Beaumaris

Beaumaris was controlled by the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill, Tories, who under George I returned Henry Bertie, the 4th Lord Bulkeley’s brother-in-law, defeating William Bodvell, a Whig, in 1722. After Bodvell’s defeat a petition was presented reviving the claim of the borough of Newborough to share in the representation, but no decision was reached on it. In 1727, when Bertie appears to have been unwilling to undertake to resign in favour of the fifth Lord Bulkeley on his coming of age in 1728, the Baron Hill interest was given to Watkin Williams Wynn, who was returned against Bertie and Bodvell. Petitions by the defeated candidates were rejected by the House of Commons on 3 Mar. 1730, when the right of election was determined to be in the Beaumaris corporation only.1CJ, xx. 25, 230, 335; xxi. 29, 35, 48-49, 188, 202, 472-3; Mr. Bodvell’s case, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss. On this Wynn gave up his seat to Lord Bulkeley by opting to sit for Denbighshire, where he had also been elected. Thereafter the Bulkeley dominance was unchallenged until 1832.