What struck contemporary commentators on Cardiganshire was evidently the sparse pasture of the county’s uplands, ‘horrible with the sight of bare stones’. In the eyes of those who measured prosperity by the extent and quality of farming practices, the landscape was rendered even less tolerable by the relative absence of animal husbandry. The Itinerary in Wales of John Leland ed. L.
In this period there seems no certain way of identifying which of the contributory boroughs contributed to the electoral process, or to what extent. Nor is it possible to know which of the minor boroughs were still considered eligible to participate. Marian legislation had stipulated that the county court sessions should alternate between Cardigan and Aberystwyth, thus consolidating the primacy and rivalry of these two towns before 1640, but the fragmentary evidence suggests a weakening of involvement beyond Cardigan.
Cardigan and Aberystwyth were controlled by the Pryses of Gogerddan; Lampeter by the Lloyds of Peterwell. Atpar was no longer of importance during this period: its corporate structure was destroyed in 1741, and by 1774 the number of its freemen had fallen to two.
Thomas Johnes sent wrote to Newcastle about the constituency on 18 Jan. 1760:Add. 32901, f. 359.
The Cardigan boroughs had been keenly contested throughout the 18th century among the county families but there was no contest in this period until 1812.
The chief interest in Cardigan Boroughs was that of the Pryses of Gogerddan, Tories, who controlled Cardigan and Aberystwyth; Tregaron was controlled by the Powells of Nanteos, also Tories; and Lampeter by the Lloyds of Peterswell, Whigs. Up to 1729 Tories were returned without a contest except in 1725, when Thomas Pryse of Dol unsuccessfully attempted to take advantage of a minority in the Gogerddan family to secure his own return by arranging for a mass admission of freemen at Aberystwyth.W. Powell to Mr.
All the Members in this period were returned on the interest of the Philipps family, who as owners of the Priory dominated the principal borough. The writ for the general election of 1660 went astray, but there is no evidence of opposition to James Philipps, one of the Propagation committee who had ruled Wales under the Commonwealth.
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 castle and borough of Cardigan, situated in the south-west of the county, belonged to the crown. A document of 1199, sometimes said to be a borough charter, was a release from various dues for four years: this was renewed in 1230. The first extant charter, that of 1284, was confirmed and amplified throughout the middle ages and again in 1527. By the 16th century authority was vested in a mayor and two bailiffs assisted by a common council and several municipal officers: the coroner for the town was appointed by the chamberlain of South Wales.
Cardigan was founded as a Norman military centre, occupying a strategic position on the banks of the Teifi where the river flows into the Irish Sea. In the 1240s and 1250s, following a turbulent period when the borough became a battleground between Welsh and English interests, it acquired a wall and an impressive castle. In 1279 Edward I made Cardigan the political and administrative capital of Ceredigion, and gave it a charter of incorporation in 1284 modelled on that of Carmarthen.R.A. Griffiths, ‘The Making of Medieval Cardigan’, Ceredigion, xi.