POLITICAL HISTORY 



The towns quarrelled among themselves as to their status and jurisdiction 

 all through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In 1432 Poole obtained 

 an Act of Parliament reducing Melcombe for a time from a port into a creek, 

 and erecting itself into a port.^ It was erected into a county by Letters 

 Patent of 1568, but the borough was still subject to the authority of the 

 Lords-Lieutenant of Dorset, the Privy Council, the year after, sending a 

 special letter to ensure this.^ The burgesses of Dorchester in 1445 succeeded 

 in enforcing certain jurisdictions as against those of Bridport.' They had 

 already (14 14) drawn up by-laws for the governance of their town.* 



Eleven towns sent representatives to Parliament at one time and another. 

 Dorchester, Bridport, and Lyme sent them continuously from 1295,^ Shaftes- 

 bury from 1297,° and Wareham from 1302.^ Weymouth and Melcombe 

 (the latter summoned in 1305 and 1306, but not replying) were represented 

 from the reign of Edward II onwards.* Sherborne was represented at the 

 Great Council held in 1344.' Blandford was represented in Parliament on 

 two isolated occasions^" (i 305 and 1329). Poole was represented in 1341, 

 1363, and 1 369, and then not again till 1453 or 1455, after which it returned 

 members continuously.^^ Corfe Castle returned no member till 1572.'^ The 

 knights of the shire during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were 

 drawn '' from that class of secondary landholders which furnished the ' new 

 men ' of the Tudor county-administration. Their forefathers appear for the 

 most part as knights of the great feudatories, but themselves inconspicuous. 

 The families of Mowbanks (or Maybank), Turberville, Newburgh, Sifrewast, 

 Goviz, Herring, Matravers and Filliol (many of them commemorated in 

 place-surnames) now begin to come into prominence as representing the 

 county in Parliament. It is not till the reign of Edward VI that the well- 

 known names of Strangways and Horsey occur in this connexion. 



In spite of the growth of popular freedom, the local influence of the 

 great barons was still strong in 131 1, when Gaveston fled to the west. The 

 king was compelled to issue a proclamation (30 November) ordering search 

 to be made for him. Dorset was mentioned as one of his probable hiding- 

 places.'* Gilbert of Clare was the king's close friend, and Gaveston's brother- 

 l in-law ; and Henry of Lacy ^' (who had only just died, and had, indeed, 

 ended his days in the county) had before his death come to an understanding 

 with the king, probably with reference to Gaveston.'* Alice, daughter and 

 heiress of Henry of Lacy and Margaret of Salisbury had, it is true, married 

 Thomas of Lancaster, the son and heir of Edmund, son of Henry III, who 

 held, in his own right, the manors of Kingston, Fordington, and Bere,'' 

 together with other Dorset manors,'* both in his own right and in that of 



' ffeymouli darters, i, 26 ; Sydenham, op. cit. 4, 5. 



' Browne- Willis, Not. Pari, ii, 407 ; Sydenham, op. cit. 179 sqq. 



' Dorch. Corp. MSS. A. 9, B. 2. * Ibid. ' Dorchester Domesday.' 



' Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 356, 12, 51. ' Browne-Willis, Not. Pari. 11,478, 483. 



' Hutchins, op. cit. i, 84. * Ibid, ii, 433, 452- 



' Browne-Willis, op. cit. i, 87. '° Ibid, ii, 391. 



" Hutchins, op. cit. i, 25. " Ibid, i, 471. 



" See list in Hutchins, op. cit. i, p. xlv sqq. 



" Rymer, Foedera (orig. ed.), iii, 294. " Vide supra. 



'* Cal. Docts. Scot, iii, 177. 



"Duchy of Lane. Misc. Rec. xi, 37 a'. 69 a'.; FeuJ. Aids, i, 17 ; Chart. R. 8 Edw. I, No. 73, m. 7, No. 37. 



'* Duchy of Lane. Misc. Rec. xi, 55. 



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