Politics in Glamorgan in this period can be understood in terms of the maintenance of the power of the Mansel dynasty, which survived a generational change of partisan allegiance, from Whig to Tory, and was even strengthened in 1706 by the union of its two branches, at Margam and Briton Ferry. Periodic opposition to the Mansels’ ascendancy was concentrated on the Boroughs, where the family was more vulnerable, though in 1705–8 factional conflict overflowed into the shire election.
Flintshire elections were the preserve of a charmed circle of greater gentry, the four families of Conway, Hanmer, Mostyn and Puleston, who for the most part arranged the county and borough representation among themselves, serving in rotation. Aside from Sir Roger Puleston, a moderate Whig, who in any case died in 1697 heavily in debt, all were Tories.
The Myddeltons of Chirk Castle had held the upper hand in Denbighshire county elections since the Restoration; after 1684, when the estates of their only serious rivals, the Salusbury family of Lleweni, passed, through a failure in the male line, to the Cottons of Combermere, Cheshire, they were utterly dominant. Sir Richard Myddelton, 3rd Bt., a High Tory, was returned without opposition at every election from 1685 until his death in 1716.
The overpowering interest of the Vaughans of Golden Grove, headed by the Earl of Carbery [I] (John Vaughan†), custos of Carmarthenshire from the Revolution onwards, made the county (one of the more populous in Wales) a citadel of Whiggism until the Sacheverellite fever of 1710. The ability of the Whig Sir Rice Rudd, 2nd Bt., to retain the shire seat unopposed until he died, derived, we may assume, from support Carbery must have accorded him, since Rudd was himself nearly bankrupt and his Carmarthenshire estates were weighed under with debt.
The Vaughans of Trawscoed (also known as Crosswood) and the Pryses of Gogerddan, Whig and Tory respectively in this period, were traditional rivals in Cardiganshire politics, and in the 1690 general election the master of Gogerddan, Sir Carbery Pryse, 4th Bt., defeated the master of Trawscoed, John Vaughan, through the connivance, or so Vaughan alleged, of the county sheriff. Such considerations may explain the complaint made to the House on 1 Apr. 1690 that the Cardiganshire return had not yet been made to the Crown Office.
Until the last Parliament of Queen Anne, elections in Caernarvonshire were controlled by a nexus of powerful Tory families, among whom the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill, Anglesey, were increasingly prominent. Sir William Williams, 6th Bt., of Vaynol, was re-elected in 1690, probably with Bulkeley support, and after his death in 1697 (which incidentally marked the eclipse of the Vaynol interest), Hon. Thomas Bulkeley, a senior representative of the Baron Hill family and the owner himself of a large Caernarvonshire estate, succeeded without opposition.
In the later 17th century three families dominated Breconshire politics: Jeffreys of Brecon Priory, Jones of Buckland, and Morgan of Tredegar. The first two were Tory in sympathy; the last, Whig. Of these the Morgans had their principal base in Monmouthshire, while the Jeffreys showed more concern for the borough of Brecon than the county. Edward Jones was therefore returned unopposed in 1689.
At the beginning of this period the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill were by far the largest landowners in a county in which, even by Welsh standards, armigerous families were scarce.Unless otherwise stated, this article is based on the account of Anglesey politics by P. D. G. Thomas in Trans. Anglesey Antiq. Soc. 1962, pp. 35–47. The 3rd Viscount Bulkeley’s rent-roll of £4,000 p.a. dwarfed all other estates with the exception of the Bagenals of Plas Newydd, who in any case had interests elsewhere and were generally inactive in Anglesey politics.
Useful, though not disinterested, accounts of the electoral state of Radnorshire were given by Chase Price to the Duke of Portland on 12 and 15 Sept. 1765 when urging him to buy the Maesllwch estate,Portland mss. and to the Duke of Grafton on 1 Oct. 1766 when urging him to assume as first lord of the Treasury direct control over the King’s manors in Radnorshire:Chatham mss. the two, the estate and the stewardship of the manors, ‘grafted one upon t’other’ would determine elections both in the county and the borough.
Electorally Pembrokeshire was the largest of the Welsh counties. Throughout this period its politics turned round the rivalry between its two leading families, the Owens of Orielton and the Philippses of Picton Castle. The struggle was fought between Sir William Owen and Sir John Philipps, and then between their sons, Hugh Owen (who succeeded his father in 1781) and Sir Richard Philipps (created Baron Milford in the Irish peerage in 1776).