace adjoined it. The original crown gift of Woodstock manor had included no borough property, but successive dukes, who were major benefactors to the town and employers of its inhabitants, had subsequently acquired substantial holdings within it. By the start of this period Woodstock, though neat and handsomely built, was in economic decline, with a falling population and soaring poor rates.
By convention, Members and candidates neither addressed nor canvassed the university, and indeed were forbidden to approach within ten miles of it during elections. Aspirants to what was regarded as a great honour were therefore dependent on the exertions of influential friends and supporters in the constituent 19 colleges and five halls. Once elected, Members could in normal circumstances count on retaining their seats for as long as they wished.
Banbury, situated on the Cherwell in north Oxfordshire, close to the Northamptonshire border, was a thriving market town and centre of communications. By this period its only significant industry, the weaving of plush and horses’ harness and trappings, still largely a domestic concern, was in relative decline: in 1831, there were 125 plush and girth-weavers in the town, but in the surrounding villages about 550 men, plus women and children, produced goods for Banbury employers.PP (1835), xxiii. 151; VCH Oxon. x. 5, 12, 64-66; W. Potts, Hist.