Marlborough

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Elections

DateCandidate
4 Jan. 1559WILLIAM DANIELL
 JOHN YOUNG II
1562/3MICHAEL BLOUNT
 LEONARD DANNETT
1571JOHN CORNWALL
 PHILIP GODWYN
22 Apr. 1572NICHOLAS ST. JOHN
 JOHN STANHOPE
9 Nov. 1584HENRY UGHTRED
 EDWARD STANHOPE II
10 Oct. 1586EDWARD STANHOPE II
 EDMUND HUNGERFORD
24 Oct. 1588RICHARD WHELER
 JOHN CORNWALL
1593RICHARD WHELER
 ANTHONY HUNGERFORD
3 Oct. 1597RICHARD DIGGES
 RICHARD WHELER
5 Oct. 1601RICHARD DIGGES
 LAWRENCE HYDE II

Main Article

Most of the identified MPs for Marlborough were connected with Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, constable of the castle, master forester of Savernake forest and in James’s reign, high steward of the town. Among them was Hertford’s servant Lawrence Hyde (1601), uncle of the Earl of Clarendon. There are problems of identification over John Young II (1559) and Edmund Hungerford (1586). All that is known for certain about Hungerford is that he is described as of Marlborough on the return. Anthony Hungerford, of a Great Bedwyn family, was returned in 1593, so perhaps he and Edmund were related. William Daniell (1559) was also a local man (though connected with Hertford), and so were both the 1571 men, elected when Hertford was under arrest. One of them, John Cornwall, came in again in 1588. Richard Digges (1597, 1601) was a local lawyer, of counsel to the Marlborough corporation. All the remaining Marlborough MPs in this period may be considered Hertford’s nominees, which means that he brought in both Members in 1562/3, 1572, 1584 and one in 1586, 1588, 1593, 1597 and 1601.

Returns at parliamentary elections were made by the mayor and burgesses, said to have numbered about 100 by the reign of James I.

J Waylen, Marlborough, 60, 61, 73, 92, 111, 114, 127, 131; Wilts. Borough Recs. (Wilts. Arch. Soc. recs. br.), v. 35-37; C219/26/31.

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes