388 Westbury under the Plain. 
Its obtaining that privilege is accounted for in the same way as in 
the case of Calne, Wootton Basset, Chippenham, and others. They 
were all Crown property, and the Crown took good care to strengthen 
its own position by bestowing the privilege on places under*its 
immediate control. The members for Westbury have been from the 
first, upon the whole, taken from among Wiltshire families in the 
immediate neighbourhood, and in one of these instances Westbury 
borough is distinguished as having been the first in which bribery was 
detected. The offender was Mr. Thomas Long, of the Semington 
branch of that family, but owner of a manor within the parish of 
Westbury ,who,in 1571 (14 Eliz.) ,was refused admittance to the House 
on the ground of having paid to the mayor four pounds to obtain the 
seat.' Among strangers wholly unconnected with the place who 
have been returned as members, Westbury may boast of two very 
eminent public men, Sir William Blackstone, the famous author of 
that standard work, the Commentaries on the Laws of England ; the 
other, the late Sir Robert Peel. There was also another M.P. for 
Westbury who deserves notice, Capt. Matthew Mitchell, R.N., who 
died in 1747. He had been a companion of Commodore (afterwards 
Lord) Anson in his voyage round the world in 1741, as commandant 
of The Gloucester. This unfortnnate ship, having been driven by 
bad weather far from the rest, narrowly escaped destruction, was 
lost for a considerable time, and when recovered was found with 
most of her crew dead, and the captain nearly so, from starvation. 
The story is given in Anson’s voyage. 
1'W. Prynne mentions this as the first precedent he could find for the Com- 
mons beginning to seclude one another upon pretence of undue elections and 
returns. The case is thus described by Oldfield :—“14 Eliz. May 9, 1571. 
Thomas Longe [Prynne prints Lucy, by mistake] gent. who was returned for 
this borough, and who was deemed not of sufficient capacity to serve in Parliament 
confessed that he had given Anthony Garlande, Mayor of Westbury, and one 
Watts of the same town, the sum of four pounds for that place and room of 
burgessship: And it was ordered by the House that the said Garlande and Watts 
should immediately repay the said Thomas Longe the said four pounds, and also 
that a fine of £20 be, by this House assessed upon the Corporation of the said 
town to the Queen’s Majesty’s use for the said lewd and slanderous attempt.”’ 
[Oldfield’s Parliamentary History, vol. v., p. 141.] 
