Commons 1790-1820

The borough of Pembroke had been the focus of the influence of the Owens of Orielton since the mid 17th century. It was on their doorstep and the corporation enfranchised voters in their interest only: the admission books were not even accessible to their opponents in the litigation that followed the contest of 1812. The Owens had not succeeded in their earlier attempts to disfranchise Wiston, the lesser contributory borough which was influenced by their enemy Lord Cawdor, lord of the manor by purchase from 1794, who at once created 600 burgesses. The Owens now did the same at Pembroke.

The leader of the Haverfordwest corporation, which had a decisive influence in elections, was Lord Milford, representing the long established interest of the Philipps family of Picton Castle. Since 1747, however, the seat had been held, apart from one break from 1784 to 1786, by the representative of the next strongest interest, William Edwardes, Baron Kensington. This arose from an arrangement whereby Kensington supported the Picton Castle interest for the county against the Owens of Orielton.R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830’ (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), i.

The county representation had long been in dispute between the two leading interests, the Owens of Orielton and the Philippses of Picton Castle, popularly styled the Orange and Blue parties respectively.R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830 (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), i. 279. Sir Hugh Owen, 5th Bt., who had ousted his rival Lord Milford, died in 1786 leaving an infant heir, whereupon Milford obtained the lord lieutenancy and resumed his seat unopposed, strengthened by his alliance with Lord Kensington, whom he returned for Haverfordwest.

Since 1728 Montgomery had been in the pocket of the Herbert family, earls of Powis, and attempts to oppose them were few and far between. According to a lawyer of local origin, Samuel Humphreys, writing conspiratorially to his brother, 15 Dec. 1788: ‘an opposition to Lord Powis in the borough would succeed if a proper person contended against him and if the persons concerned in it would be regulated by discretion and secrecy’.

The clash between the two leading landed interests in the county, those of the Earl of Powis and the Williams Wynn Family of Wynnstay, had led in 1774 to the return of William (Mostyn) Owen on the Powis interest. Subsequently, however, his politics displeased his patron and if Owen held his seat undisturbed until his death it was because his politics pleased the Williams Wynns and Lord Powis wished to avoid another expensive contest. Having thus gained the upper hand, Sir Watkin Williams Wynn and his allies secured the return of Francis Lloyd by compromise in 1795.

Such was the primacy of the ancient family of Vaughan of Corsygedol that they held the county seat for 85 years of the 18th century.P. D.G. Thomas, Merion. Hist. Soc. Jnl. (1957), 129. Prestige, based on continuous residence and respectable alliances, gave them this hold, for in point of property Sir Watkin Williams Wynn was the leading landowner; and his family ‘always looked to a seat for that county’, according to the Marquess of Buckingham, 2 Aug.

The Cardiff Castle interest was predominant in this period, returning all the Members.Ll. B. John, ‘Parl. Rep. Glam. 1536-1832’ (Cardiff Univ. M.A. thesis, 1934); R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830’ (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), i. 219. It was transmitted by the marriage of the heiress of Viscount Windsor in 1766 to John Stuart, 4th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bute (d. 1814), and he returned three of his sons; the 2nd Marquess returned his brother in 1818.

The county did not go to a poll from 1780 until 1820. A contest had seemed likely when the Parliament of 1784 was dissolved, but the retiring county Member Charles Edwin of Dunraven Castle, ambitious to secure the return of his son Thomas Wyndham, averted it by resigning in 1789, while the rival candidate, put up as he himself had been by the ‘Grand Alliance’ of landowners led by the Duke of Beaufort and the future Marquess of Bute, was absent on naval duties.

Watkin Williams of Penbedw represented the boroughs unchallenged for nearly 30 years: his father had sat for Flint too, and on his being persuaded to retire in 1806 he wished his wife’s great-nephew, Col. Shipley, to succeed him. The latter was about to marry a sister of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, 5th Bt. (whose father was first cousin of the retiring Member) and he hoped to get the support of the Williams Wynns and of their uncle Lord Grenville, the prime minister.

Flintshire was represented by members of the Mostyn family of Mostyn almost throughout the 18th century. Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th Bt., held the seat unchallenged until his death in July 1796, just after being returned a ninth time. Opposition to him had been advertised in 1796, but it was apparently a stunt of the friends of (Sir) Robert Williams I in Caernarvonshire to prevent Mostyn from supporting Lord Penrhyn there, and it ‘had the desired effect, as he left Caernarvonshire’.