Commons 1690-1715

Buckingham in this period was very much the poor relation of Aylesbury. Defoe noted that the latter was ‘the principal market town . . . though Buckingham, a much inferior place, is called the county town’. However, elections for the county were held at Aylesbury, and Buckingham was forever trying to poach the assizes from its rival. The franchise rested in the corporation of 13, with the Temple family occupying a powerful position by virtue of their ownership of the manor, which it leased to the corporation, and their benefactions to the town.

Dartmouth, Defoe wrote, was ‘a very large and populous town’ though but ‘meanly built’, with ‘some very flourishing merchants, who trade very prosperously and to the most considerable trading parts of Spain, Portugal, Italy and the plantations; but especially they are great traders to Newfoundland, and from thence to Spain and Italy with fish’. By 1689 Joseph Herne, a very wealthy London merchant, had established control over one and sometimes two seats in the borough.Defoe, Tour ed. Cole, 227.