ANCIENT PARLIAMENTS.
(To the Editor.)
In the Literary Magazine for 1792 I find the following list of places, which formerly sent members to parliament:—
| Dunstable | Odiham | Langport |
| Newberry | Overton | Montacute |
| Ely | Bromyard | Stoke Curcy |
| Wisbeach | Ledbury | Watchet |
| Polurun | Ross | Were |
| Egremont | Berkhemstead | Farnham |
| Bradnesham | Stoteford | Kingston upon Thames |
| Crediton | Greenwich | Bradford |
| Exmouth | Tunbridge | Mere |
| Tremington | Manchester | Highworth |
| Liddeford | Melton Mowbray | Bromsgrove |
| Modbury | Spalding | Dudley |
| Southmolton | Waynfleet | Kidderminster |
| Teignmouth | Bamberg | Pershore |
| Torrington | Corbrigg | Doncaster |
| Blandford | Burford | Jervale |
| Winborn | Chipping Norton | Pickering |
| Sherborn | Doddington | Ravenser |
| Milton | Whitney | Tykhull |
| Chelmsford | Oxbridge | Hallifax |
| Bere Regis | Chard | Whitby |
| Alresford | Dunster | and |
| Alton | Glastonbury | Leeds |
| Basingstoke | ||
| Fareham |
The three last named places were summoned during the Commonwealth—also Manchester;—when discontinued, not known. Greenwich was summoned 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary; discontinued 6th of Philip and Mary. The other places were principally summoned and discontinued during the reigns of Edward the First, Second, and Third. Calais, in France, was summoned the 27th of Henry the Eighth; discontinued 3rd of Philip and Mary.
In the reign of Edward the Third, an act of Parliament, made in the reign of William the Conqueror, was pleaded in the case of the Abbey of St. Edmundsbury, and judicially allowed by the court. Hence it appears (says a writer on this subject) that parliaments, or general councils, are coeval with the kingdom itself.
The first triennial parliament was in the year 1561; the first septennial one, in the year 1716.
Henry the Eighth increased the representatives in parliament 38; Edward the Sixth, 44; Mary, 25; Elizabeth, 62; and James the First, 27.
P.T.W.