Under George I and George II there were two main sources of electoral influence in Radnorshire: the Maesllwch estate, owned by Sir Humphrey Howorth, M.P. for the county 1722-55; and the stewardship of the King’s manors, comprising two-thirds of the county, granted to Lord Coningsby at George I’s accession. Coningsby used his power to destroy the influence of the Harleys,HMC Portland, v.
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 leading Whig family in Pembrokeshire were the Owens of Orielton, who represented the county from 1689 to 1710 and from 1715 to 1727. In 1727 John Campbell of Calder, and of Stackpole Court, Pembrokeshire, joined with another local family, Philipps of Picton Castle, to turn out Sir Arthur Owen.NLW, Gen. Coll.
Until 1727 this constituency was dominated by an alliance of the Tory patrons who controlled the three out-boroughs. Llanidloes lay in the Llwydiarth estate, inherited by Watkin Williams Wynn from Edward Vaughan in 1718; Welshpool and Llanfyllin in that of Powis Castle; Montgomery, the shire town, was controlled by the Whig Herberts of Oakley Park, who challenged the Tory interest represented by John Pugh in 1715 and 1722. On Pugh’s retirement in 1727 there was a double return.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century the dominant interests in Montgomeryshire were those of Edward Vaughan of Llwydiarth, the Member since 1679, and of the Marquess of Powis, who did not recover his Jacobite father’s estates till 1722. On Vaughan’s death in 1718 his estate and influence passed to his son-in-law Watkin Williams Wynn, whose nominees were always returned unopposed for the county, with the support of the Marquess of Powis.
The Vaughans of Corsygedol, who possessed the leading interest in Merioneth, represented the county as Tories without opposition from 1701. Although Watkin Williams Wynn of Wynnstay had inherited the important Rhiwgoch estate in 1719, he made no attempt to interfere in the affairs of Merioneth.
The eight boroughs were controlled by four Tory patrons, as lords of the respective manors: Swansea and Loughor by the dukes of Beaufort; Neath and Aberavon by the Mackworths of Gnoll; Kenfig by the Mansels of Margam; and Cardiff, Cowbridge and Llantrisant by the Windsors of Cardiff Castle. The dominant interest was Lord Windsor’s, but until his son, Herbert, came of age, and took the seat in 1734, he acquiesced in the nominations of the Mansels, who since 1689 had controlled the representation, with the consent of the other patrons.Ll. B. John, ‘Parl. Rep. Glam. 1536-1832’ (Univ.
Until 1734 Glamorgan was controlled by an alliance of three Tory peers, the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Windsor, and Lord Mansel. The Mansels represented it uninterruptedly from 1670 to 1712, when, in the absence of a Mansel candidate the alliance secured the unopposed election of a local Tory squire, Robert Jones, and on his death of another, Sir Charles Kemys. On the death of Kemys, Bussy Mansel, the then Lord Mansel’s uncle, was defeated by a Whig candidate, William Talbot, son of the lord chancellor, whose wife had inherited an estate in the county.
In 1715 Sir John Conway was returned unopposed for Flint Boroughs under an agreement made by the leading Tory families of the county.See FLINTSHIRE. On his death in 1721 he was succeeded by another Tory, Thomas Eyton, who was unsuccessfully opposed by a Whig in 1722.
