Herefordshire

Herefordshire was represented by county landowning families throughout Elizabeth’s reign. Parliamentary elections were dominated by the Crofts of Croft Castle and the Coningsbys of Hampton Court, families of outstanding local importance. Humphrey Coningsby I, who had represented the county in 1553, was elected in 1559 along with Robert Whitney of Whitney. Coningsby died a month before the 1559 Parliament ended, but no evidence of a by-election has been found. His heir, a minor, died in 1561, when the succession passed to a younger son Thomas, also a minor, thus allowing Sir James Croft and his brother-in-law James Warnecombe to take their turn in 1563 without opposition. By 1571 Croft was a Privy Councillor and comptroller of the Household, and he consequently retained the county seat until his death in 1590. His fellow-Member from 1571 was John Scudamore of Holme Lacy, a wealthy county landowner, ranking third in the county hierarchy since his marriage to Croft’s daughter. Croft’s supremacy in Herefordshire and his monopoly of the county seats was bitterly resented by the young Sir Thomas Coningsby. During the 1580s he began to challenge Croft’s position in the shire and became involved in a violent dispute with Croft’s stepson, Thomas Wigmore, over the recordership of Leominster. The feud continued beyond Croft’s death and split the county into factions. Coningsby eventually secured the senior seat in 1593, the first Parliament after Croft’s death, facing no opposition from the Croft side. John Scudamore, who would have been the obvious choice for the junior seat, retired in favour of Herbert Croft, grandson of Sir James. This was an odd move since Herbert Croft had not yet succeeded to his estates and was obliged to enlist the support of the 7th Earl of Shrewsbury before the election. He wrote to the Earl asking him to let his followers know ‘that it is your Lordship’s pleasure that I may be graced with their voices in the election’.Welsh Hist. Rev. i. 25. In 1597 Herbert Croft had difficulty in finding a borough seat even with the help of the Earl of Essex, and Sir John Scudamore took the junior county seat, thus maintaining the Croft faction influence. By 1601, however, Herbert Croft, now head of the family, was ready to oppose Coningsby outright, standing himself for the senior county seat along with Sir James Scudamore, son of (Sir) John. A letter from Thomas Cornwall of Burford, Shropshire, to a friend reveals how hotly the election was contested. He had promised his vote to Sir Thomas Coningsby, and ‘knowing how strongly he is opposed’ had agreed to accompany all his father’s Herefordshire tenants, and his own, to the ‘choosing of knights ... fearing the disgrace that might follow Sir Thomas Coningsby by the want of them’. Cornwall estimated that there would be ‘at least ten thousand linen at Herelord at the election, and this I can assure you of, they shall be sworn and told by poll to the last man, which imagine you what time it will require. Then standeth for the place Sir Thomas Coningsby, Sir James Skidnor [Scudamore] and Herbert Croft, and they both muster all their friends to exclude Sir Thomas Coningsby ...’ Nothing is known about the election itself except the result.Salop RO, Watkins Pitchford mss.