Appendix VI: The 1586 House of Commons
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Effective dates of sessions: 29 Oct.-2 Dec. 1586 15 Feb.-23 Mar. 1587
| Speaker: | (Sir) John Puckering |
| Clerk: | Fulk Onslow (1586) |
| Deputy: | William Onslow (1587)1 |
Privy Councillors in the Commons:
| Sir James Croft | Sir Walter Mildmay |
| William Davison | Sir Ralph Sadler |
| (Sir) Christopher Hatton I | (Sir) Francis Walsingham |
| Sir Francis Knollys | John Wolley |
Total number of Members elected 468
for counties 91
for boroughs 377
at general election 462
for counties 90
for boroughs 372
at by-elections 6
for counties 1
for boroughs 5
Number of Members known to have left before end: 4, of whom 1 sat for a county, 3 for boroughs
Residential qualification. Borough Members
resident in borough 88
resident in county 137
resident in adjacent county etc. 15
strangers 128
no information 9
Electoral qualification. Borough Members returned through
own or family interest 89
wife’s family interest 11
corporation interest 84
‘natural’ influence 52
influence of a great man 113
duchy of Lancaster 7
no information 21
Number of Members with
| central office | local office |
| major 8 | lord lieutenant 4 |
| minor 82 | deputy lieutenant 23 |
| legal 10 | custos rotulorum 10 |
| duchy of Lancaster 21 | j.p. 209 |
| diplomatic/agent abroad 7 | other county 82 |
| military/naval 17 | mayor 20 |
| ecclesiastical 14 | recorder 23 |
| other municipal 69 | |
| no office in this Parliament 141 |
Experience. Members who
had sat in previous Parliament 52%
were to sit in next Parliament 41%
Activity
very active speakers 2%
very active committeemen 3%
with any recorded activity 31%
with any recorded speeches 10%
with any recorded committees 30%
served on religious committee 8%
spoke on religion 4%
served on subsidy committee 14%
spoke on subsidy 2%
served on a social/economic committee 8%
spoke on a social/economic matter 3%
served on a legal committee 7%
spoke on a legal matter 1%
served on a committee concerning Mary Stuart 12%
spoke on Mary Stuart 5%
served on a committee outside above five classifications 8%
spoke on a subject other than the above five 2%
Committee meeting places
Exchequer chamber 40%
Middle Temple 19%
Serjeants’ Inn, Chancery Lane, 19%
Guildhall 11%
House of Commons committee chamber 7%
Lincoln’s Inn 4%
Sources for the names of members (unless an individual reference is given)
OR, with add. and corr.
PRO T/S list of supplementary returns
Hatfield CP 244/4; and Lansd. 1218, ff. 46 seq. supply some facts on by-elections.
Parliamentary Pawns2
Parliamentary pawns, which were kept in Chancery as a record of those to whom writs of summons were sent, and the form these writs should take, survive at the Public Record Office for the last five Elizabethan Parliaments. A sample writ from each of a number of categories is copied out in full. The following are the categories, with brackets indicating the recipient of the sample writ in 1586.
| 1. | Individual writs to the spiritual peers (archbishop of Canterbury). |
| 2. | Individual writs to the temporal peers (Marquess of Winchester). |
| 3. | Individual writs to judges, legal officers and other named individuals not in the first two categories (Lord Chancellor Bromley). These were the writs of assistance. |
| 4. | Writs to the sheriffs of counties (Cornwall). All the English counties are named except Cheshire, Durham and Lancashire. |
| 5. | Writs to the boroughs which were counties in their own right, with their own sheriffs (London). These were: London, York, Norwich, Lincoln, Coventry, Gloucester, Bristol, Canterbury, Exeter, Lichfield, Kingston-upon-Hull, Scarborough, Southampton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Poole, Haverfordwest. By the end of the reign Scarborough was removed from the list. |
| 6. | Writ to the lord warden of the Cinque Ports. |
| 7. | Writ to the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. |
| 8. | Writ to the county palatine of Chester. |
| 9. | Writs to the sheriffs of the Welsh counties (Anglesey). |
Sources for the proceedings of the Commons
D’Ewes.
A journal, edited by Miss Miller, amounting to 22 quarto pages of typescript, dealing with the proceedings against Mary Stuart during the first session of this Parliament, Camb. Univ. Lib. Cg. iii. 34.
An anonymous journal, amounting to 27 quarto pages of typescript in Miss Miller’s transcription, of part of the proceedings of the second session, 23 Feb.-8 Mar. 1587, Harl. 7188.
Other sources for the proceedings of this Parliament are:
Add. 5758; 48027; Egerton 2124; Sloane 326; Cott. Titus F.i; Ellesmere 1191; Lansd. 94, 103, 105; Stowe 361; Harl. 158, 6845, 6846, 1877; Bodl. Tanner 78, 79; New York, Pierpont Morgan Lib. MA. 276; Herts. RO, 10548; Inner Temple, Petyt 538/10; Queen’s Coll. Oxf. 284; SP Dom. Eliz. 199/1, 2; Fitzwilliam of Milton mss 178, 179; Lambeth Palace Lib. ms 178.
