The corporation of Brecon was controlled by a close oligarchy of 15 common councilmen, who annually elected from their number a bailiff and two aldermen as magistrates, and who were solely responsible for the admission of freemen. There were no out-boroughs, though claims were later advanced for the rights of inhabitants of such places as Hay, Llanywern, Llywel, Talgarth and Trecastle. The franchise was settled in the freemen at large, but not without the possibility of dispute.
‘Neat and well built’, and the only place of note to be seen in the Isle of Anglesey (according to Defoe), Beaumaris was effectively a pocket borough of the Bulkeleys, whose seat at Baron Hill overlooked the town. The 3rd and 4th Viscounts Bulkeley held the office of constable of Beaumaris Castle successively throughout this period, and so dominated the corporation that Bulkeley nominees, almost always kinsmen, were returned at every election, bar one. Indeed, the 3rd Viscount (Richard Bulkeley*) served as mayor, and thus as returning officer, in 1690, when his uncle (Hon.
Even by contemporary standards Winchelsea’s privilege of sending representatives to Parliament was regarded as an obvious anachronism. Defoe identified the town as one of the worst examples of a decayed borough. ‘What can the Members who have served for the town of Winchelsea answer’, he wrote, ‘if they were asked who they represented; they must answer they represent the ruins and vaults, the remains of a good old town, now lying in heaps?’ In The Art of Governing by Partys, John Toland also saw Winchelsea as exemplifying the iniquities of the electoral system.
In 1671 the Commons had determined that the right of voting in Seaford lay in ‘the populacy’, those who presumably paid scot and lot, but unless the leading local influences found themselves in conflict, the formalities of election were completed behind closed doors by the corporate assembly, an elite comprising a bailiff, two jurats and up to 17 freemen. Only twice in this period was the electorate called upon to vote. Nomination was exercised by two Whiggish pro-government influences in the locality, those of Sir William Thomas, 1st Bt., and of the Pelham family.
During this period Sandwich was eclipsed in terms of economic activity by Deal. To Celia Fiennes, Sandwich was ‘a sad old town, all timber building’, whereas Deal had new buildings and ‘looks like a good thriving place’. It was Deal’s prosperity that enabled the port books of Sandwich to show a healthy trade, and which no doubt prompted Deal’s agitation in 1699 for its own charter. Economic stagnation saw Sandwich fall prey to the political influence of outsiders, chiefly that of neighbouring gentry and merchants.
In the 1690s Rye was beginning to feel the effects of decline from its former prominence as a port. The corporation could still boast in 1701 that it was the only harbour on the long coastline between Dover and Portsmouth large enough to accommodate ships, though it was by now heavily silted and only suitable for fishing vessels. The town’s governors attached great importance to restoring the harbour to its ‘ancient goodness’, which they saw as the key to a rejuvenated local economy, but though there was much discussion of the subject, little headway was made.
As the social and judicial focus of Yorkshire, and the seat of the archbishop, York was the most important urban centre in the county. Its population of about 12,000 made it one of the six or seven largest towns in England. The city government was that of a regular corporation, by mayor, aldermen and a common council of 72 ‘principal inhabitants’, though ‘the mayor has the honour here, by ancient prescription, of being called my Lord’. The corporation also had two sheriffs and an ‘upper house’ of 24 former sheriffs.
Browne Willis* wrote of Thirsk in the early 18th century:
There are two towns viz Old and New Thirsk . . . being divided only by a rivulet . . . New Thirsk . . . has a broad square, St. James’ Green. This being the principal part of the town, the Members of Parliament are after their election in New Thirsk carried hither . . . The two Members of Parliament are chosen by the burgage tenures of Old Thirsk only, which are 48 in number. They poll in the town hall or session house in New Thirsk.
The right of election at Scarborough was in the corporation only, which consisted of two bailiffs, two coroners, four chamberlains and 36 capital burgesses. On occasion attempts were made to forward the claims of the freemen to vote in elections, but at no point during this period were such claims successful. Owing to the reliance of the borough’s MPs on the corporation for their election to Parliament, it was not unusual for them to receive various requests from the corporation. Defoe, Tour ed. Cole, 656; A. Rowntree, Scarborough, 90; Quinn, 36–39; Bodl.
The lord of the manor of Ripon was the archbishop of York, while the corporation, consisting of a mayor, 12 aldermen and 24 assistants, greatly influenced elections. A contemporary described Ripon as being ‘in a great measure dependent upon the archbishop of York, and influenced by the collegiate church there, which is wholly at his disposal’. Living in the town and with a natural interest for one and sometimes both seats were the Jennings family.
