Printed and Published at the Dover Express Works. 1916.

TO BE FORMATTED

ANNALS OF DOVER.
SECTION EIGHT.
DOVER IN PARLIAMENT.
V. RETROSPECT OF REPRESENTATION.

Looking back through this narrative of the repre-
sentation of Dover in ParUament, one regrets the gaps
that are left in the early parts of the record; yet, there is
cause for congratulation that so much has been preserved,
seeing how liable such information was to be left incomplete
or to be carelessly stored during the disturbed times of the
Wars of the Barons and the Roses. It will have been observed
that there are no Dover returns earlier than the year 1366,
yet there is no doubt but that Dover was continuously
represented from January, 1265, when Simon de Montford
convened the first regular assembly of Burgesses and Com-
moners. It is said that on that occasion, owing to the
special services which the Cinque Ports had rendered to the
cause of the Barons, each of the Five Ports were asked to
send four of their burgesses to represent them. All those
early Cinque Ports returns are lost; therefore, there is lack
of conclusive evidence as to how many Burgesses of
Parliament were sent up from Dover in the Thirteenth Cen-
tury. In 1366, when Dover's regular records of representation
begin, it was the custom for the writs for all the
Cinque Ports to be sent, en bloc, to the Lord Warden
at Dover Castle, and it was supposed to be owing to
that arrangement that the returns are available from
that year. That, however, is doubtful. In fact, there
is a record that the King's writs were sent to Robert
Kendall, Lord Warden at Dover Castle, as early as the i8th
November, 1325, directing him to issue mandates for the
election of two Barons of discretion to represent each of
the Cinque Ports at Westminster. This fact is avouched by
Sir Francis Palgrave's Collection of Parliamentary Writs,
and from similar previous records there is reliable evidence
that Dover was regularly represented in Parliament from 1265
to 1366, but the returns for that period are lost.

The ParUamentary writs in Sir Francis Palgrave's collec-
tion, for the same period, afford interesting evidence of the
representation of the rural parishes round Dover, in the



406 ANNALS OF DOVER

persons of the Abbots of St. Radigund's Abbey and Langdon
Abbey. Those Abbots received writs, not only for personal
attendance in ParUament, but also calling upon them to lend
money and raise armed forces. For instance, Sir Francis
Palgrave's collection mentions: "The Abbot of St. Radigund's
summoned to Parliament at Northampton, August 26th,
1307." "The Abbot of St. Radigund's summoned to a Par-
liament at Westminster at Easter, 1309." The same Abbot was
summoned to Parliaments at London in 131 1, and at Lincoln
in 1312. This Abbot, in March, 1315, was summoned to
attend Parliament at Westminster, and was asked to furnish
from the Abbey chest forty marks, to aid the King in the
war against the Scots. In February, 1322, the same Abbot
was summoned by writ to raise as many men-at-arms and
foot soldiers as he could to march against the rebels,
adherents of the Earl of Lancaster, and to muster at
Coventry. In the year 1315, the Abbot of Langdon Abbey
was summoned by writ to attend the Parliament at West-
minster, and to lend from the Abbey funds fifty marks, to
aid the war against the Scots.

This sort of representation of this locality, by Bishops,
Abbots, and Barons, in the great Council of the Realm,
which had existed from Saxton times, was continued alongside
Simon de Montford's Parliament of Citizens, Burgesses, and
Commoners.

The actual list of 137 Members for Dover, given in the
foregoing narrative, would have been swollen to quite double
the number if we had been able to fill in the blanks left in
the Reigns of the rrst three Tudor Icings, and the Wars of
the Barons and the Roses. The 137, however, may be taken
as an important example of ihe representation of an ancient
English Town and Port in the great Council of the Realm.