Clitheroe, a borough by prescription, had an extremely rudimentary municipal organization; its two bailiffs acted as returning officers. During the Civil War the leading townsfolk showed parliamentarian sympathies, and until 1644 Clitheroe Castle was held against the Royalists. These sympathies were reflected in the general election of 1660, when the out-bailiff, ‘a fierce man against the King’s coming in’, returned two former Members of the Long Parliament.
Wigan is said to have received charters in 1560 and 1585, but details of these have been lost. Other evidence shows that a mayor, two bailiffs and a number of burgesses were elected annually for the town and borough, which also had five aldermen. During this period Wigan showed no independence in its choice of MPs. Elections were dominated by the Gerard family, the most important local landowners, the 3rd Earl of Derby and the duchy of Lancaster.
Liverpool was governed during this period by a mayor, two bailiffs, 12 aldermen and a number of burgesses. Returns at parliamentary elections were made by the mayor and bailiffs, with the assent and consent of aldermen, burgesses and commoners. At the beginning of the reign Sir Ambrose Cave, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, apparently assumed that both seats at Liverpool were his for the taking.
Newton—‘a little poor market’ Leland called it—first sent Members to Parliament in 1559. No authority has been found for its enfranchisement, but its first Members were not challenged in the House. The 1559 return is to testify that we, the free men of the borough of Thomas Langton, knight, baron of Newton ...
Preston received a charter of confirmation in 1557 and was incorporated in 1566, its common council consisting of the mayor, two bailiffs, and 24 principal burgesses. From 1542 onwards, a meeting of the guild merchant was held at intervals of 20 years. Neighbouring noblemen and gentry customarily obtained admission to the guild as ‘foreign burgesses’ and, by 1602, outnumbered the local or ‘inburgesses’.
Clitheroe was a small borough run by two bailiffs who were also the returning officers. An insight into the way elections were conducted in this period is provided by a letter sent by the bailiffs to ‘the sergeant of our borough and corporation of Clitheroe’ 10 Oct. 1601:
Lancaster, the northern centre of duchy activity, was enfranchised under Henry VIII, but was not incorporated until 1604. A code of customs, drawn up and ratified in 1572, reveals that it was governed by a mayor, two bailiffs and 12 capital burgesses. Parliamentary election was made by the mayor, bailiffs, burgesses and commonalty. The dominant influence on the borough’s parliamentary returns was that of the duchy of Lancaster.
Leland called Wigan ‘as big as Warrington and better builded ... some merchants, some artificers, some farmers’, and spoke of the coal works at Hawe on the Bradshaw land a mile from the borough. Although Wigan was included in a Henrician statute (35 Hen. VIII, c.4) among the towns with many ‘decayed’ buildings, it seems to have been relatively prosperous during the period, having 2,600 communicants in the reign of Edward VI. Its constitution made it a factious borough.
Preston’s central location in Lancashire made it an important borough in county administration; the palatine courts were often held there. Leland had little to say about it except that ‘the market place of the town is fair’ and that the river Ribble ‘goeth round about ... yet it toucheth not the town [it]self by space of almost half a mile’. Since the Ribble could take only small vessels, Preston was not a significant port at this time; its trade was virtually confined to the surrounding district and it was included in a Henrician statute (35 Hen.
In a late Henrician statute (35 Hen. VIII, c.4) Liverpool was included among ‘decayed’ towns, and at the beginning of the period it certainly seems to have been less prosperous than it had been a century before.
