Pembrokeshire

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.

Pembroke was controlled by the Owens of Orielton, Whigs, who always returned members of their family or nominees. In 1715 a Tory, Sir George Barlow, encouraged by a House of Commons decision in 1712 that the borough of Wiston had the right to vote in Pembroke elections,CJ, xvii. 108-10. which weakened the Owen interest, unsuccessfully challenged Thomas Ferrers, the Owen candidate. Both sides created new freemen, but Barlow failed in his attempt to poll the Wiston voters.CJ, xviii. 37; NLW, Gen. Coll.

After the death of John Laugharne, who sat for Haverfordwest as a Tory throughout Anne’s reign, the borough was usually represented by members of three local families, Barlow of Slebech, Philipps of Picton Castle and Edwardes of Johnston. The only exception was John Barlow of Lawrenny, a Whig, who though defeated at the poll, was awarded the seat on petition at the by-election following Laugharne’s death in 1715.

The Owens, with their principal residence only two miles south-west of Pembroke, established a claim to the borough seat in 1626, which, with the exception of the Protectorate Parliaments, they retained until 1695. Of the two out-boroughs, Tenby lay in the Owen orbit, but Wiston was controlled by the Wogans.

The indentures for Haverfordwest are extremely full and informative: they give names and occupations of the electors, and indicate the importance of the leather trade in the town. There were many contested elections, probably due in part to internal divisions, but also to attempts to impose court candidates. The two great county families, Owen of Orielton and Philipps of Picton, seem to have avoided open contests; but plainly exerted an influence in the borough.

Elizabethan Pembrokeshire contained a number of towns and villages which had achieved borough status during the medieval period, and were therefore entitled to take part in the elections of the borough Member of Parliament. Haverfordwest, the largest of these, was excluded, however, since, as a county in itself, it chose its own Member. Pembroke, the shire town, was incorporated in 1485, and governed by a council consisting of a mayor, two bailiffs and twelve of ‘the more honest men of the town and precincts’.

Haverfordwest, described by a royal official in 1577 as ‘the best built, the most civilised and quickest occupied town in South Wales’ had the distinction, unique in Elizabethan Wales, of being a county in itself, with its own sheriff and escheator.Arch. Camb. (ser. 6), iii. 46. A royal possession, it had already enjoyed a long history as a borough. The governing body consisted of a mayor, two bailiffs and, probably, a common council.NLW Jnl. ix.

The lordship, castle and borough of Haverfordwest, situated at the head of the Cleddau estuary, belonged to the crown. The town perhaps owed its origin to Gilbert de Clare (1110-17) but its first known charter is that of William Marshall (1189-1219). Marshall’s charter was confirmed and modified repeatedly throughout the middle ages and again in 1532, 1547 and 1554. By the early 16th century authority was vested in a mayor and a self-perpetuating council of Twenty-Four, assisted by several municipal officers sworn in before the chancellor of the lordship.

Although Pembroke had been the administrative centre for the earldom of that name since the 12th century, it was not declared the shire town at the Union. The King rejected the proposal by Bishop Barlow of St. David’s that Haverfordwest should be so designated on the score of its geographical convenience, but it was there that the county court usually met. Henry VII, who had been born at Pembroke, had incorporated it in 1485 as the mayor, bailiffs and burgesses, thus making it the first corporate borough in Wales.

Situated near the centre of Pembrokeshire, at the head of the Cleddau estuary and with roadways emanating from it in every direction, Haverfordwest was easily the most prosperous and populous town in the county. Its thriving Saturday market was reputed to be the best in all Wales for fish, and the town carried on a flourishing coastal trade with several English ports along the Severn, chief among which was Bristol, whose clothiers relied heavily on woollen shipments from the Milford Haven area.