During the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland the borough was not granted separate representation in the Protectorate Parliaments (1654–1659), from the county constituency of Down, Antrim and Armagh.
In the Patriot Parliament of 1689 summoned by King James II, Armagh Borough was represented by two members.
The sovereign of Armagh corporation was the primate's land agent, or the seneschal of the manor, making the constituency a bishop's borough.
The other burgesses were clergymen, "who seem to have held on an express or implied stipulation to resign on quitting the diocese, or in case of their becoming unwilling to act under the archbishop's direction".
As these clergymen naturally looked to the archbishop for preferment, it is improbable that there were many resignations under the last clause of the agreement; and a corporation so managed must have been as easy to control as through tenants who had taken an oath, and against whom, moreover, the agent had the additional lever of the "hanging gale" (rent arrears).