Carmarthen, the setting for the county and borough parliamentary elections in the Elizabethan period, was the administrative, financial and judicial centre for South Wales. A flourishing shire town with more than a thousand inhabitants at the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was incorporated in 1546 and governed by a mayor, two bailiffs, twenty councilmen and a recorder.J. E. Lloyd, Carm. ii. 13-17; HMC Hatfield, xii. 168; W. Wales Hist. Soc. viii. 4, 14-16.
The leading family in Elizabethan Carmarthenshire was that of Jones of Abermarlais, members of which represented the county in five Parliaments during this period. Next in the county hierarchy came the Vaughans of Golden Grove, who were to supersede the Jones family in the next century. Three Vaughans represented the county in Parliament. Walter Vaughan came in at a by-election in 1576, succeeding to his father’s parliamentary seat as well as his estates. Walter Rice (1584) of Newton, from an old and well-connected Carmarthenshire family, was Walter Vaughan’s brother-in-law.
The borough of Cardigan, a royal possession, was governed by a mayor, a body of aldermen and two bailiffs. It also had a recorder, town clerk and coroner. Although the county court met alternately at Cardigan and Aberystwyth, ‘the most populous town in the whole county’, the borough elections were usually held at Cardigan and presided over by the mayor.
The county court met alternately at Cardigan and at Aberystwyth.The representation of Cardiganshire was virtually monopolized during Elizabeth’s reign by the Price family of Gogerddan. John Price I, j.p., custos rotulorum and member of the council in the marches of Wales, sat in three successive Parliaments. His son Richard Price II, succeeded him in 1584 and sat in the Parliament of that year while still in his twenties. He succeeded to all his father’s offices and became deputy lieutenant of Cardiganshire in 1597.
Caernarvon, shire town of Caernarvonshire and setting for the parliamentary elections for the county and borough seats, was prospering in the sixteenth century. John Wynn of Gwydir put this down to expanding trade and to the fact that the ‘exchequer, chancery and common law courts for all North Wales were there continually residing’. In accordance with the charter of Edward I, the town was governed by the constable of the castle (ex officio mayor) and two bailiffs chosen annually by the burgesses.
During Elizabeth’s reign the Wynns of Gwydir were the leading family in Caernarvonshire and three members of the family took county seats. Despite the difference in surname, Maurice Wynn (1563) and John Gwynne II (1572) were brothers. Maurice, as eldest son of John Wynn ap Meredydd, had succeeded to the Gwydir estates in 1559, while John had left Wales to make his future in Cambridge and London, where he settled.
Brecon, shire town of a new county created by the Act of Union, received a charter of incorporation in 1556. A common council of 15 capital burgesses was created, from which a bailiff and two aldermen were to be chosen annually. The councilmen were authorized to meet in the guildhall at Brecon, and to elect a recorder and a common clerk. The first councilmen, chosen from the ‘better and honester burgesses’, are named in the charter.
County representation in Breconshire was monopolized during this period by the Vaughans of Porthaml and their relatives. Sir Roger Vaughan, the head of this branch of the family, took the county seat in 1559, but gave his son the opportunity to sit for the shire in 1563. When Rowland Vaughan died before the second session of the Parliament, he was replaced by Matthew Arundell from Dorset. Although Arundell had no obvious connexion with either Breconshire or the Vaughans. the most likely explanation for his return lies in a court connexion with the family.
In 1562 Beaumaris was granted a charter, which was unique in North Wales although common enough in English boroughs. It established a governing body of 24, comprising a mayor, two bailiffs and 21 capital burgesses. Provision was also made for a recorder, a common clerk and coroner, and the borough was to have its own j.p.s. Two factors contributed to the granting of the charter, the burgesses’ offer to keep the town’s defences in repair at their own cost, and the influence at court of the leading local family, the Bulkeleys.
The Bulkeleys of Beaumaris achieved pre-eminence in Anglesey during this period. However, their increasing domination of county affairs was resented by the longer-established and related landowning families, the Owens of Bodeon and Brondeg, and the Meredydds of Bodowyr. At the beginning of the reign they were powerful enough to obtain two of the county seats (Meredydd in 1559, when his uncle, Lewis Owen ap Meurig was sheriff, and Owen himself in 1572).
