68 General History of Bath. 



Prynne was grandson of William Sherston, the first 

 Mayor of Bath after Elizabeth's charter. He was born at 

 Swainswick, Sherston's country house, and educated at the 

 Bath " Grammar School." 



Of this singular man, with his intolerance and vehemence 

 and combative tendencies, space forbids us to speak in 

 detail. By temperament and education a democrat, he now 

 found himself the advocate of despotic power ; by religious 

 conviction an austere Puritan, he was the friend of the most 

 profligate Court which ever disgraced the country. 



The very opposite to Prynne was Henry Chapman. 

 Sprung from a wealthy clothier family, he adopted the pro- 

 fession of arms, and held commission as a Captain of Horse 

 during the Civil Wars. During the Royalist occupation he 

 was deputy-governor of his native city, and sought refuge in 

 Wales upon its capture. At the Restoration he was indig- 

 nant at the favour shown to Prynne, and at the scant 

 attention bestowed upon himself 



The Corporation were, in March, 1661, proposing to elect 

 Prynne and Popham (both old Parliament men) as the city 

 members. Sir Thomas Bridges, who was then being sued 

 by the Corporation for extortion whilst governor, accused 

 Ford, the mayor, of disloyalty, and had him summoned 

 before the Privy Council. During his absence. Chapman, 

 without any legal pretence, assumed the mayoralty, and got 

 possession of the sheriff's "precept." He proposed Bridges 

 and Berkeley as the members, but, finding himself in a 

 minority in the Town Council (who then exercised the sole 

 power of election), set up a claim that the freemen and 

 not merely the .Council were entitled to vote. Prynne 

 ridiculed this approach to popular representation, and, by 

 reference to precedents, established the vicious custom. 



