Montgomeryshire

Montgomeryshire was described in the 1670s as ‘very hilly and mountainous but interlaced with many fertile valleys both for corn and pasturage ... It hath for its eastern limits Shropshire, for its southern the counties of Radnor and Cardigan, for its western, Merionethshire, and for its northern, Denbighshire with parts of Merioneth and Shropshire’. R. Blome, Britannia (1673), 289.

In the county’s rich lowlands on its eastern side, arable farming predominated, while in the upland areas to the west, it was the rearing of livestock for the English market and the manufacture of coarse cloth for sale to the Shrewsbury drapers. ‘Montgomeryshire’, HP Commons 1604-29; F. Emery, ‘The farming regions of Wales’ in The Agrarian Hist. of England and Wales ed. J. Thirsk (Cambridge, 1967), iv. 122, 132-3, 157; D. Jenkins, ‘The demography of late-Stuart Mont. c.1660–1720’, Mont. Colls. lxxviii. 82. Montgomeryshire’s population by the 1670s stood at about 30,000 and was concentrated in the eastern lowlands of the Severn and Vyrnwy valleys. L. Owen, ‘The population of Wales in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries’, Trans. Hon. Soc. Cymmrodorion (1959), 111; Jenkins, ‘Demography of late-Stuart Mont.’, Mont. Colls. lxxviii. 82, 100. The size of the electorate in the mid-seventeenth century is unknown, although it is likely to have exceeded 1,000. Shire elections were held alternately at Montgomery and at Machynlleth, in the far west of the county. ‘Montgomery Boroughs’, ‘Montgomeryshire’, HP Commons 1604-29.

The Herbert families of Montgomery Castle and Powis Castle, near Welshpool, in the east of the county, had dominated Montgomeryshire’s parliamentary representation since the 1550s, periodically fending off challenges from their great rivals to the west, the Vaughans of Llywdiarth. HP Commons 1509-58; HP Commons 1558-1603; HP Commons 1604-29; DWB, ‘Vaughan fam. of Llwydiarth, Mont.’ Following the summoning of the Short Parliament late in 1639, Richard Herbert* of Montgomery Castle, heir of Edward Herbert†, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, quickly emerged as the frontrunner to take the county seat. Infra, ‘Richard Herbert’. His principal competitor on this occasion was not one of the Vaughans but the head of an old, though less distinguished, Montgomeryshire family, Sir John Price of Newton. Newton’s grandfather had sat for the county on the Herbert interest in 1572, but the family had been allied with the Vaughans since the 1580s. Infra, ‘Sir John Price’; ‘Montgomeryshire’, John Price II’, HP Commons 1558-1603. Late in February 1640, Price’s agent predicted that Richard Herbert would stand and that Price ‘will come short of him to be knight of the shire’ – and so it proved. ‘Pryce (Newton Hall) corresp.’ ed. E. Powell, Mont. Colls. xxxi. 302-3. On election day at Machynlleth on 7 March, Herbert was returned, apparently without a contest. The contracting parties on the election indenture were the county sheriff and four named freeholders and ‘many others’. These same five gentlemen were the only signatories. C219/42/2/119.

In the elections to the Long Parliament that autumn, held (again) at Machynlleth on 17 October 1640, Price claimed the county seat, with Herbert securing return for the Boroughs a week later. Infra, ‘Montgomery Boroughs’. Herbert’s electoral interest may well have been weakened by his absence that summer and early autumn fighting the Scots in the second bishops’ war and his subsequent court martial (for some unspecified misdemeanour). Infra, ‘Richard Herbert’. Election for the Boroughs was probably his consolation prize. The county indenture was similar in layout and wording to its predecessor for the Short Parliament, but the returning parties were a much larger group of named freeholders – more than 40 in number – and ‘many others’, and included George Devereux* and at least three members of the Vaughan family. The Herberts are conspicuous by their absence. C219/43/3/202.

Sir John Price sided initially with Parliament during the civil war, defected to the royalists in 1643 and then switched back to the parliamentarians following his capture by them in 1644. Appointed governor of Montgomery Castle, he again betrayed his trust and was disabled from sitting as an MP on 20 October 1645. (Herbert had been disabled in 1642). Infra, ‘Sir John Price’. The Montgomeryshire seat was left vacant while the royalists retained a foothold in Wales, and it was not until 11 November 1646 that the Commons ordered the issuing of a writ for a new election to replace Price. CJ iv. 719a. The Cornish Presbyterian MP Francis Buller I evidently tried to manage the ‘recruiter’ elections in Montgomeryshire – where he owned an estate – on behalf of Edward Vaughan* of Llwydiarth (for the county) and Vaughan’s cousin Charles Lloyd* (for the Boroughs) and, to that end, Buller’s electoral agent may have helped secure the appointment as county sheriff of Rowland Hunt, who was connected through his brother Thomas Hunt* with Sir Robert Harley* and his Presbyterian circle in and around Herefordshire. The main political link between Buller, Vaughan and the Harleys was their shared opposition to the army. Infra, ‘Francis Buller I’; ‘Thomas Hunt’; ‘Charles Lloyd’; ‘Edward Vaughan’; PROB11/184, ff. 321v-322; Buller Pprs. 98-9. On election day at Montgomery on 6 February 1647, the county returned Vaughan.

Vaughan was a highly controversial figure in Montgomeryshire, having seized his recusant and delinquent nephew’s estate and retained it by affecting to support Parliament in the civil war, although he had been prepared to defy both sides when they had threatened his interests. He had consolidated his position locally by making ‘many friends’ among Montgomeryshire’s parliamentary committeemen and securing the influential position of chairman of the county’s sub-committee of accounts. Infra, ‘Edward Vaughan’. The returning parties on the election indenture were 28 named freeholders, headed by the man who would shortly be elected recruiter MP for Montgomery Boroughs, George Devereux, and ‘many others’, comprising ‘the greater part of the whole county’ – a formula that might suggest a contest. All 28 of the named parties, who included two members of the Vaughan family, signed the indenture. Again, the Herberts are nowhere to be seen. C219/43/3/204. Vaughan was secluded at Pride’s Purge in December 1648, leaving Montgomeryshire without formal representation in the Rump. Infra, ‘Edward Vaughan’. However, one of the Members for Wales in the Nominated Parliament was the Montgomeryshire ‘saint’, Richard Price of Gunley. Infra, ‘Richard Price’.

Montgomeryshire, like other Welsh counties, was assigned a second parliamentary seat under the Instrument of Government of 1653, and in the elections to the first protectoral Parliament in the summer of 1654 it returned the candidate for the Boroughs in 1646-7, Charles Lloyd – a London merchant who had succeeded his brother to the family estate at Moel-y-Garth, near Welshpool, and had purchased sequestrated property in his native county. He probably owed his return to a combination of his own local interest and the support of his cousins of Llwydiarth. Infra, ‘Charles Lloyd’. The election indenture is badly damaged, but the returning parties were 50 or more named freeholders and ‘divers other persons qualified and capable to elect Members’. C219/44/3/12. Price’s return was quickly challenged – very probably on the initiative of his local opponents – on the grounds of his past disloyalty and duplicity, and he was omitted from the list of approved Members that was published before Parliament assembled. CSP Dom. 1654, p. 346; Severall Procs. of State Affaires no. 258 (31 Aug.-7 Sept. 1654), 4095 (E.233.22). Unconvinced by his political rehabilitation under the Rump, the protectoral council had duly excluded him. He petitioned the protector and council in November, pleading his loyalty to the government, but to no avail. Infra, ‘Sir John Price’; CSP Dom. 1654, p. 399; P. Gaunt, ‘Cromwell’s purge? Exclusions and the first protectorate Parliament’ PH vi. 13.

In the elections to the second protectoral Parliament in the summer of 1656, Sir John Price was replaced by Colonel Hugh Price of Gwern-y-go, near Newtown and the border with Shropshire. Charles Lloyd retained his seat. A loyal Cromwellian officer and commander of Powis Castle, near Welshpool, Price very probably enjoyed the backing of Major-general James Berry* and the county’s parliamentary governors. The indenture has not survived. Neither Price nor Lloyd was among those Members excluded from this Parliament for disaffection to the government. Hugh Price died in November 1657, five months after Sir John Price. Infra, ‘Hugh Price’.

Montgomeryshire was reduced to its traditional one Member in the elections to Richard Cromwell’s* Parliament of 1659, when this seat was re-taken by Edward Vaughan. There is no evidence of a contest. Again, the indenture has not survived. Charles Lloyd switched from the county to the Boroughs seat. Infra, ‘Charles Lloyd’. The county returned Vaughan’s nephew, John Purcell, to the 1660 Convention and Vaughan himself to the Cavalier Parliament in 1661. HP Commons 1660-90.