Beaumaris

Beaumaris was the only corporation borough in Wales. Under its charter of 1562 the franchise lay with the mayor, two bailiffs and 21 aldermen. There were no contributory boroughs, and in normal times it was completely subservient to the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill, just outside the town. The return of the Commonwealth official Griffith Bodurda at the general election of 1660 was doubtless part of a bargain by which the qualification of Robert Bulkeley, Viscount Bulkeley, for the county was not challenged. In 1661 he was replaced by Bulkeley’s brother-in-law, the solicitor-general, Heneage Finch. When Finch chose to sit for Oxford University, the King instructed Lord Carbery as lord president of the council in the marches to secure the election of an exiled Cavalier from Denbighshire, John Robinson. Lord Ossory (Thomas Butler) wrote to Bulkeley either on his own behalf or to promote the candidature of some other member of the family. But the letter went astray, and Robinson was duly returned.1Anglesey Antiq. Soc. Trans. (1962), 36; Bodl. Carte 214, f. 294.

The Bulkeleys monopolized the representation of Anglesey in the next four Parliaments. In February 1679 Bulkeley’s heir Richard was returned for the borough, and his brother Henry, a courtier, for the country. They both voted against exclusion, but exchanged seats in the autumn. Henry Bulkeley was re-elected in 1681 and 1685, but fled abroad at the Revolution. In any case Bulkeley, before his death in October 1688, had already promised the seat to Sir William Williams, who came from an Anglesey family and owned property in the island. The dean of Bangor, outraged at the candidature of the renegade Whig who had played a principal part in the trial of the Seven Bishops, proposed a local attorney, Owen Hughes, and it seems that the return of Williams was only secured by allowing the ‘common burgesses’ to vote.2NLW 1548, f. 33; 11020E/17; Plasgwyn mss 84.