Cricklade sent three Members to the Parliament of 1275 as a villa mercatoria and from 1295 was intermittently represented as a borough proper by two Members. It had charters going back to 1155, confirmed in 1510 and 1547, but remained under the control of the lord of the manor of the hundred and borough who appointed the bailiff. In the early 16th century the lordship formed part of the jointures of Catherine of Aragon, Anne of Cleves and Catherine Parr, and after the death of Henry VIII it passed briefly into the hands of Catherine Parr’s last husband Sir Thomas Seymour II, Baron Seymour of Sudeley; in July 1548 Seymour also obtained a lease of the manor of Abingdon Court from the dean and chapter of Salisbury cathedral. In May 1557 Edmund Brydges, 2nd Baron Chandos, was appointed steward and keeper of this and other crown lordships and manors in Wiltshire. The Brydges had for some time had interests in Cricklade and its neighbourhood, as had the families of Berkeley and Hungerford. The Duke of Northumberland’s eldest son held the manor of Calcot but it is impossible to say whether this led to any intervention by the duke in the spring of 1553 as the Members are unknown.3

The five Marian election indentures survive, all in Latin. The contracting parties to the first are the sheriff of Wiltshire and the Members themselves, Thomas Parker and William Badger, and thereafter the sheriff, the bailiff (John Gryme in 1554 and 1555 and perhaps Henry Francis in 1558) and unnamed burgesses. The names of William Hampshire (in the spring of 1554) and George Huntley are inserted over erasures and in hands different from that of the documents. Of the 12 known Members at least seven were connected with the Brydges and the rest could have looked to one or more of the other families with influence in the borough, and in one or two cases perhaps also to the crown. Parker’s uncle and namesake had been chancellor of Salisbury but he was also a kinsman of John Marmion, who was probably a Brydges nominee. The two Redes, related to both the Berkeley and Brydges families, were uncle and nephew. None of the Members is known to have resided in Wiltshire but most came from neighbouring counties, especially Gloucestershire: seven sat only for Cricklade and of those who sat elsewhere Sir Nicholas Poyntz and William Rede were knights of the shire for Gloucestershire, John Winchcombe sat for Great Bedwyn, Hampshire for Wootton Bassett and John Walshe for Bristol and Somerset.4