Andover, in north-west Hampshire close to the border with Wiltshire, received a charter as early as 1175 and sent Members to Parliament intermittently between 1295 and 1307. Although benefiting from its proximity to Weyhill fair, one of the largest in the region, the borough had no significant industries, and fell into decline in the late medieval period; its parliamentary representation lapsed and was not restored until 1586. VCH Hants, iv. 345-51; Woodward, Hants, iii. 173; D.K.
Whitchurch was described by the antiquarian Thomas Baskerville in the later seventeenth century as a ‘poor thoroughfare town’ in a region devoted mainly to sheep grazing and the clothing industry. HMC Portland, ii. 286. The borough was owned by the dean and chapter of Winchester, but governed by a court leet presided over by an annually elected mayor and bailiff. VCH Hants, iv. 299-304. Members were first returned to Parliament in 1584, and the franchise rested in the freemen.
Situated on the edge of the South Downs, Petersfield was a prosperous market town and centre for the local clothing and leather tanning industries. VCH Hants, iii. 111-16. A borough by prescription, its government was vested in a mayor, constable, bailiff and two aldermen and tithingmen, and it regularly sent Members to Parliament from 1547. The franchise was confined to the burgage-holders, with the mayor acting as returning officer. R.S. Atcheson, Rep. of Case of Petersfield, 10-11. A handsome town mace survives, dated 1596. E.M.
Portsmouth’s strategic position and fine natural harbour made it an ideal naval base, although the presence of the garrison and its governor were occasionally a source of friction with the townsmen. Camden noted that ‘in war-time it is much frequented, at other times scarce at all, the inhabitants being more attentive to war and navigation than to trade’. Portsmouth Pprs. xv. 6; W. Camden, Britannia (1772), i.
Southampton, once a major trading port, received its first charter in the reign of Henry II, and sent Members to the Model Parliament in 1295.J.S. Davies, Hist. Soton, 152, 199. Incorporated in 1445, the town’s government was vested in a mayor, sheriff, recorder, two bailiffs, a steward, two constables, and a fluctuating number of aldermen, or ex-mayors. Assembly Bks. 1602-8 ed. J.W. Horrocks (Soton Rec. Soc. xix), pp.
Lying at the head of the Medina estuary, adjacent to Carisbrooke Castle, where the captain of the Isle of Wight resided, Newport was the most populous and prosperous of the three island boroughs. VCH Hants, v. 253, 256, 257, 259. Its seigneurial charter, confirmed by Queen Elizabeth in 1559, vested authority in two bailiffs and an indeterminate number of ‘burgesses’ or freemen. I.o.W. RO, NBC 45/2, f.
Newport, the chief market town and capital of the Isle of Wight, was located close to the centre of the island on the Medina, which was navigable for small craft. Its chief trade was the export of timber and grain, but there was also a lace factory, employing ‘600 or 700 hands’. For many years a ‘fashionable resort’, a report of 1824 described it as a ‘charming little town’ and cited the sale of land for building purposes as an illustration of its prosperity, but a reduction of the military presence at the nearby barracks the following year was ‘severely felt’.
The pocket borough of Yarmouth, an obsolete port close to the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, was described in 1823 as
a neat little market town, standing on a bank sloping to the sea, in a healthy situation, with pleasant views of the Channel ... [but] much diminished from its ancient consequence. Its many narrow streets, destitute of buildings, clearly point to its former enlarged site.Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1823-4), 348.
Newtown, lying east of Yarmouth on the north coast of the Isle of Wight, was sustained mainly by its oyster fishery and saltern. VCH Hants, v. 265, 266, 267. Under the town’s seigneurial charter of 1393, which was confirmed in 1598, the governing body consisted of the mayor, town clerk, sergeant, constable, and an indeterminate number of ‘chief burgesses’, from whose number the mayor was chosen annually. I.o.W.
Andover was situated on one of the main westward coaching routes from London, and its trade in malt, hops and fine woollens had prospered with the opening of a canal link with Southampton. R. Mudie, Hants (1838), i. 165; Pigot’s Commercial Dir. (1823-4), 307; J.
