Colchester

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Elections

DateCandidate
9 Jan 1559SIR FRANCIS JOBSON
 WILLIAM CARDINALL I
1562/3SIR FRANCIS JOBSON
 WILLIAM CARDINALL I
1571HENRY GOLDING I
 FRANCIS HARVEY I
10 Apr. 1572ROBERT CHRISTMAS
 HENRY GOLDING I
1576NICHOLAS CLERK vice Golding, deceased
24 Apr. 1579ROBERT MIDDLETON vice Clere, deceased
2 Nov. 1584JAMES MORICE
 FRANCIS HARVEY I
1586JAMES MORICE
 FRANCIS HARVEY I
6 Nov. 1588JAMES MORICE
 ARTHUR THROCKMORTON
1593JAMES MORICE
 MARTIN BESSELL
24 Sept. 1597RICHARD SYMNELL
 ROBERT BARKER III
23 Sept. 1601ROBERT BARKER III
 RICHARD SYMNELL

Main Article

Colchester received a charter of confirmation in 1559. The Elizabethan electorate was composed of the bailiffs, aldermen and common council. The office of recorder was held by local men until 1579, when it became an honorary office held by Sir Francis Walsingham until 1589, Sir Thomas Heneage until 1595, and Sir Robert Cecil until the end of the reign. The most influential noblemen in the town were the de Veres, earls of Oxford, of Castle Hedingham, some 20 miles north-west of the borough.

In 1559 Colchester elected ‘according to the ancient and laudable custom’ Sir Francis Jobson, a country gentleman whose main estate of Monkwick lay only a few miles from the borough, and William Cardinall I, of Great Bromley, also a local gentleman and recorder of the borough in 1560. The same two were again returned in 1563. Both 1571 MPs were Essex country gentlemen: Henry Golding I was a marriage relation of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford; Francis Harvey I, of Witham, probably secured his seat at Colchester by virtue of his own local standing, although he later appears as a Walsingham nominee in 1584 and 1586. Henry Golding I sat again in 1572, this time with another de Vere nominee, Robert Christmas, estate agent to the 17th Earl. On 23 Mar. 1576 the assembly of bailiffs, aldermen and common council met at the moot hall to choose a replacement for Golding, who had died. Nicholas Clere, a local man, was chosen, but he died in 1579, and Robert Middleton, a local lawyer, was returned to the 1581 session.

On 26 Oct. 1584 Sir Francis Walsingham was granted the nomination of both the burgesses for Colchester. An entry in the assembly book in November 1584 reads It is agreed that Mr. James Morice and Mr. Francis Harvey shall be burgesses for the town for the parliament to come according to the liking of Sir Francis Walsingham to whom the nomination of both the burgesses was given ...James Morice of Chipping Ongar was a lawyer and town clerk of Colchester from 1578; Francis Harvey I was now a gentleman pensioner and in the government’s employ. Both Morice and Harvey were re-elected in 1586, seemingly in accordance with the Queen’s own wishes. Walsingham wrote belatedly to Colchester After my hearty commendations. I have received your letter and understand by the same that before mine came unto you the election for the burgesses of your town was already passed with Mr. James Morice and Mr. Francis Harvey: which choice I do very well like and allow of both for that it was so ordered by her Majesty if those gentlemen were extant, as also in respect of their sufficiency for that place ...

James Morice sat again in 1589 and 1593. His fellow-Member in 1589, Arthur Throckmorton, was another Walsingham nominee who lived in London but had connexions with Colchester through his marriage to the daughter of Sir Thomas Lucas, a former recorder and a Marian MP for the borough. Walsingham died in 1589, but Heneage, his successor as recorder, showed no interest in nominating at Colchester. Martin Bessell, a Colchester merchant and alderman, was returned in 1593. Sir Robert Cecil made a tardy request for seats in 1597 by which time he was recorder, but the borough had already elected Richard Symnell, a local attorney and deputy town clerk, and Robert Barker III, who had recently acquired the Monkwick estate. The same two Members were returned in 1601.

Apart from Richard Symnell, who received his fees for the Parliament of 1597, there is no evidence that Colchester paid its Members.

Colchester recs., assembly bk.; Cal. Ct. Rolls, ed. Harrod; Essex Rev. xlix. 188; l. 157; Morant mss (Essex Arch. Soc.).

Author: M.A.P.

Notes