n.
Henry the Seventh granted them to his mother, the Countess of Richmond,
for life. In the 27th of his successor, Henry the Eighth, an act of
parliament was passed, by which they were given to Henry, Duke of
Richmond, his natural son. After his death they reverted to the Crown, and
were, by Edward the Sixth, bestowed on the Duke of Somerset; whose zeal
for the Reformation was undoubtedly invigorated by the numerous grants of
abbey lands made to him after the suppression of the monasteries. On the
duke's attainder, the demesne lands of the Castle were leased for
twenty-one years, on a fee-farm rent of 7l. 13s. 4d. In the 14th of
Elizabeth, the Castle and Manor, with the whole Isle of Purbeck, were
granted to Sir Christopher Hatton, whose heirs continued possessors till
the commencement of the 17th century, when the Manor and Castle were given
by Sir William Hatton to his lady, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas, Earl of
Exeter, and afterwards second wife to Lord Chief Justice Coke, who sold
them, in the year 1635, to Sir John Bankes, Attorney-General to Charles
the First, and afterwards Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. His
descendant, Henry Bankes, Esq. and representative for this borough, is the
present owner.

Though this is an ancient borough by prescription, it was not incorporated
till the 18th of Queen Elizabeth, when a charter was obtained by Sir
Christopher Hatton, by which the inhabitants were invested with the same
liberties as those of the Cinque Ports; besides being favoured with
various other privileges. This charter was afterwards confirmed by James
the First and Charles the Second. The government of the town is vested in
a mayor and eight barons--the barons are those who have borne the office
of mayor. The first return to, parliament was made in the 14th of
Elizabeth. The right of election is possessed by all persons within the
borough who are "seized in fee, in possession, or reversion, of any
messuage, or tenement, or corporal hereditament; and in such as are
tenants for life, or lives; and in want of such freehold, in tenants for
years, determinable on any life, or lives, paying scot and lot."[1] The
number of voters is between forty and fifty.

[1] Hutchins's Dorset, vol. i, p. 279, 2nd edit.

Corfe Castle "stands a little north of the town, opposite to the church,
on a very steep rocky hill, mingled with hard rubble chalk stone, in the
opening of those ranges of hills that inclose the east pa