Pembrokeshire

At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign the leading county families in Pembrokeshire were divided into factions supporting either Sir John Perrot of Haroldston or William Philipps of Picton in their long-standing feud. However, despite violent clashes in London between Philipps and Perrot, and a contested borough election at Haverfordwest, there is no evidence of a contested county election in this period.

In terms of county representation in the early years of the reign, the Perrot faction appear to have had the upper hand. In the first two Parliaments of the reign, the two rivals took their turn. By 1571 however, Perrot had taken up office in Ireland and one of his faction, John Wogan of Wiston, was returned as knight of the shire. The following year, with Perrot still absent in Ireland and Wogan incapacitated from standing by his office of sheriff, William Philipps was able to take the seat again. But his faction’s triumph was short-lived as he died in 1573, and was replaced at a by-election by John Wogan. Coincidentally, Wogan also died without completing the Parliament. It is not definitely known who represented Pembrokeshire in 1581, but as Sir Thomas Perrot, son and heir of Sir John, features in the journals of the House in the 1581 session of the Parliament only, and as he is not known to have represented any other constituency, he has been suggested for Pembrokeshire. With Philipps dead and Sir John Perrot serving as lord deputy in Ireland, a seemingly neutral gentleman, Thomas Revell, of an old-established and well-connected county family, was returned in 1584 and 1586.

For the next three elections the dominating influence in South and West Wales was the 2nd Earl of Essex, and in Pembrokeshire he lent his support to the anti-Perrot faction. In 1589 he returned his uncle and former guardian, the impecunious George Devereux as knight of the shire, thus relegating Sir John Perrot, newly returned from Ireland, to a borough seat at Haverfordwest. Sir John Perrot’s son, Sir Thomas, then allied himself with Essex, his brother-in-law, and was returned by Essex for the county in 1593, despite his father’s attainder. In 1597 (Sir) Gelly Meyrick, steward of Essex’s Welsh lands and owner of property in Pembrokeshire, was returned.

By the time of the 1601 election, however, the leaders of both the Perrot and Essex factions had been removed. Sir John Perrot died in the Tower in 1592; his son, Sir Thomas, died two years later and Essex and Meyrick had both been executed for treason. The story comes full circle with the election, as last MP of the reign, of John Philipps, nephew and eventual heir of the 1559 Member, and, ironically, son-in-law of his family’s traditional enemy, Sir John Perrot.