Grimsby was first settled in about 866, when its natural advantages as a harbour were recognized by Scandinavian invaders.For a more detailed account of medieval Grimsby see E. Gillett, Grimsby, chaps. 1-4. The 13th-century Lai d’Haveloc described the town’s mythical and aptly named founder, Grim, as a Dane who lived by fishing and selling salt. Indeed, these two closely connected means of livelihood were crucial to both the development and continued prosperity of the port.
Positioned astride the River Welland, Stamford occupied an anomalous geographical position, as it was situated where the counties of Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland met. The borough was incorporated in 1462, with a council consisting of an annually elected ‘alderman’, 12 other ‘comburgesses’, and 12 ‘capital burgesses’. Its record of regular representation in Parliament began five years later. HP Commons 1558-1603, i.
By the beginning of the seventeenth century the decline of the Lincolnshire cloth industry and the silting of the River Witham had reduced Boston’s importance as an international port, though the town still enjoyed a modest prosperity as a centre for local trade.Port Bks. of Boston ed. R.W.K. Hinton (Lincoln Rec. Soc. l), pp. xviii-xxxix; C. Holmes, Seventeenth-Cent. Lincs. 13-14; P. Thompson, Hist.
Lincoln’s first extant charter dates back to 1157, and the town first returned MPs to Parliament in 1265. The borough was governed by a mayor, 12 aldermen, and a common council varying in size from about 30 to 48.W. de Gray Birch, Royal Charters of Lincoln, 1-2, 74; Lincs. AO, L1/1/1/4, f. 214. By the early seventeenth century the decay of the wool trade had left the city in economic decline despite its role as the county’s administrative centre.J.W.F.
By the early seventeenth century Grimsby, long in decline as a port, had been eclipsed by Hull, across the Humber, in both commercial and political importance. Gervase Holles†, who was born in the town in 1607, observed that ‘the haven hath been heretofore commodious, [but] now decayed; the traffic good, now gone’. He described Grimsby as ‘mean and straggling by reason of depopulation, and the town very poor’.G. Holles, Lincs. Church Notes (Lincoln Rec. Soc.
Grantham, a market and postal town on the Great North Road, was incorporated in 1463 and first sent representatives to Parliament in 1467.E. Turnor, Colls. for Hist. Grantham, 56. The corporation consisted of one annually elected alderman and 12 ‘comburgesses’.G.H. Martin, Charters of Grantham, 14-16, 24-47; C. Holmes, Seventeenth-Cent. Lincs. 32-3. However, the town also remained under manorial rule, and after the accession of James I it became part of Anne of Denmark’s dower.B.
Boston’s growth in the early nineteenth century was steady but undramatic. It had a prosperous agricultural market, dealing in mainly in grain and flour, and a considerable number of people were engaged in manufactures and handicrafts, but its port suffered as a consequence of the country’s general economic depression, despite improvements to the harbour.Cobbett’s Rural Rides ed. G.D.H. and M. Cole, ii. 640; W. White, Lincs.
Grantham, a town with a ‘very neat and clean appearance’, lay on the Great North road, within easy reach of London.White, Lincs. Dir. (1826), 127. Some of the county’s leading families, the Cholmeleys of Easton, Thorolds of Syston Park and Welbys of Denton, as well as the 1st Earl Brownlow of Belton (lord lieutenant of Lincolnshire) lived in its immediate vicinity and took an active interest in its affairs.
Stamford, a large market town on the Great North Road, had recently been ‘very much improved in its buildings and general appearance’. White’s Lincs. Dir. (1826), 181. The representation was dominated by its principal landowner, the Tory 2nd marquess of Exeter, who resided at Burghley House just over the county border in Northamptonshire. He controlled the corporation of 12 aldermen and 24 capital burgesses, one of whom served annually as mayor, acted as the town’s recorder, and owned or leased most of the corporation’s property.
Great Grimsby, a seaport with ‘several good streets, the houses of which are well built’, was, according to Oldfield, ‘second to none in the history of corruption’. White’s Lincs. Dir. (1826), 133; Oldfield, Rep. Hist. (1816), iv. 155. Political events turned on the rivalry between the Whig Blue party of the Anderson Pelham family of Brocklesby, Barons Yarborough, and the Tory Reds, headed by George Tennyson† of Bayons Manor, Tealby, who had inherited the old interest of the Clayton family.
