A settlement from Saxon times, Plymouth derived its prosperity from its strategic location at the head of one of the best natural harbours in south-west England. Its prominence as both a port and a royal naval base dated from the thirteenth century. During Elizabeth’s reign the town came into its own as the launch pad for English exploration of North America, and the regular departure point for military expeditions against Spain, not least the fleet that harried the 1588 Armada. Between the 1530s and the accession of James I, Plymouth almost doubled in size, and the early seventeenth-century population numbered around 7,000.
One legacy of the decades of conflict with Spain was Plymouth’s firm support for godly Protestantism. This fervour did not yet extend to outright separatism, and the Pilgrim Fathers failed to attract new recruits when they passed through in 1620. Nevertheless, the town was markedly sympathetic towards non-conforming ministers, and many of the leading merchants and corporation members inclined to puritanism.
Plymouth was incorporated by Henry VI, with subsequent charters augmenting the borough’s privileges. At the start of James I’s reign, the town was governed by a corporation consisting of a mayor, 12 aldermen and 24 common councilmen. The mayor, recorder and one other alderman acted as magistrates within the borough, which was exempt from the jurisdiction of the main Devon bench. These rights were confirmed by the king in November 1614, while a further charter of March 1628 allowed for two more aldermen to serve as j.p.s.
Plymouth first sent representatives to Parliament in 1298. In principle the franchise was vested in the whole of the borough’s commonalty, but in practice by the early seventeenth century it was exercised exclusively by the corporation. Two of the surviving indentures from this period were signed by the mayor, but the rest simply carried the borough’s seal. Plymouth’s Members normally received wages at the generous rate of 6s. 8d. a day, though after the 1621 session John Glanville was presented instead with a silver ewer and basin worth £33 17s. 6d.
During Elizabeth’s reign, the borough quite frequently accepted nominations from a variety of external patrons, but this practice ceased entirely in the early Stuart period. Only five men sat for Plymouth during these years, of whom three were drawn from the town’s merchant community; the other two were recorders of the borough. Sir Richard Hawkins, who took the senior seat in 1604, was then head of the town’s leading merchant dynasty, and something of a local hero, as he had only recently returned home after nearly a decade imprisoned in Spain. Contrary to parliamentary convention, he was returned to the Commons while serving as the borough’s mayor. His partner was James Bagg I, a former mayor, who had also represented Plymouth in 1601. During the next few years, both men contrived to fall out with the town, Hawkins through his role as Devon’s vice admiral, Bagg on account of his corrupt practices as a customs official and his insolent behaviour towards his fellow corporation members.
The corporation’s surviving records shed no significant light on Plymouth’s parliamentary agenda, but it is possible to isolate some issues in which the borough took a conspicuous lead in the Commons. In 1614 Strode was the prime mover behind the attempt to overturn the patent of the French Company of London, which interfered with Plymouth’s cross-Channel trade. Ironically, it may well have been Strode’s reluctance to attack his friend Gorges’ New England Company six years later that led to his resignation as recorder.
in the mayor and commonalty
Number of voters: 37