Montgomeryshire

County

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Elections

DateCandidate
1542JAMES LECHE
1545HUMPHREY LLOYD
1547HUMPHREY LLOYD 1
1553 (Mar.)EDWARD HERBERT
1553 (Oct.)EDWARD HERBERT
1554 (Apr.)EDWARD HERBERT
1554 (Nov.)EDWARD HERBERT
1555(not known)
1558EDWARD HERBERT

Main Article

The lordship of Montgomery had come to the crown as part of the earldom of March, on the attainder of the 3rd Duke of York in 1459. In 7504 Charles Somerset, Lord Herbert, later 1st Earl of Worcester, was named steward of the lordship and constable of the castle, and six years later Somerset’s appointment was renewed in survivorship with his son Henry. With the bulk of his estates in the south of Wales and himself often at court, Somerset employed one of his wife’s cousins, Sir Richard Herbert, as agent in Montgomery, and the King made Herbert receiver of the lordship, a post which he held for over 30 years before his death in 1539. As one of the leading figures in the region Herbert promoted the Union and signed the petition from the gentlemen of Montgomery for its implementation. His son Edward succeeded him as receiver of the lordship and the 2nd Earl of Worcester as constable of Montgomery castle. Edward Herbert sat in every Parliament save one between 1553 and 1571 and may have done so in all of them; the return for 1555 is missing. James Leche and Humphrey Lloyd who had preceded him as knights were kinsmen of his. Leche’s return as the first knight for Montgomeryshire may have been favoured by the 2nd Earl of Worcester as steward of the lordship of Cydewain where Leche lived, or by the crown whose receiver he was at Newtown.2

At the Union the county of Montgomery was created with a court alternating between the towns of Machynlleth and Montgomery. The indenture for December 1541 is too defaced for the place of election to be legible, but in January 1545, February 1553 and September 1553 it was at Montgomery. The four surviving indentures are in Latin and are between the sheriff of Montgomeryshire and 17 to 30 electors; in September 1553 they were four esquires with some 13 generosos libros et lega[les] homines resident in the county.3

Author: N. M. Fuidge

Notes

  • 1. Hatfield 207.
  • 2. Arch. Camb. civ. 52-53; CPR, 1494-1509; LP Hen. VIII, i (1), g.519 (51).
  • 3. C219/18B/135, 18C/183, 20/194, 21/240.