THE REPRESENTATIVE HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. COMPRISING BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL NOTICES OF THE Members of Parliament FROM 1 EDWARD VI., 1547, TO 10 VICTORIA, 1847. BY ROBERT H. O'BYRNE, EDITOR OF "THE PARLIAMENTARY VOTE BOOK." PART II.-BERKSHIRE. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN OLLIVIER, 59, PALL MALL. 1848. PREFATORY NOTICE. IT was the Author's intention to have allowed this part of his work to have passed from his hands without comment, reserving such for the next portion, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE-which will complete the first volume of the Representative History of Great Britain and Ireland. To his subscribers, however, he has to apologize for the delay that has occurred in the appearance of this number. Had he been aware of the immense labour that awaited him in its production, he would certainly have named a more distant day of publication. He trusts, nevertheless, that such delay will be found more than compensated for by the accuracy and detail to which it has led. To have merely collected the topographical particulars of the county and boroughs of Berkshire, interspersed as they are, with much original matter, and including complete Lists of the Members of Parliament from the reign of Edward VI. to the present time, with annotations on the various franchise questions that have arisen during the last three centuries, would, in itself, have constituted a work of considerable research; when, however, to this is added a complete record of each gentleman's family, whose name occurs on the Lists of Members-amounting in the aggregate to nearly 400 individuals—the laborious nature of the task may perhaps be in some degree estimated. Had there been any distinct source to which he might have applied for the historical matter, he now submits to the public, its collection might have been made in a comparatively short period. The Berkshire Chronicle in its recent Review of the First Part of this work, alluded to the lamentable deficiency of its county in topographical literature.-The truth of the remark has been severely tested. ASHMOLE'S Antiquities of Berkshire, which appeared in the early part of the last century, more than a hundred years ago, are but poor collections of church epitaphs and pedigrees, rendered useless from the total absence of dates. LYSON's Berkshire, in his Magna Britannia, though forming an excellent record of the descent of the manors of that county from family to family, possesses but little matter on the subject of personal history. COATE'S Annals of Reading, owing to its want of a general index, could be but seldom consulted; the information derived from it, was of course, of a local character. From this it is evident that recourse must have been had to other records than those possessed by the county of Berkshire. To enumerate the number of works thus consulted among the invaluable manuscripts and printed books in the British Museum, would be an almost endless task. Suffice it therefore to state that every standard work on the subject of Genealogical, Biographical and Parliamentary History, including numerous obsolete pamphlets and diurnals, has been referred to;-and here the Author would take the opportunity of returning his best thanks to those gentlemen who have kindly come forward and tendered him their valuable assistance by affording him access to family documents connected with the subject of the following pages. To the Town Clerks, also, who have with much courtesy favoured him by revising his proof sheets, he begs to offer his sincere acknowledgments. In conclusion, that the following records of Berkshire, gleaned as they are from works of the highest authority, and embracing as they do, a history of the greatest families ever connected with that county, will be hailed as an acquisition by the gentry of Berkshire, the Author trusts he will not be considered presumptuous in confidently expecting; for independently of the numerous families who will find their names immediately connected with this History, the men of Berkshire cannot but contemplate with satisfaction and pride, an attempt, however poorly executed, to place on record the loyal and constitutional spirit of their ancestors, as at all times evinced by their votes, which have returned to the House of Commons, some of the most illustrious senators of which the brilliant annals of that assembly can boast. THE REPRESENTATIVE HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. BERKSHIRE, 22 EDWARD I. BERKSHIRE, or as it is written by our older topographers, BARKSHIRE, is an inland county of England, included in the Oxford circuit, and in the diocese of Oxford, forming an archdeaconry of itself. It extends from 51° 19′ to 51° 48′ N. lat., and from 34′ 30′′ to 1° 43′ W. long. The extreme length is 48 miles; greatest breadth, 29; and circumference, 208. It comprehends an area of 752 square miles, and consequently 481,280 acres; or, according to the population returns of 1841, 481,280 acres. On the north it is bounded by the Thames, which separates it from the counties of Gloucester, Oxford, and Buckingham; on the east by Surrey; on the south by Southampton; and on the west by Wiltshire. The population amounted in 1801 to 109,215; in 1811, to 118,277; in 1821, to 131,977; and in 1831, to 145,200. According to the last census, there are 80,231 males, and 80,916 females. Total, 161,147. The same return also estimates the number of houses at 31,653, inhabited; 1590, uninhabited; 207 building. It is divided into 20 hundreds, viz. Beynhurst, Bray, Charlton, Compton, Cookham, Faircross, Farringdon, Ganfield, Hormer, KintburyEagle, Lambourn, Moreton, Ock, Reading, Ripplesmere, Shrivenham, Sunning, Theale, Wantage, and Wargrave. It contains the boroughs of Reading, Wallingford, Windsor, and Abingdon. Berkshire is chiefly an agricultural county; and possesses some of the finest corn-land tracts in the kingdom. The western and central parts are considered the most fertile; the east and south being chiefly occupied by Windsor Forest, with a considerable portion of waste and unenclosed lands. The most fertile district is the vale of the White Horse, which receives its name from the figure of a gigantic horse cut on the side of a hill, so as to expose the white chalk below. The vale of the Kennet is next in natural fertility, and perhaps superior in cultivation. Wheat, oats, barley, beans, peas, buck-wheat, vetches, rape seed, turnips, and potatoes, are extensively cultivated; as also, though in a minor degree, onions, carrots, hops, wood, flax, asparagus, and lavender. The average rent of land is about 25s. per acre. The predominant wood of the county is hazel; but ash and alder are VOL. I. H |