MARKLAND, ?Raufe or Robert, of Wigan, Lancs.

There is considerable uncertainty surrounding the identity of the ‘Mr Markland’ who sat for Wigan in 1659. Contemporary lists of the MPs in Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament refer to him as ‘Mr Markland inhabitant of the town [of Wigan]’ – no Christian name is supplied.1A Perfect List of the Lords of the Other House, and of the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, and Barons of the Cinque Ports (1659); A List of the Names of the Long Parliament (1659), 63 (E.1836.4). Unfortunately, the election indenture has not survived, and nor are there detailed borough records that might establish who among the many Wigan men bearing the surname Markland was the MP. In the absence of such sources a conflict of opinion has arisen over the MP’s true identity. A number of authorities, apparently beginning with Browne Willis in 1750, have plumped for one Robert Markland, ‘manufacturer’ of Wigan, although without giving any evidence to support this attribution.2B. Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria (1750), 289; Pink, Beaven, Lancs. 227; Sinclair, Wigan, i. 227. Several other authorities, however, have preferred one Raufe Markland of the Meadows, near Wigan, gentleman – though again without citing contemporary sources.3Sinclair, Wigan, ii. 47; A.W. Boyd, ‘The Markland fam. deeds and pprs.’, Trans. Lancs. and Cheshire Antiquarian Soc. xlvii. 27; G.V. Chivers, ‘The Members from the Northern Counties in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament’ (Manchester Univ. MA thesis, 1954), 290-2.

The most detailed discussion of this problem has been that of Chivers in his 1954 MA thesis on the parliamentary representation of the northern counties in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament. He comes down firmly on the side of Raufe Markland (1621-1706) of the Meadows and Wigan Woodhouses, second but first surviving son of Raufe Markland (d. 1622), Wigan town clerk, and Elizabeth, daughter of Miles Gerrard of the Lancashire township of Ince-in-Makerfield. Having settled at Wigan by the mid-fourteenth century, the Marklands of the Meadows were one of the town’s leading families by the seventeenth century, supplying the place of mayor eight times between 1635 and 1742. It has been claimed that Raufe’s great-grandfather represented Wigan in the 1529 Parliament, although it appears that the borough’s parliamentary franchise lapsed between the early fourteenth century and 1545. Raufe Markland junior married Elizabeth, daughter and coheiress of Robert Walthewe of Walthewe, Lancashire, and served as bailiff of Wigan in 1648-9.4Chivers, ‘Members from the Northern Counties’, 290; Boyd, ‘The Markland pprs.’, 27, 31, 56; Vis. Lancs. 1664-5 ed. F. R. Raines (Chetham Soc. o.s. lxxxv), 193; J. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century (1812), iv. 656; Farington Pprs. ed. S.M. Farington (Chetham Soc. o.s. xxxix), 10; Wigan Par. Regs. 1580-1625 ed. J. Arrowsmith (Lancs. Par. Reg. Soc. iv), 71, 113, 235; Wigan Par. Regs. 1626-75 ed. K.T. Taylor (Lancs. Par. Reg. Soc. clii), 339; Wigan Par. Regs. 1676-1710 ed. Taylor (Lancs. Par. Reg. Soc. cliii), 256; HP Commons, 1509-58, ‘Wigan’.

One reason that persuaded Chivers to opt for Raufe Markland was his belief that there were only two Robert Marklands in the town at the time and that both were children.5Chivers, ‘Members from the Northern Counties’, 290. In fact, as an examination of the Wigan parish registers and court leet records reveals, there were several Robert Marklands of sufficient age and status in 1659 to make them plausible candidates for parliamentary selection. Perhaps the man that best fits the bill was Robert Markland (?1612-81) of Market Street, mercer and alderman – possibly the son of James Markland mercer and (by 1635) alderman.6Wigan Archives Service, Wigan ct. leet rolls 3, 19, 25, 48; Wigan Par. Regs. ed. Arrowsmith, 82; Wigan Par. Regs. 1626-75 ed. Taylor, 178, 286; Wigan Par. Regs. 1676-1710 ed. Taylor, 177, 178; Chivers, ‘Members from the Northern Counties’, 291.

But in the absence of the election indenture and detailed borough records it is impossible to reach a definitive conclusion as to which of the Marklands represented Wigan in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament. Whoever it was, he received no committee appointments and made no recorded contributions to debate. No other member of the various Markland families in Wigan served as the town’s MP.