Old Sarum

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
8 Jan. 1559JOHN HARINGTON
 HENRY HART
1562/3EDWARD HERBERT II
 HENRY COMPTON I
1571JOHN YOUNG I
 EDMUND LUDLOW
22 Apr. 1572HUGH POWELL
 JOHN FRENCHE 1
28 Oct. 1584RICHARD TOPCLIFFE
 ROGER GIFFORD
6 Oct. 1586EDWARD BERKELEY
 RICHARD TOPCLIFFE
1588/9ROGER GIFFORD
 HENRY BAYNTON I
1593ANTHONY ASHLEY
 EDMUND FORTESCUE
1597WILLIAM BLACKER 2
 NICHOLAS HYDE 3
5 Oct. 1601ROBERT TURNER
 HENRY HYDE

Main Article

Old Sarum was already deserted by the end of Henry VIII’s reign. The manor, or, strictly, the adjoining manor of Milford, was owned by the bishop of Salisbury, and leased to the earls of Pembroke. With the possible exception of John Frenche (1572), an Inner Temple lawyer, and Henry Baynton (1589), a Wiltshire country gentleman, all Old Sarum Members had Pembroke connexions. Frenche died in 1579, before the last session of his Parliament, but no record of a by-election to replace him has been found.4 The 1597 MPs obtained their seats in the following circumstances. There had been a dispute between two of the Old Sarum ‘free tenants’, and just before the election, an Exchequer commission was sent down to determine it. The commissioners, who included William Blacker and Robert Hyde, heard evidence at Stratford, near Old Sarum, on 30 Sept. Blacker and Hyde’s brother, Nicholas, returned themselves to the ensuing Parliament, with or without the approval of the 2nd Earl of Pembroke, with whom Robert Hyde at least had a previous connexion. In 1601 Hyde’s brother, Henry, was returned, together with Robert Turner, a Pembroke nominee.

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes

  • 1. Did not serve for the full duration of the Parliament.
  • 2. Folger V. b. 298.
  • 3. Ibid.
  • 4. Hoare, Wilts. Salisbury, passim; E134/14 Wilts., 39/40 Eliz. Mich.