Worcester was an independent borough. The main influence lay with the mayor, as returning officer, and the corporation, through their power of creating honorary freemen. All the Members returned came from city or neighbouring families, except Richard Lockwood, a London merchant, and Sir Henry Harpur, a Derbyshire baronet.
The representation of Evesham was practically monopolized by two Whig families, the Rudges, who owned the manor of Evesham, and the Rushouts, whose seat at Northwick was not far away. Only in 1734 did William Taylor, the recorder of the borough and a Tory, succeed in ousting Rudge. Elections there were expensive: in 1753 Sir John Rushout estimated that the forthcoming contest would cost him not less than £4,000.
In 1715 the right of election at Droitwich was in the freemen who owned a share in an ancient salt pit, called the corporation salt springs, which had dried up by 1725.
In 1715 Lord Herbert of Chirbury, whose estate of Ribbesford was three quarters of a mile from Bewdley, wrested control of the borough from another neighbouring family, the Winningtons. He retained control, returning government supporters, till 1734, when he was ousted by William Bowles, in circumstances described in a paper drawn up for Walpole after the election:‘The Present State of the Corporation of Bewdley’, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss.
Under its charter of 1621 the corporation of Worcester, which controlled the roll of freemen, consisted of the mayor and sheriff, six aldermen, 18 common councilmen, and 48 assistants. There was no territorial interest, but the corporation showed a strong preference for local lawyers. The city was famous for its loyalty in the Civil War, and even in 1660 chose two Royalists whose eligibility under the Long Parliament ordinance was doubtful. Thomas Street came from a family long prominent in municipal affairs, and was accompanied by the town clerk, Thomas Hall.
Under the charter of 1605 the corporation of Evesham, which controlled the freeman roll, consisted of the mayor, six aldermen, 12 ‘capital burgesses’, the recorder and the chamberlain. The 24 ‘assistant burgesses’ had no definite function or political weight. In 1660 John Egioke and Sir Thomas Rous, two country gentlemen of parliamentarian background, defeated the recorder Theophilus Andrews, who had represented the borough in Richard Cromwell’s Parliament.
The corporation of Droitwich, consisting of two bailiffs elected annually and an unspecified number of ‘burgesses’ or freemen, enjoyed an enviable freedom from financial constraint owing to its control of the most important salt-works in England. Only owners of at least a quarter-share in one of the recognized salt-houses could claim the franchise, and except for the eldest sons of freemen this required the unanimous vote of the corporation.
A charter of 1605 conferred on the corporation of Bewdley, consisting of the bailiff, 12 ‘capital burgesses’ or aldermen, and 25 common councilmen, the right to elect a single Member. By custom, however, retired members of the corporation continued to exercise the franchise, even if no longer resident, and during this period the electorate was further increased by making the local gentry ‘free burgesses’.
The government of Worcester was vested in two bailiffs, a recorder, a town clerk, a council of 24 and a council of 48. The method of election, according to the chamber order book, was that the city council would meet (probably to make the actual choice of MP), then the bellman would summon ‘the rest of the commons ... as many as would come’ to ‘give their voices thereunto’. Then the ‘bailiffs and the whole council together went up to the council chamber and ... proceeded to their election’.
The 1554 charter of incorporation granted Droitwich the right to send two representatives to Parliament, who should be elected by the two bailiffs and burgesses. According to Thomas Habington, who lived four miles from the town, the possession of a phate—216 large vessels of salt water—or a portion of one, in fee simple, carried the privileges of burgess-ship, which descended in the same way as land by common law. Francis Newport I (1559), Robert Wythe (1559, 1563) and George Wild (1584, 1593), were all townsmen and all owned phates.
