1606: Introduced by Christopher Brooke: no clients of noblemen or other parliament men to be chosen; none to be chosen ‘upon any letters Mandatory or of Request, nor for Money or other Gift’. Willson, Parliamentary Diary of Robert Bowyer, 100.

1614: the details are unrecorded, but its concern was clearly the same as that of 1606, to prevent influence. Sir Henry Anderson protested against carpet-baggers, and Serjeant Montague demanded that none ‘should come in by Letter, for the only Way to bring in Servitude’. This was evidently a common demand, for Sir Edwin Sandys had earlier drawn a distinction between nobles' letters ‘to whom they bound in Love’ which was not packing, whereas ‘to press with Letters, or by Fear, etc.’ was. Sir Francis Goodwin protested against the frequency of disputes, and that mayors and bailiffs were returning themselves, and demanded ‘a plain Law’ to clarify elections. Hake will was concerned with the bill also, which clearly arose from the Stockbridge affair: as Montague said, ‘This a fit Subject for a necessary Law’. C.J., 1, 463, 468, 478, 494.