Haslemere was a small market town which owed some of its modest prosperity to the iron and woollen industry in its neighbourhood. It was enfranchised in 1584, and a charter of 1596 confirmed its market and fairs. In 1601 Sir George More* purchased the lordship of the manor from the Crown, together with the hundred and manor of Godalming, of which Haslemere had originally been a tithing. More’s bailiff, who seems to have been the only officer of the borough, acted as returning officer and consequently More dominated the electoral patronage of the borough in this period. The franchise was vested in the freeholders of the borough who, since they held their land by burgage tenure, are described in the indentures as burgesses. The number of parties varied from at least a dozen in 1624 to over 20 in 1626.1

In 1604 More put his influence in the borough at the disposal of two aristocratic friends, Henry 9th earl of Northumberland and the lord admiral, the 1st earl of Nottingham (Charles Howard†). The senior Member for Haslemere in the first Jacobean Parliament, Edward Fraunceys, was Northumberland’s steward at Petworth, the earl’s house eight miles from Haselmere. His junior colleague, William Jackson, was either receiver-general or secretary to Nottingham, a long-standing friend and associate of More.2

More seems to have responsible for all the Members subsequently elected for this borough until 1628. By 1614 William Jackson had left Nottingham’s employment and Edward Fraunceys had acquired property near the Sussex borough of Steyning, where he was elected to the Addled Parliament. Consequently More nominated his son-in-law Sir Thomas Crymes and also Sir William Browne, a trustee of More’s lands since 1609. In 1620 More received a request from another son-in-law, Sir Nicholas Carew*, on behalf of his cousin Sir Nicholas Saunders*. More replied on 12 Dec. that ‘many days before’ he had received Carew’s letter he had nominated Crymes and Browne and that they had already been returned.3 This was despite the fact that Browne had moved to Warwickshire three years earlier.

By the time of the last Jacobean Parliament both seats at Haslemere were going begging as Browne no longer took any interest in Surrey electoral affairs and Crymes was returned for the county. Carew again wrote to More, on 23 Dec. 1623, but this time on behalf of his son Francis, More’s grandson, who had recently come of age. Carew wrote that a seat in the Commons for Francis ‘would do him good and get him some experience’, but if More thought him unsuitable then he begged to have the place himself, ‘for I would very fain have him or myself in the next Parliament’. More evidently did consider the young man suitable, however, and consequently Francis was elected as senior partner to another of More’s grandsons, Poynings More, aged just 18.4

Francis Carew and Poynings More were re-elected in both 1625 and 1626, but in 1628 they were returned at Guildford, where the More interest was also strong. The Haslemere representatives in 1628 were another of Sir George More’s grandsons, Sir Thomas Crymes’ son George, who had just turned 23, and a Welshman, Sir Thomas Canon. The latter was presumably nominated by More at the request of the earl of Northumberland, with whom Canon had longstanding links.