Monmouth

Monmouth Boroughs remained under the control of the dukes of Beaufort throughout the period.E. E. Havill, ‘Parl. Rep. Mon. 1536-1832’ (Univ. of Wales MA thesis, 1949); R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830’ (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), i. 259. They were in command of the close corporations of Monmouth and Usk. Although Newport was less amenable and grew considerably in this period, the aldermanic oligarchy there was not hostile as long as the duke did not interfere with their profits; and the Morgans of Tredegar, who owned much property in the borough, were the duke’s allies in county politics. The 5th Duke found, however, that the boroughs preferred to be represented by members of his family: in 1790 he came to an arrangement with Daubeney, the candidate for Bristol, to retire in favour of his heir Lord Worcester, offering Daubeney Monmouth in lieu, ‘but the Welshmen gave his Grace to understand that they would not be compromised but would willingly choose Lord Charles in the place of the marquess. This the duke objected to as Lord Charles is suspected of the sin of Whiggism.’NLS mss 11143, f. 167; PRO 30/8/107, f. 137. Instead Beaufort returned Charles Bragge, whom he had made recorder of Monmouth beforehand and whom his heir introduced there.Glos. RO, Bragge Bathurst mss X17/37-39, 42.

Subsequently the 5th and 6th Dukes returned members of their family. In 1813 Worcester’s return was postponed until he could be present in person, which would ‘make the election go off with more good humour’.Ibid. X17/53. After the election of 1818, and following some agitation for local improvements in the previous year, opposition to the Beaufort monopoly commenced, led by John Hodder Moggeridge of Llanrumney, a Whig reformer of commercial background.Brougham mss 28702. In the borough elections at Monmouth in October 1818, the duke’s nominees were opposed and succeeded only by manipulation, which their foes contested by proceedings in King’s bench, obtaining a judgment of ouster early in 1819.Grey mss, Goodwin to Grey, 17 Oct., 11, 30 Nov. 1818, Moggeridge to same, 15 Jan., 9 Apr. 1819. They did not control the corporation for long, for the duke’s nominees were returned in October 1819 and further lawsuits were necessary to depose them. The struggle, which was accompanied by a similar but independent one at Newport, dragged on until 1831, Moggeridge being unsuccessful in his first attempt in 1820 to contest the boroughs in a parliamentary election: on that occasion the duke’s control of Usk proved crucial and his opponents’ expectations too sanguine.