Flintshire

The constituency of Flint Boroughs comprised the shire town and four out-boroughs, of which the largest was Rhuddlan in the county’s north-western corner, with a population by 1670 of approximately 800. ‘Flint Boroughs’, HP Commons 1509-58, HP Commons 1604-29; N. Powell, ‘Urban population in early modern Wales revisited’, WHR xxiii. 37. Flint itself, on the Dee estuary, was a small, castellated town with no market and an above-averagely poor and ageing population that by 1670 probably numbered no more than 600. R.

Seventeenth-century Flintshire consisted of a relatively narrow strip of land stretching along the north-Wales coast between Denbighshire and Cheshire, and a detached enclave to the south east, the Maelor Saesneg (English Maelor), that was surrounded by Denbighshire, Cheshire and Shropshire. The county was described in the 1670s as ‘not over-mountainous as the other parts of Wales, and interlaced with fertile valleys both for corn and pasturage, feeding good store of small cattle from which they make plenty of butter and cheese’. R.

The representation of these boroughs was controlled by the local squires. Sir John Glynne retained the seat without opposition until his death in 1777;NLW, Glynne of Hawarden mss, 1, 4, 11, 13. and was succeeded by Watkin Williams, of an influential Flintshire family, whose father had represented the constituency 1742-7. Thomas Hanmer, son of Sir Walden Hanmer, issued an address in 1777 but did not stand; and there seems to have been no opposition to Williams in 1780 or 1784.

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.

In 1715 Sir John Conway was returned unopposed for Flint Boroughs under an agreement made by the leading Tory families of the county.See FLINTSHIRE. On his death in 1721 he was succeeded by another Tory, Thomas Eyton, who was unsuccessfully opposed by a Whig in 1722.

The indentures do not always specify the names of the boroughs, but it would appear that the bailiffs and burgesses of Overton seldom attended elections in this period. The success of the Whitley interest from 1660 to 1681 is remarkable for more than one reason. The family was only recently established among the county gentry, and Roger Whitley was a younger son, who never resided in Flintshire during this period. Doubtless, as a prominent Cavalier conspirator, he would not even have been considered if the general election of 1660 had been held at the proper time.

The small county of Flint contained five boroughs whose burgesses claimed to take part in elections for the borough Members. Of these, Flint, the shire town, and Rhuddlan were settlements established with royal charters, at the Edwardian conquest. Each was governed by the constable of its castle, who was also mayor ex officio, and by two annually elected bailiffs. A similar charter was granted by Edward the Black Prince, to Caergwrle (also known as Hope, after an English township within its boundaries).

The castle, town and borough of Flint were founded by Edward I on the Dee estuary at the conquest of Wales, and had thenceforth remained the centre of government in north-east Wales. The constable of the castle was originally ex officio mayor, but was so often an absentee that the mayoralty was usually exercised by a local man, in 1553 Thomas Salusbury. The Edwardian charter vesting municipal administration in two bailiffs elected annually by the burgesses was confirmed repeatedly throughout the middle ages and again by Mary in 1555.

The 1536 Act of Union enfranchised the shire town of each Welsh county except Merioneth; in the case of Flintshire, representation was extended to include four other boroughs, only one of which, Rhuddlan, was of any consequence.SR, iii.