WILLIAMS, Sir Hugh, 8th Bt. (1718-94), of Nant, Caern.

Williams owed his seat for Beaumaris to his stepson the 1st Baron Bulkeley, whose family interest he thus maintained. Like Bulkeley, he supported Pitt’s administration, but without making any mark in the House. His diaries reveal that he took his seat on 7 Feb. 1791, ‘went to the House too late for division’ on 10 Feb. and attended ‘a long debate’ on 6 May. He was listed among opponents of repeal of the Test Act in Scotland at that time. He further attended regularly from March to May 1792, finding the debate on slave trade abolition ‘tedious’ and approving hostility to reform of Parliament ‘at this time’, 30 Apr. No further attendance is indicated and, with increasing ill health, Williams found himself frequently ‘at home all day, no company’. His major preoccupation, to judge by these pathetic documents, was the daily direction of the prevailing wind. He died 19 Aug. 1794.1UCNW, Baron Hill mss 5349, 5350; CJ, xlviii. 348.