Shropshire

County

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

Elections

DateCandidate
12 Jan. 1559SIR ANDREW CORBET
 SIR ARTHUR MAINWARING
1562/3RICHARD CORBET I
 EDWARD LEIGHTON
1566ROBERT CORBET vice Corbet, deceased1
1571SIR GEORGE BLOUNT
 GEORGE BROMLEY
17 Apr. 1572GEORGE BROMLEY
 GEORGE MAINWARING
Nov. 1584WALTER LEVESON
 FRANCIS BROMLEY
13 Oct. 1586RICHARD CORBET II
 WALTER LEVESON
7 Nov. 1588(SIR) WALTER LEVESON
 RICHARD LEVESON
1593FRANCIS NEWPORT II
 ROBERT NEEDHAM
Sept. 1597(SIR) HENRY BROMLEY 2
 THOMAS LEIGHTON 3
24 Sept. 1601JOHN EGERTON
 ROGER OWEN

Main Article

There was no contested election for Shropshire in this period and such arrangements among the gentry as must have been made were made discreetly. The majority of the MPs, as might be expected in a border county, were members of the council in the marches. Among them was Sir Andrew Corbet of Moreton Corbet (1559), who had represented Shropshire in the previous period, whose uncle Richard (of Poynton) sat in 1563, whose first son Robert sat in 1566 and whose second son Richard sat in 1586. Sir Andrew’s colleague in 1559 was Sir Arthur Mainwaring of Ightfield, an active local official for almost 30 years. Mainwaring’s son George sat in 1572. Edward Leighton of Wattlesborough was elected in 1563, his son Thomas in 1597. Edward Leighton was another who had represented the county in Mary’s reign; so too had the Catholic Sir George Blount of Kinlet (1571), who was elected ten times in all for the county and boroughs of Shropshire. George Bromley (1571, 1572) of Hallon in Worfield, recorder of two Shropshire boroughs, was the brother of Thomas Bromley, the chancellor. George Bromley’s son Francis was elected for the county through his father’s influence in 1584, and his nephew of Shrawardine came in in 1597. Then there were the Levesons of Lilleshall. Walter Leveson was elected knight of the shire to three successive Parliaments (1584, 1586, 1589), an achievement unusual enough to be worthy of notice, though whether this was due to lack of competition for seats or to the combined might of the Corbet-Leveson families (Leveson had married Sir Andrew Corbet’s daughter) cannot be known. In fact in 1589 Shropshire was represented by Levesons father and son, the son Richard being the future admiral. The 1593 MPs were Francis Newport II of High Ercall, and Robert Needham of Shavington. Both 1601 Members were sons of lawyers and both were still in their twenties. Neither was strictly speaking a Shropshire country gentleman: John Egerton was the son of the lord keeper and Roger Owen the son of the recorder of Shrewsbury who had bought himself the nearby estate of Condover.

Author: P. W. Hasler

Notes

  • 1. Folger V. b. 298.
  • 2. Ibid.
  • 3. Ibid.