The corporation of Salisbury during this period consisted of the mayor, the twenty-four (later known as aldermen) and the forty-eight. Until the grant of James I’s charter, the city had no recorder, but it employed a counsel. Up to his death in 1587 Salisbury’s legal adviser was Giles Estcourt, one of the twenty-four. He was succeeded by John Penruddock at a fee of 53s. 4d., and he in turn in March 1601 by Giles Tooker, who later became the first recorder.
Old Sarum was already deserted by the end of Henry VIII’s reign. The manor, or, strictly, the adjoining manor of Milford, was owned by the bishop of Salisbury, and leased to the earls of Pembroke. With the possible exception of John Frenche (1572), an Inner Temple lawyer, and Henry Baynton (1589), a Wiltshire country gentleman, all Old Sarum Members had Pembroke connexions. Frenche died in 1579, before the last session of his Parliament, but no record of a by-election to replace him has been found.Hoare, Wilts. Salisbury, passim; E134/14 Wilts., 39/40 Eliz.
Most of the identified MPs for Marlborough were connected with Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, constable of the castle, master forester of Savernake forest and in James’s reign, high steward of the town. Among them was Hertford’s servant Lawrence Hyde (1601), uncle of the Earl of Clarendon. There are problems of identification over John Young II (1559) and Edmund Hungerford (1586). All that is known for certain about Hungerford is that he is described as of Marlborough on the return.
Malmesbury was a centre of the wool industry, and after the dissolution of the monasteries the abbey and a good deal of property in the town came into the hands of William Stumpe, a clothier, whose son John continued the family business there. His niece married into the gentry in the person of Henry Knyvet who now settled at Charleton, nearby, and Stumpe and Knyvet together represented Malmesbury in 1584.
A non-incorporated borough, Hindon was owned by the bishop of Winchester,Hoare, Wilts. Mere; VCH Wilts. v. 118-19. who controlled the patronage there, entirely in the early part of this period, less so later. At the time of the elections to Elizabeth’s first Parliament the Marian bishop, White, had not yet been deprived, though he was under house arrest, and two civil lawyers, relatives, were returned. The 1563 Members were Bishop Horne’s agent (Foster) and his chancellor and son-in-law (Acworth).
This borough, which was not incorporated, formed part of the manor of Heytesbury, owned by the Hungerford family until the attainder of Walter, Lord Hungerford of Heytesbury in 1540, when it came into the hands of the Crown. Granted in 1553 to Henry Wheeler (d.1567), a gentleman of the privy chamber, it passed to Hugh Hawker of Heytesbury, who died about 1574 and, as far as is known, never stood for Parliament in this period. Hawker went to some lengths to oblige the Thynnes of Longleat. On 20 Feb.
Great Bedwyn was a non-incorporated borough owned by the Seymour family, whose seat, Wolf Hall, lay within the parish. It appears to have been among the first properties restored to the family after the Duke of Somerset’s attainder. The precise composition of the Elizabethan electorate is not known, but return was made by the bailiff and burgesses.Wilts. Colls. 373; Wilts. IPMs (Brit. Rec. Soc. xxiii), 20-31; Wards 2/Box 5/22/1; C2l9/26/127; C219/31.
The manor and borough of Downton was leased by the earls of Pembroke from the bishops of Winchester. The borough was administered by the bailiff for the borough and hundred, who was the returning officer. The franchise was vested in the owners of the burgage tenements. The advowson, which belonged to Winchester College, was leased to the Queen, and by her to Thomas Wilkes in 1582. Electoral patronage was divided between the bishops of Winchester and the earls of Pembroke.
Devizes was a corporate town, the majority of whose MPs in this period comprised either townsmen or neighbouring gentry. Edward Heynes (1559, 1563), George Reynolds II (1572) and Henry Grube (1572) were members of the corporation and sometime mayors of the borough. John Kent (1597) was town clerk. Both Reynolds and Grube had promised to serve without wages, but in 1578 Grube sued the borough in respect of wages for the second session. In Chancery he claimed that his promise to serve without wages applied to the first session of the Parliament only.Waylen, Hist.
The borough of Cricklade, which was not incorporated, was in the hands of the Crown throughout Elizabeth’s reign. In 1557 the stewardship of the borough, together with that of other neighbouring properties, was granted to Edmund Brydges, and Baron Chandos. His son Giles, who succeeded him in March 1573, was granted the same office the following June, and in 1594, his brother, William, was granted the stewardship of Cricklade and held it until his death. Evidence of the family’s interest in Cricklade is to be found in Edmund Brydges’ will.CPR, Ph. and M. iii.
