Chester was governed by 24 aldermen, 40 common councilmen and the freemen. The principal officers were the mayor, two sheriffs (to whom the election writs were sent direct), the recorder and the town clerk, known as the clerk of the pentice.

All the MPs in this period had some connexion with Chester, and a few also with the chamberlain of Chester, the Earl of Leicester, who occasionally attempted, with only moderate success, to intervene in elections there. Thus in 1571, in the face of opposition from the corporation, he obtained the return of his vice-chamberlain, William Glasier, rather than the corporation’s Mr. Snogge or Snagge (possibly Robert Snagge). Glasier came in again in 1572. In 1582, during a prorogation, Leicester unsuccessfully asked that his secretary Arthur Atye be returned in place of the deceased recorder William Gerard I. Two years later he tried again, the city records stating

My lord of Leicester’s letter well commending thereby Mr. Peter Warburton for the one citizen, which motion Mr. Mayor and Mr. Aldersey furthered to the uttermost yet was it not available, 46 voices with and 85 contrary.

Warburton, however, became an alderman in 1585, and was elected MP in 1586, 1589 and 1597, this last time in the senior seat, which was usually the perquisite of the recorder. This official, Birkheved, may have been sick in 1597, as he certainly was in 1601. At any rate the junior MP in 1597 was a lawyer retained by the city, William Brock. In 1601 the two Chester MPs were Hugh Glasier, the son of William Glasier, and a lawyer, son of a former mayor, Thomas Gamull. Other Chester MPs were two mayors, Sir Lawrence Smith and Richard Bavand; John Yerworth, a clerk of the pentice; and Gilbert Gerard II the customer.

Weinbaum, Charters, 10-11; R. H. Morris, Chester, 191; HMC 8th Rep. 360, 375, 397; C219/26/134; 219/29/182; Ormerod, Cheshire, i. 60; Chester RO, M/C/1/31, M/L/5/270; Chester ass. bk. f. 185.