 The corporation had resident representatives in Newport, Lymington and Portsmouth.By a charter of Henry VI, granted on 9 March 1446/7 (25+26 Hen.VI, m. 52), the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses of the towns and ports of Southampton and Portsmouth became a County incorporate and separate from Hampshire.The status of the town was changed by a later charter of Charles I by at once the formal separation from Portsmouth and the recognition of Southampton as a county, In the charter dated 22 June 1940 the formal title of the town became "The Town and County of the Town of Southampton".