Thomas Moore had sold the manor of Heytesbury before the Civil War, but as late as 1656 the purchase price had not been paid in full, and he probably still enjoyed a proprietary interest in the borough in 1660. The other Member, John Jolliffe, stood on the interest of the purchasers, the Ashe family.
‘That lousy corporation of Bedwyn’ (as Daniel Finch described it in an uninhibited moment) lay at the gates of Tottenham Park, the residence of the Seymours and their successors, the Bruces, lords of the principal manor. The Stonehouse family, lords of Stock manor, were actually resident in the town. Nevertheless the electorate in this period was highly volatile, and Francis Stonehouse, in August 1679, was the only sitting Member to retain his seat at a general election.
The manor of Downton belonged to the bishop of Winchester, whose bailiff claimed the right to act as returning officer. This interest was of course in abeyance at the general election of 1660, which was contested by three local gentlemen and an outsider, Thomas Fitzjames. Giles Eyre’s father and John Elliott were both burgage-holders, and Fitzjames, like his brother John in Poole, probably commanded the interest of Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper.
Devizes was regarded as the centre of Wiltshire nonconformity in the second half of the 17th century, with the additional peculiarity that the Baptists were the strongest of the sects. Except in the second election of 1679, the corporation were successful in excluding the freemen, numbering about 40, from the franchise. There were three candidates in 1660, but William Lewis, though a stranger, was unopposed, and there was nothing in his career to offend either Royalists or Commonwealthmen.
The irregularities for which Cricklade became notorious made their appearance only towards the end of the period. All the Members owed their return to solid territorial interests, and there is no evidence of a contest until 1685. The two Members returned in 1660 were both local landowners. Hungerford Dunch’sfather, who had married the heiress of Down Ampney, had been summoned to Cromwell’s ‘Other House’, while Nevil Maskelyne had avoided commitment, though probably royalist in sympathy.
Chippenham was incorporated in 1554, the government being vested in a bailiff and 12 ‘burgesses.’ By 1660 the franchise seems to have been exercised by inhabitant freemen holding leases of tenements in the borough lands. Until 1684, the chief interest was held by Edward Hungerford, though the Bayntuns, Spekes, Talbots, and Pophams, all of whom had property nearby, also had strong interests. In 1660 Chippenham returned Hungerford, who had sat in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament, and Edward Poole, a repentant Parliamentarian.
Until 1685 Calne was a borough by prescription whose claims to incorporation could not be supported by the evidence of charters. The ‘corporation’ presented new ‘burgesses’ to the steward of the crown manor of Ogbourne St. George, and elected two guild stewards every year, who acted as returning officers. The number of electors was usually under 30, and in 1673 sank as low as 11.
The manor of Wootton Bassett was in Crown hands during this period, following the departure overseas of Sir Francis Englefield, a Catholic. The keepership of that part of the manor known as Little Vastern Park was granted to Henry Knyvet on 8 July 1563 following his marriage into the Stumpe family.CPR, 1554-5, p 52; 1560-3, p. 491; E178/2395; VCH Wilts. ix. 186 seq.
Wilton, a corporate town since the reign of Henry I, was dominated by successive earls of Pembroke, whose seat adjoined the borough. All the identified Elizabethan MPs were nominees of the 1st, 2nd or 3rd Earl. Return at parliamentary elections was made by the mayor and burgesses.
Although not a corporate borough, Westbury had a mayor who was the returning officer at parliamentary elections. The 6th Lord Mountjoy had estates near Westbury, and promoted the returns of Anthony Carleton, his relative by marriage (1559), and his elder brother, Francis (1571). It is not known how either Ralph Skinner, a Durham ecclesiastical official, or John Dyster, a clerk in Chancery, came to be returned. Hugh Ryley (1563), steward of Bishop Jewel of Salisbury, may have owed his seat to his mother’s family connexions with the borough.
