The constituency of Caernarvon Boroughs comprised five chartered boroughs that dotted the coastline of north-west Wales from Conwy in the east to Criccieth on the southern side of the Llŷn peninsula. The largest and most important of these boroughs was Caernarfon itself, which served as the county’s administrative and judicial centre, although the second town of the county, Conwy, had periodically pressed its own claims for that role.
Regarded as ‘the most impassable, barren country of all Wales’, Caernarfonshire was described in the 1670s as
By 1754 Caernarvon Boroughs was firmly under the control of the Wynn family of Glynllivon. They held the constableship of Caernarvon castle; the mayoralty of Nevin was hereditary in the family; that of Pwllheli in their allies the Vaughans of Corsygedol; but Criccieth was controlled by the Owens of Brogyntyn. The Wynns were unchallenged until a family dispute opened the way for a rival interest. After the general election of 1780 Glyn Wynn realised that his elder brother, Lord Newborough, who had been defeated for the county, would demand the borough for himself.
The fratricidal struggle between Thomas Wynn, 1st Baron Newborough, and Glynn Wynn at the 1784 election marked the eclipse of the supremacy of the Wynns of Glynllifon in the boroughs.P. D. G. Thomas, Trans. Caern. Hist. Soc. xx. 72; K. Evans, ibid. viii.
By 1713 Thomas Wynn of Glynllivon, the leader of the local Whigs, had won control of the constituency from the Tory families by the mass creation of non-resident voters in the boroughs of Nevin and Pwllheli, after which the seat remained under Glynllivon dominance for over 70 years. The only challenge, in 1722, was instigated by William Owen of Brogyntyn, who had retaliated by admitting many non-resident voters in his borough of Criccieth. In 1724 Wynn control was consolidated by the acquisition of the constableship of Caernarvon castle, carrying with it the mayoralty of Caernarvon.
No estimates of the total electorate in this constituency survive, but there were 60 freemen in the principal borough in 1685, and it is reasonable to suppose that none of the four contributory boroughs exceeded this figure. The charter of 1284 provided that the constable of Caernarvon Castle, who was appointed by the crown, should also act as mayor during his term of office. Since he seems to have functioned as returning officer, this gave a potential interest to the Robartes family, constables from 1663 to 1713.
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.
The castle, town and borough of Caernarvon were founded by Edward I following the destruction of the residence there of the princes of Gwynedd at the conquest of Wales. The constable of the castle was ex officio mayor, and as constable from 1523 until his death in 1551 John Puleston more or less controlled the town. His successor John Harington II is not known to have visited Caernarvon and during his term of office the constableship was exercised by a local deputy, Robert Gruffydd.
Probably founded by the Normans in about 1090, Caer yn Arfon [the fort in Arfon cantref] quickly reverted to Welsh control until its capture by Edward I, whose heir, the first Plantagenet prince of Wales, was born there in 1284. In the same year the Statute of Rhuddlan established the new town as the administrative centre of the principality of North Wales; hence Sir John Wynn’s† description of the inhabitants as ‘the lawyers of Caernarvon’. Afer a slow start, the town grew under the Tudors, having a population of perhaps 1,000 in 1600.