A borough by prescription, Thirsk’s government comprised a bailiff, elected annually, and, at the beginning of the sixteenth century and probably later, two constables. Returns were made by the burgesses and ‘boroughmen’.

The manor of Thirsk was held throughout the century by the Stanley family, earls of Derby, but it was not until the 6th Earl succeeded that attempts to influence elections became evident with the return of George Leycester (1597) and, in all probability, John Mallory (1601). Otherwise the local families were prominent: a Bellasis or Dawney had at least one Think seat in most Elizabethan Parliaments, and Lascelles and Wilstrop owed their return to local standing. Thomas Eynns certainly, Edward Gates probably, and perhaps Thomas Layton II were brought in by the council in the north. Possibly Robert Bowes II also comes into this group—his election is unexplained except by reference to his late father’s position as a member of the council in the north and generally in Yorkshire.5