Domesday Book. The Manor and Castle seem always to have descended
together, and were often granted to princes of the blood, and the
favourites of our kings, yet as often reverted to the Crown by attainder
or forfeiture. In the reign of Richard the Second, they were held by
Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, jointly with Alicia, his wife. In the reign
of Henry the Fourth, they were granted to the _Beauforts_, Earls of
Somerset; but were taken from that family by Edward the Fourth, who
bestowed them successively on Richard, Duke of York, and George, Duke of
Clarence; on the attainder of the latter, they reverted to the Crown.
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