March, 1640 Short Parliament election
Reflecting on the county election for the Short Parliament in Essex in March, 1640 “ Sr Wm Masham motioned yt ye countees might have freedom in yr election of Burgesses, and Lords or Justices not intermeddle in it” (British Library. Harleian Ms.4931 , fol.47r. 16 April, 1640) 1 The election of Members of the House of Commons in March, 1640 is well known from the surviving accounts of Sir Humphrey Mildmay of Danbury in his diary 2 , from the protest made by William, Lord Maynard, the county’s joint Lord Lieutenan t 3 , to Sir Thomas Barrington of Hatfield Broad Oak, one of the victorious candidates, shortly after polling day, and from the observations of Henry Nevill of Cressing Temple, who had been defeated in the contest, just over two weeks later 4 . All of them were unsympathetic to t he patron of the victorious candidates, Sir Thomas Barrington and Sir Harbottle Grimston, namely, Robert Rich, 2 nd Earl of Warwick , and shared concerns over the behaviour of the freeh