[282] 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. [283] Glanvil's Reports of Elections, edit. 1774, Introduction, p. xii. [284] Prynne's third Register, p. 171. [285] 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. [286] Vita Ricardi II. p. 85. [287] Otterbourne, p. 191. He says of the knights returned on this occasion, that they were not elected per communitatem, ut mos exigit, sed per regiam voluntatem. [288] Prynne's second Reg. p. 141; Rot. Parl. vol. v. p. 367. [289] Prynne's second Reg. p. 450. [290] vol. i. p. 96, 98; vol. ii. p. 99, 105; vol. ii. p. 243. [291] Upon this dry and obscure subject of inquiry, the nature and constitution of the house of lords during this period, I have been much indebted to the first part of Prynne's Register, and to West's Inquiry into the Manner of creating Peers; which, though written with a party motive, to serve the ministry of 1719 in the peerage bill, deserves, for the perspicuity of the method and style, to be reckoned among the best of our constitutional dissertations. [292] Baronies were often divided by descent among females into many parts, each retaining its character as a fractional member of a barony. The tenants in such case were said to hold of the king by the third, fourth, or twentieth part of a barony, and did service or paid relief in such proportion.