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Petersfield
Borough
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Elections
Date | Candidate |
---|---|
7 Jan. 1559 | SIR HENRY WESTON |
GEORGE RITHE | |
1563 | SIR HENRY WESTON |
TOMAS DERING | |
1571 | JOHN COWPER |
ROBERT RITHE I | |
15 Apr. 1572 | RICHARD NORTON II |
RALPH BOURCHER | |
1572 | THOMAS CHATTERTON vice Bourchier, chose to sit for Newcastle-under-Lyme |
8 Nov. 1584 | SIR HENRY WESTON |
EDMUND MARVYN | |
7 Oct. 1586 | EDWARD RADCLIFFE |
EDMUND MARVYN | |
8 Nov. 1588 | BENJAMIN TICHBORNE |
EDMUND MARVYN | |
1593 | (SIR) WALTER COVERT |
RICHARD WESTON I | |
4 Oct 1597 | WILLIAM KINGSWELL |
THOMAS HANBURY | |
18 Oct. 1601 | WILLIAM KINGSWELL |
JOHN SWINNERTON |
Main Article
Petersfield was a non-incorporated borough, owned by the Weston family until they sold it in 1597 to Thomas Hanbury, an Exchequer official.1 Sir Henry Weston sat for Petersfield in 1559, 1563 and 1584, and his son, Richard Weston I, sat in 1593. They used their influence to return a relative by marriage, Benjamin Tichborne, in 1589, and two outsiders, Ralph Bourchier, a Yorkshire gentleman, in 1572, and (Sir) Walter Covert, a Sussex landowner, in 1593. Edward Radcliffe was a relative of the lord lieutenant of the county, the 4th Earl of Sussex, who obtained Radcliffe’s return in 1586 by arrangement with Sir Henry Weston.
Thomas Hanbury returned his son, also Thomas Hanbury, to the 1597 Parliament, the first after his acquisition of the manor of Petersfield. He also nominated John Swinnerton in 1601, and probably William Kingswell, a Hampshire country gentleman, in 1597 and 1601.
With the exception of Thomas Chatterton, who has not been identified, all the remaining MPs for this period had their own connexions with the borough. George Rithe (1559), Thomas Dering (1563), John Cowper and Robert Rithe I (1571) all owned local estates. Richard Norton II came from a Hampshire family who owned a little property near the borough. Edmund Marvyn married into a Hampshire family, and took up residence in Petersfield, representing the borough in the first Parliament after his marriage, and the two subsequent Parliaments.
Author: M.A.P.
Notes
- 1. VCH Hants, iii. 114-17.