Dorset

Leland described Weymouth as a ‘townlet’ opposite Melcombe Regis, but it was the larger and older of the two, with a quay and wharf for ships. Until later in the 16th century Dorchester merchants still exported goods through Weymouth, which apparently specialized in the Spanish trade, but the advance of Poole and the growth of Melcombe reduced its importance. It also suffered heavily from French raids, being inadequately protected by Sandsfoot castle, built by Henry VIII in the 1530s. In 1540 Weymouth was included in the Act for re-edifying of towns westward (32 Hen. VIII, c.19).

Wareham was a relatively poor town, the inhabitants relying on the digging of clay for the pottery industry, the good herring and salmon fisheries and, according to Leland, the extensive cultivation of garlic. Cloth was produced, but apparently not on a large scale. By 1558, although it was still possible for quite large ships to reach Wareham, all hope of rivalling Poole as a port was dead; a survey of shipping taken in 1543 had listed no ships from Wareham.

When Leland visited Shaftesbury, probably soon after the dissolution in 1539 of its Benedictine abbey, he described it as ‘a great market town standing on an high hill, having four parish churches in it’. Until the Dissolution the crown held one moiety of the manor of Shaftesbury and the abbess the other; part of the crown’s interest, however, was granted to the abbess who paid a fee-farm of £12. The borough was not formally incorporated until 1604, but it had a mayor in Edward III’s reign and charters dating back to 1252.

A ‘member’ of the royal manor of Canford, Dorset, Poole was only in the hands of the crown at intervals between 1509 and 1558, being held successively by Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond (1526-36), Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter (1536-9), Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset (1547-50) and Exeter’s widow Gertrude (1553-8). The stewards of Canford during the period included Henry Uvedale, Sir William Parr and John Paulet, Lord St.

Leland described Melcombe, which he called Miltoun, as ‘a townlet on the hither side of the haven of Weymouth ... being privileged and having a mayor’. As ‘much the ancienter’, Weymouth constantly objected to the privileges granted to Melcombe, but as there was more room for expansion on that side of the harbour merchants tended to settle there until the rapid growth of Poole in the 15th century eclipsed both Melcombe and Weymouth. At the opening of the Tudor period neither was prosperous.

Described by Leland as ‘a pretty market town, set in the roots of a high rocky hill down to the hard shore’, having ‘good ships’ and a considerable cloth trade with Brittany, Lyme Regis was in fact a declining port which sought government help with increasing urgency from the middle of Henry VIII’s reign. In 1526 Lord Lisle confirmed an earlier grant of admiralty jurisdiction to the mayor and burgesses, but there was never enough money to fortify the town against threatened attack by the French.

An ancient royal borough and the shire town of Dorset, Dorchester possessed charters dating back to at least the early 14th century and had returned Members of Parliament since 1295. In 1485 it received additional privileges, including freedom from admiralty jurisdiction and from interference by royal household officials. The charter of 1610, which granted incorporation, probably did little more than formalize the existing constitution. This was in the hands of two bailiffs, two constables, a recorder and a common council of 15 capital burgesses.

Leland described Bridport as ‘a fair large town’, a royal borough having ‘privilege for a market and two bailiffs’. Its charters, going back to at least the mid 13th century, were confirmed in 1490, 1549 and later. During the early 16th century it still owed a fee-farm to the crown. James I’s charter of 1619, often considered to mark the incorporation of the borough, probably describes the existing situation when it lays down that there shall be two bailiffs and 15 capital burgesses who are to elect the bailiffs annually from their number.

In the medieval period there were two boroughs facing each other across the narrow entrance to the estuary of the river Wey: Melcombe Regis (in the parish of Radipole) on the north bank, and Weymouth (in that of Wyke Regis) on the south. That their histories remained separate and distinct stemmed initially from the grant of the port of Weymouth by Henry I to St. Swithin’s priory, Winchester. It was to St. Swithin’s too, that, in 1248, a market and fair were granted to be held at Weymouth, and it was the prior who in 1252 conceded to the inhabitants their first charter.

There was a settlement at Wareham in Roman times, but the main development of the town took place between the seventh and tenth centuries. Situated on a peninsula with the river Piddle to the north and the river Frome to the south, it then occupied a position of great strength. In the early tenth century Wareham was one of the West Saxon fortified boroughs; and the massive ramparts which still enclose the town on three sides are the remains of the defences of that period.