Carmarthenshire

About the middle of the eighteenth century the Vaughans of Golden Grove were the leading family in Carmarthenshire. On the retirement of John Vaughan in 1754, his son Richard was opposed by George Rice of Newton, whose grandfather had sat for the county in Queen Anne’s reign and whose father had been unseated on petition in 1722. Rice was supported by Griffith Philipps of Cwmgwili, who was then establishing his control over the borough. Although John Vaughan had been an adherent of the Pelham Administration, Newcastle noted in his survey for the general election that Rice had been promised support by ‘Mr. Pelham and all the Whigs’. The result was a triumph for Rice, who retained the seat without opposition until his death in 1779. An attempt by Vaughan to organize an opposition to him at the general election of 1768 came to nothing.1Vaughan to Wm. Powell, 15 Sept. 1766, Nanteos mss, NLW; Add. 38457, ff. 181-2.

Rice’s eldest son was only 13 at his father’s death, and Carmarthenshire reverted to the Vaughans. On John Vaughan’s retirement in 1784 Sir William Mansel of Iscoed, an influential local squire, was returned unopposed.