[n] Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria, vol. iii. p. 96, &c.; 3 Prynne, p. 224, &c.
[o] In 4 Edw. II. the sheriff of Rutland made this return: Eligi feci in pleno comitatu, loco duorum militum, eo quod milites non sunt in hoc comitatu commorantes, duos homines de comitatu Rutland, de discretioribus et ad laborandum potentioribus, &c. 3 Prynne, p. 170. But this deficiency of actual knights soon became very common. In 19 E. II. there were twenty-eight members returned from shires who were not knights, and but twenty-seven who were such. The former had at this time only two shillings or three shillings a day for their wages, while the real knights had four shillings. 4 Prynne, p. 53. 74. But in the next reign their wages were put on a level.
[p] Rot. Parl. vol. ii. p. 310.
[q] Rot. Parl. 1 H. V. c. 1.
[r] See the case of Dublin university in the first volume of Peckwell's Reports of contested elections. Note D, p. 53. The statute itself was repealed by 14 G. III. c. 58.
[] By 23 H. VI. c. 15, none but gentlemen born, generosi a nativitate, are capable of sitting in parliament as knights of counties; an election was set aside 39 H. VI. because the person returned was not of gentle birth. Prynne's third Register. p. 161.
[t] Willis, Notitia Parliamentaria, Prynne's fourth Register, p. 1184. A letter in that authentic and interesting accession to our knowledge of ancient times, the Paston collection, shows that eager canvass was sometimes made by country gentlemen in Edward IV.'s reign to represent boroughs. This letter throws light at the same time on the creation or revival of boroughs. The writer tells Sir John Paston, "If ye miss to be burgess of Malden, and my lord chamberlain will, ye may be in another place; there be a dozen towns in England that choose no burgess, which ought to do it: ye may be set in for one of those towns an' ye be friended." This was in 1472. vol. ii. p. 107.
[] Glanvil's Reports of Elections, edit. 1774, Introduction, p. xii.
[x] Prynne's third Register, p. 171.
[y] 28 E. I. c. 8; 9 E. II. It is said that the sheriff was elected by the people of his county in the Anglo-Saxon period; no instance of this however, according to lord Lyttelton, occurs after the Conquest. Shrievalties were commonly sold by the Norman kings. Hist. of Henry II. vol. ii. p. 921.