Both the 1559 MPs, Sir Giles Strangways and Sir John Rogers, had already represented Dorset on several occasions in previous reigns. Sir Henry Ashley, a Dorset landowner and an active county official, was elected senior knight of the shire in 1563. Thomas Howard was sponsored by his father, the 1st Viscount Bindon, so that he might protect the family’s interests in the 1563 Parliament, when two bills concerning them were due to be considered. In 1571 the Privy Council wrote to several county magnates, among them Sir William Paulet and Bindon, requesting them to ensure the return of well-affected men to the forthcoming Parliament. Sir William Paulet stood himself, and Bindon recommended John Horsey, an active protestant and his one-time son-in-law. Richard Rogers was an obvious choice for a senior county seat, and his fellow-Member in 1572, John Strode, had connexions with both Rogers and the Paulet family. George Trenchard I (1584) was also a well-established county landowner on good terms with the 2nd Earl of Bedford, and John Fitzjames, his brother-in-law, had recently succeeded to his stepfather’s considerable estates. The 1586 Members have the distinction of being the only MPs to represent Dorset twice during Elizabeth’s reign. Ralph Horsey was elected on his own merits in 1586 and 1597. Andrew Rogers was the first son of Richard Rogers, the sheriff at the time of Andrew’s second election in 1589. John Wolley’s appearance as senior knight for Dorset in 1589 is interesting because although of Dorset origin, he had long been resident in Surrey. No doubt his recent appointment to the Privy Council had prompted him to seek a county seat, and there being no possibility of one in Surrey, he had fallen back on Dorset. In 1593 Arthur Gorges, a close friend of Ralegh, was elected senior knight for Dorset. He came from a well-known west country family but had no estates himself in Dorset other than those brought to him by his first wife. His fellow-Member Thomas Hussey II came from a long-established Dorset family. Ralegh, who had been in disgrace in 1593, had estates in the county and was elected senior knight in 1597. The 1601 county Members were Sir Edmund Uvedale, a county landowner whose brother was sheriff at the time of the election, and George Trenchard II, who was elected with his father’s backing.