Carmarthenshire

The leading family in Elizabethan Carmarthenshire was that of Jones of Abermarlais, members of which represented the county in five Parliaments during this period. Next in the county hierarchy came the Vaughans of Golden Grove, who were to supersede the Jones family in the next century. Three Vaughans represented the county in Parliament. Walter Vaughan came in at a by-election in 1576, succeeding to his father’s parliamentary seat as well as his estates. Walter Rice (1584) of Newton, from an old and well-connected Carmarthenshire family, was Walter Vaughan’s brother-in-law. The only knight of the shire in this period who did not reside in the county was Herbert Croft of Croft Castle, Herefordshire (1588/9). However, through his great-aunt, Joyce Gamage, Croft was a substantial Carmarthenshire landowner. He was also connected with Gelly Meyrick, steward of the 2nd Earl of Essex, who was beginning to build up a parliamentary interest in South Wales for his master.