Linked borough

The rivalry between the Herberts of Montgomery Castle, who controlled the county town of Montgomery, and their Catholic cousins the Herberts of Powis Castle, who similarly dominated two of the out-boroughs, Llanfyllin and Welshpool, was effectively ended in 1689 by the outlawry of the Jacobite Marquess of Powis. It is true that influence of Powis Castle could still be felt in Llanfyllin and Welshpool in 1690, and there may have been some electoral significance in the admission of 64 new freemen in Welshpool in that year, but this was the swan-song of the Powis interest.

The existence of so many out-boroughs in Glamorgan did not necessarily produce a large or unmanageable electorate: only Cardiff, Swansea and Neath were in any way thriving urban centres, the remainder being little more than villages. Moreover, in each case the lord of the manor could exercise, through his appointee as constable or steward, a degree of control over the government of the corporation and the admission of freemen; and where the authority of the manorial proprietor was less than absolute, borough politics tended to be oligarchic rather than popular.

Despite the fact that its freeman electorate was ‘without limitation’ and therefore numerous, the Flint Boroughs constituency was subject to the same cartels through which county elections were controlled, and especially so after 1697, when the only surviving interests belonged to the leading Tory gentry, the Conways, Hanmers and Mostyns.

Although the Commons decided in 1744 (significantly, on an amendment to their original motion) that the franchise in Denbigh Boroughs was confined to resident freemen, and this after hearing evidence of elections under William III and Anne, it is highly unlikely that the qualification was ever imposed before that date.

Of the Cardiganshire boroughs, the county town itself was easily the most important: the elections were always held there, with the mayor acting as returning officer. Governed by its common council, a self-perpetuating oligarchy responsible for the admission of freemen, Cardigan corporation was controlled by the owner of the priory estate. At the beginning of the period this was the outgoing Whig Member Hector Phillips, who returned himself again in the 1690 election.

The borough seat at Caernarvonshire, like that for the county, was under the undisputed control of the leading Tory interests for most of this period. Sir Robert Owen, the outgoing Member in 1690, was safely re-elected twice, dying shortly before the dissolution of the 1695 Parliament. His successor, Sir John Wynn, 5th Bt., was similarly untroubled by a contest, and graduated to the county representation in 1705, whereupon he was replaced by one of the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill, Anglesey, emerging now as the dominant force on the Tory side.