Caernarvonshire

At the beginning of the eighteenth century Caernarvonshire was controlled by a group of Tory families, headed by the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill in Anglesey. In 1713, however, William Griffith of Cefnamwlch, the Tory Member for the Caernarvon Boroughs, allied himself with the local Whigs, led by Thomas Wynn of Glynllivon, and was returned for the county against the official Tory candidate. On his death soon after his re-election in 1715, he was succeeded by his brother John, a Whig, who held the seat without opposition till his death in 1739, when two rival Whig candidates, Thomas Wynn’s son, John, and William Bodvell, came forward for the vacancy. The dispute was settled by H. A. Herbert, who reported to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, 6 Jan. 1740:

I have been so fortunate as to reconcile the two Whig gentlemen for the support of the Whig interest, who were opposing each other with great warmth; and to disappoint the Tories, who were ready and endeavouring to take all advantage of these differences between them, and to ruin that interest. Mr. Wynn is returned without opposition and Mr. Bodvell and he have engaged for the future, to assist each other for the town as well as for the county of Caernarvon.1Add. 35600, f. 233.

Under this agreement, Wynn gave up the county seat in 1741 to Bodvell, who was returned for it again in 1747 with the support of the Wynns, defeating another Whig candidate sponsored by the Tories under the direction of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn.2See P. D. G. Thomas, ‘Parl. Rep. Caern. 1708-49’, Trans. Caern. Hist. Soc. (1958).