MILITARY AND POLITICAL AFFAIRS, 1550-1642
MILITARY AFFAIRS
Although not involved in the rebellions following the
Reformation, the city took precautions as fear of a
Spanish invasion mounted during the mid 1580s:
military supplies were purchased, foot soldiers trained,
and a watch was kept for hostile shipping in the Dee.
The defeat of the Armada was duly celebrated, but the
authorities remained cautious and in the early 1590s
required new freemen to arm themselves, reviewed the
trained bands, and inspected munitions stored locally. (fn. 1)
After the outbreak of rebellion in Ireland in 1579
Chester was the main port used for sending English
troops levied in other parts of the country, who passed
through the city frequently and in growing numbers.
The mayor and other officials were often fully occupied
with receiving them and arranging quarters, food, and
money. Ships were requisitioned and provisioned, and
supplies of food, drink, stores, and ammunition were
sent to Ireland. The repeated demands strained local
markets, especially during the shortages of the later
1590s: prices rose, ships' masters demanded large
payments, there were difficulties with the authorities
of Liverpool, disaffected men deserted in droves and
were rarely captured, weapons were often found to be
defective, moneys were embezzled, profiteering was
rife, and Chester earned a reputation as a 'robber's
cave'. The city's expenses were supposedly reimbursed
by the treasurers-at-war, but funds were short or
delayed and loans had to be obtained locally. Disorderly conduct was frequent, especially when troops
were delayed by bad weather or lack of ships. To
contain it, in 1594 the mayor erected a gibbet at the
High Cross. (fn. 2)
Chester's military obligations grew when the Irish
campaign intensified in the 1590s. During the two
years from early 1600 many reinforcements passed
through the port, the mayor received a stream of
orders from the privy council, and there were further
problems of supply and unruly behaviour. (fn. 3) Even after
the effective end of the rebellion in 1603 the shipment
of men and munitions continued periodically, and the
mayor was called upon to collect funds for measures
against pirates. (fn. 4)
The corporation remained responsible for the city's
militia and vigorously upheld the right to organize it
independently of the county, (fn. 5) appointing a professional soldier as muster master to train the men. (fn. 6) In
1626 the lord lieutenant of Cheshire was ordered to
establish a magazine in Chester castle at the county's
expense, and an artillery yard was eventually laid out
near Cow Lane (later Frodsham Street), powder and
match for the trained bands being bought from city
funds despite the Assembly's reluctance to establish a
precedent. (fn. 7)
PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATION
In 1543 Chester was made a double-member constituency. It may have sent representatives to parliament in
1545, but its first recorded M.P.s were returned in
1547. It seems likely that until the later 17th century
the electorate comprised all adult males. In practice, as
there were perhaps no formally contested elections
except those of 1621 and 1628, the franchise was
initially exercised by the corporation, which selected
or at least approved the candidates. In 1621 the victors
were accused of canvassing people not qualified to
vote, but there was no objection to non-freemen
voters as such, and the number participating in 1628,
over 900, suggests a male inhabitant franchise. (fn. 8)
The city resisted attempts by outsiders to nominate
candidates or stand themselves. (fn. 9) Instead, leading
townsmen were usually elected: between 1547 and
1659 only two of 32 M.P.s were neither aldermen
nor fee'd lawyers. The recorder was almost invariably
chosen, with the result that some, notably Richard
Sneyd, William Gerard, and Edward Whitby, acquired
extensive parliamentary experience. Otherwise, repeated election was infrequent. (fn. 10) During the later
16th century the city's M.P.s helped secure provisions
favourable to Chester in legislation concerning recognizances, the removal of weirs in the Dee, poor relief,
and the regulation of taverns. In 1554 they were asked
to complain about the incorporation of the Merchants'
company, during the later 1580s to secure a grant for
the New Haven, and in 1610 to seek a reduction in the
duty on Irish yarn imports. (fn. 1)
Sometimes local quarrels influenced the choice of
M.P.s. During Mary's reign one of the seats alternated
between Thomas Massey and William Aldersey, possibly because of the controversy over the Merchants'
company. Similarly, the choice of William Glazier in
1571 and 1572 may have been an attempt to compromise in the dispute with the palatinate exchequer. (fn. 2)
Factionalism focused upon the Whitby family played
a large part in the contested elections of 1621 and
1628. (fn. 3)
ROYAL TAXATION
Attempts to secure reductions in the city's tax assessment failed in 1611 and 1625-6. (fn. 4) There were also
problems over a voluntary gift for a projected expedition against Barbary pirates in 1618-19, and over the
corporation's attempt to make the inhabitants of
Gloverstone liable to tax. Conversely, the forced loan
of 1626-7 was paid quickly, perhaps because the
various factions in the Assembly hoped to win privy
council favour in their disputes. (fn. 5) More serious arguments arose about the assessments for Ship Money. (fn. 6)
At the outset Chester was aggrieved at having to pay a
quarter of the county's total under the first writ of
1634, a proportion later reduced. The city authorities
then exempted citizens who had contributed to its
own assessment from payment for property held in
Cheshire, provoking the county to complain successfully to the privy council. Chester retaliated in 1635 by
assessing the sheriff of Cheshire, Sir Thomas Aston,
Bt., on profits received in the city from his farm of
duties on French wine imports. The county backed
Aston, and by 1636 also supported the dean and
chapter, the inhabitants of Gloverstone, and Sir
William Brereton, Bt., in their disputes with the city
over liability. (fn. 7) In 1638 the privy council ordered
Aston to pay with the city and declared Gloverstone
exempt, and in 1639 the dean and chapter paid with
the county. The arguments allowed both county and
corporation to protect their interests without openly
challenging the king. The dispute was mostly about
jurisdiction and did not seriously disrupt collection.
Chester's contributions were fully paid at first, though
delays began in 1636, and by 1640 the privy council
was upbraiding the corporation for widespread resistance.
THE DRIFT TO CIVIL WAR, 1640-2
During autumn 1640, with the Scottish army in northeastern England, the Assembly set up a nightly watch,
strengthened the defences at the Eastgate, Newgate, and
Bridgegate, and ordered members of the corporation
and others to supply corselets, muskets, halberds, and
calivers within a month. Arrears of an earlier assessment to replenish the magazine were called in, and
ordnance and carriages were brought from Wirral. The
trained bands were to be brought up to their full
strength of 100 men and placed under the captaincy
of Alderman Francis Gamull. (fn. 8) There were no military
threats during the following months, but the Assembly
did not meet between December 1640 and June 1641.
During that time, however, the city's M.P.s seem
to have followed a moderate and sometimes noncommittal line in the Commons. (fn. 9)
Defensive preparations remained half-hearted, with
the arrears for the magazine never fully collected, (fn. 10)
and funds for repairing the city walls having to be
borrowed from the proceeds of the prisage on wines
until an assessment could be levied. (fn. 11) Later in 1641,
when the Assembly was transacting very little business, it faced growing threats to public order. First,
the arrival of protestant refugees from the Irish
rebellion set off anti-popish hysteria, (fn. 12) culminating
in January 1642 in a skirmish just outside the city
between Catholics and protestants, with loss of life on
both sides. (fn. 13) By then troops bound for Ireland had
begun to arrive in the city, (fn. 14) and the authorities were
embroiled in the usual problems: shortage of shipping
and delays in embarking troops, unruly and violent
behaviour by waiting soldiers, rising prices of food
and fodder, and delays in repayment for quarters. (fn. 15)
The main puritan preachers had curtailed their
ministrations and some of the lectureships had
fallen vacant, although John Ley, Nathaniel Lancaster,
and Thomas Holford were still in the district and in
early summer were threatened with legal action for
failing to publish royal declarations in their
churches. (fn. 1)
The prevailing mood in Chester in summer 1642
was a wish for accommodation between Charles I and
parliament, reflected in the city's neutralist petition in
August and in its reaction to the parliamentary
commission of lieutenancy and the royal commission
of array. The Assembly stood fast against both an
attempt by James Stanley, Lord Strange, to secure the
county magazine in the castle for the royalists, and
Alderman William Edwards's and Sir William Brereton's effort to take control of the city's trained bands
for parliament. (fn. 2)
Nevertheless, Bishop Bridgeman, his son Orlando
(vice-chamberlain of Chester), other lawyers, and
prominent figures were apparently trying to encourage
royalist sympathies among leading citizens. (fn. 3) On 6 September Mayor Thomas Cowper secured a majority vote
in the Assembly for an immediate assessment of 100
marks to fortify the city. (fn. 4) The decisive event, however,
was the arrival of the king himself in Chester on 23
September. In an upsurge of loyalty he was greeted
with popular enthusiasm, pageantry, bellringing, and a
loyal address. The king's supporters seized their opportunity. The houses of known opponents, such as
Brereton and Aldermen Edwards and Aldersey, were
searched for arms; county gentlemen favourable to
parliament were rounded up; and parliamentary supporters in the corporation left. When the king departed
five days later, with a gift of money from the corporation, the parliamentarian presence in the city had all
but gone, and the royalist hold on Chester had finally
been consolidated. (fn. 5)