Wootton Bassett

Wootton Bassett, in north east Wiltshire about six miles south west of Swindon, has the appearance of a planned settlement, with its long, straight high street flanked by burgage plots. These probably date from the thirteenth century, when Gilbert Basset built a large house in the parish, later Vastern Park. That a weekly market, granted in 1219, was held on ground belonging to the lord of the manor is certainly suggestive. According to a 1571 grant, the market itself, together with two annual fairs, belonged to the mayor and burgesses. In the seventeenth century a ‘copy’ was made of a reputed 1561 charter confirming a mayor, two aldermen and 12 capital burgesses, but despite a claim that it or a similar document had been confiscated by lord of the manor Sir Francis Englefield (d. 1631), there is no independent corroboration of this, and thus no certain charter of incorporation until 1676.1 VCH Wilts. ix. 186-9, 194, 197, 199. None the less, it seems to have been accepted without dispute that the franchise was exercised by or in the name of those borough officers; in the mid-seventeenth century the mayor, and in 1646 at least three others who were apparently burgesses signed the indentures.

Although Wootton Bassett was among the 14 Wiltshire towns proposed in 1631 as potential centres for the inspection of broadcloth, such industry as it had was probably in decline by this period, and of much less significance than in towns further west; the market clearly remained its key asset.2 Ramsay, Wilts. Woollen Industry, 86-7; VCH Wilts. xi. 194, 196. While only 27 taxpayers in the borough and manor together paid the 1576 subsidy, the Compton census of 1676 points to an above average population for a Wiltshire parish, with 602 conformists, three papists and eight non-conformists.3 VCH Wilts. xi. 187; Compton Census, 130. The fact that the Englefields, who remained lords of the manor throughout our period, were recusants does not seem to have attracted other Catholics to the town: they were not resident, and by 1641 one Thomas Jacobs was living at the manor.4 VCH Wilts. xi. 191-2, 198.

But it probably did shape its politics. The absence of parliamentary candidates from the manorial family appeared to leave the field noticeably open to all comers. In 1626 and 1628 the borough had been represented by a member of the Franklin family, who held the rectory; some MPs, like Sir Edward Hungerford* and Sir Robert Hyde†, came from the north Wiltshire gentry; others had court links.5 VCH Wilts. xi. 201; HP Commons 1604-1629. Hungerford was a half-brother of Sir John St John† (d. 1648), seated immediately north of Wootton Bassett at Lydiard Tregoze, and this well-connected and godly family always had the potential to exert influence.

In the spring of 1640 a court candidate without local connections could still command votes. Thomas Windebanke*, named first in the indenture of 20 March, was the eldest son of Secretary of State Sir Francis Windebanke*.6 C219/42 pt. ii, no. 68. A sometime gentleman of the privy chamber with a place in the signet office, he had been sent on a diplomatic errand to Paris some months before, and returned to England only in the latter half of April. His election was thus arranged by, or calculated to please, his father. His partner Edward Hyde*, on the other hand, was a Wiltshire-born lawyer who almost certainly owed his place to the St Johns, to whom he was allied by marriage and business.7 Infra, ‘Edward Hyde’. At this juncture, like many of his friends, he was critical of the personal rule of Charles I. Chosen also for the Dorset seat of Shaftesbury, on 16 April he opted to sit for Wootton Bassett.8 CJ ii. 3b.

By the autumn different circumstances pertained. If Windebanke stood again, then he would appear to have fallen foul of gathering suspicions of his father’s engagement with foreign Catholic powers. Hyde claimed that his own re-election here was blocked because he was thought to be ‘a man they knew well to have great affection for the archbishop [William Laud], and of unalterable devotion to the government of the church’, factors which diminished his standing with the St Johns, at least.9 Clarendon, Life, i. 70. Of the successful candidates on 21 October, Edward Poole* came from a north west Wiltshire family which had parliamentary experience going back to the mid-fifteenth century, and had married a daughter of Sir Robert Pye I*, an exchequer official with godly credentials. William Pleydell* doubtless commended himself by familiarity and connections – he came from Lydiard Tregoze, his great-grandfather had also sat for Wootton Bassett and his stepmother was Jane St John – and also by ability, since he was considered by some a suitable candidate for the role of Speaker.10 C219/43 pt. iii, no. 25; D’Ewes (N), 459; CCSP i. 211.

While Poole adhered to Parliament in the civil wars, Pleydell, an outspoken critic of the Militia Ordinance, withdrew from the Commons sometime after 23 July 1642 and was disabled on 5 February 1644.11 CJ iii. 389b. An order for a new writ was issued on 1 November 1645.12 CJ iv. 330a. The indenture of 18 June 1646 returning his replacement recorded Pleydell as ‘defunct’, but the precise date and circumstances of his death are elusive.13 C219/43 pt. iii, no. 27. The election had been delayed, like several in Wiltshire, by continuing military instability, rendered the more acute in Wootton Bassett’s case by its relative proximity to Oxford. The influence of Sir John St John, who unlike his half-brother Hungerford and his kinsman Oliver St John* had supported the king, is likely to have been negligible. Sheriff and Wiltshire committee-man Alexander Thistlethwayte*, an associate of Hungerford and like him a Presbyterian, presided over the election of another, Colonel Edward Massie*. This controversial general of the Western Association, who was critical of the New Model army and a notable opponent of the Independents, was almost certainly selected to advance that agenda. The day before the election the Commons had voted to disband his army, but he received a respectful welcome from supporters when he took his seat on 9 July.

Massie fell victim to the December 1648 purge, while Poole had already withdrawn from the House. Wootton Bassett was not represented again until the 1659 Parliament. The election indenture, as brief as usual, is this time so badly damaged as to yield no clue even as to its date.14 C219/48. As a pious son-in-law of grandee Oliver St John, and a younger son of Sir John, Henry St John* probably presented himself as a candidate acceptable both to the protectorate regime and to traditional interests in the area; in the event he proved a covert royalist. His partner, Robert Stephens*, one of a phalanx of Middle Temple lawyers returned for Wiltshire seats, appears to have benefitted from assiduous cultivation of links in the area. Like several of these colleagues, he sat only once. In Wootton Bassett the Restoration saw the re-assertion of the interests of St Johns, Pleydells and Hydes.