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Fletcher, Anthony
1983.
Before the English Civil War.
p.
151.
Article contents
Dorsetshire Elections, 1604-1640
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Extract
Dorsetshire's elite, the leaders of its “county community,” continued to exercise their customary influence in the county's elections from 1604-1640. However, there was a notable change from the Elizabethan age. During the great Queen's reign, no one family was able to establish a preponderant voice in the county's elections. A “sustained monopoly” was, it seems, impossible and the best any influential squire could hope for was to be twice returned for the county. Indeed, it is probable that only Sir Ralph Horsey of Clifton Maubank, chosen in 1586 and 1597, and Andrew Rogers of Brianston, elected in 1586 and 1588, achieved that degree of eminence. Even the great Sir Walter Raleigh, after establishing himself at Sherborne, only managed to serve for Dorsetshire once, in 1597.
That changed after 1604. Dorsetshire elected eleven men to its eighteen knightships of the shire from 1604-1640, and one man, Sir John Strangways of Chirk Castle and Melbury Sampford, established what can be described as a “sustained monopoly.” He served for the county in 1614, 1621, 1624, and 1628; his repeated victories were recognition of his wealth and estate, his close connections with John Digby, Earl of Bristol (1622) and with other county families of note. Strangways had married into the Trenchard family of Warmwell and Wolveton, near Dorchester; one of his daughters married, first, into the influential Rogers family of Brianston and later, in 1624, took as her second husband the stepson of the Earl of Bristol, Sir Lewis Dyve. Strangways was, no doubt, an active supporter of his brother-in-law, Sir Thomas Trenchard, in Dorset's 1621 election and, in a bitterly fought contest in 1626, it was Strangway's power and influence that accounted for the return of Sir George Morton. Altogether, Sir John's influence can be credited with five, and more probably six (or one-third), of Dorsetshire's knightships through 1640. Given his ability to win a place for Morton in the face of fierce opposition in 1626, it is possible that his influence was even more widespread in the county's elections.
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References
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21 As in Dorsetshire's contested elections, failure to achieve a pre-election agreement could lead to a quarrelsome election contest. The Somersetshire election of 1614 was another example and its gentry, as the correspondence in the Phelips manuscripts reveals, attempted to avoid a similar battle in 1624 and again, it seems, in 1628. Even the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Arthur Lake, lent his good offices to keep the 1624 election quiet. Farnham, Edith, “The Somerset Election of 1614,“ English Historical Review, pp. 580, 582–584Google Scholar; Barnes, T. G., Somerset, 1625-1640, p. 285Google Scholar; John Poulett to Richard Weeks, 29 March 1614, Somersetshire RO, Bundle 21, DD SF 1076, MS, 36; Edward Hext to his son, 19, 20 January 1624, Somersetshire RO, Phellps, MSS, vol. 2, Fols 20, 20v and vol. 18, f.63; Phelips to ?, 22 Jan. 1624, Phelips MSS, vol. 4, fols. 214-215; Phelips to Portman, 9 Feb., and two undated probably for 1628, Phelips MSS, vol. 14, fob. 3, 5, 7. Hampshire was another county where such agreements were probably attempted since its three candidates in 1614 refused to compromise, and when others, fearful of a contest, urged them to decide “by lot or hazard” which would tep down, a bitter election fight resulted, Moir, T., The Addled Parliament of 1614, pp. 35–37Google Scholar; P.R.O., St. Ch. 8/293/11; HampshireRO, Whitehead's Letter Book, fob. 68v-70. For a survey of Yorkshire's elections and the contested election of 1621 when an outsider, Sir George Calvert, was returned, see Gruenfdder, J. K., “The Electoral Patronage of Sir Thomas Went worth, Earl of Strafford, 1614-1640,” The Journal of Modern History, pp. 557–574Google Scholar. For similar discussions of other early seventeenth century county elections, see Gruenfdder, “The Parliamentary Elections, 1604-1640,” forthcoming, Transactions of the Radnorshire Society, “The Wynns of Gwydir and Parliamentary Elections in Wales, 1604-1640,” forthcoming, The Welsh History Review, Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru, and “The Northamptonshire and Worcestershire Parliamentary Elections of 1604,” forthcoming, Midland History.
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