Beaumaris

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Right of Election:

in the corporation

Number of voters:

24

Elections

DateCandidate
10 Feb. 1715HENRY BERTIE
3 Apr. 1722HENRY BERTIE
 William Bodvell
26 Aug. 1727WATKIN WILLIAMS WYNN
 Henry Bertie
 William Bodvell
25 Mar. 1730RICHARD BULKELEY, 5th Visct. Bulkeley, vice Wynn, chose to sit for Denbighshire
8 May 1734RICHARD BULKELEY, Visct. Bulkeley
20 Apr. 1739JAMES BULKELEY, 6th Visct. Bulkeley, vice Richard Bulkeley, deceased
14 May 1741JAMES BULKELEY, Visct. Bulkeley
7 July 1747JAMES BULKELEY, Visct. Bulkeley
29 Jan. 1753JOHN OWEN vice Bulkeley, deceased

Main Article

Beaumaris was controlled by the Bulkeleys of Baron Hill, Tories, who under George I returned Henry Bertie, the 4th Lord Bulkeley’s brother-in-law, defeating William Bodvell, a Whig, in 1722. After Bodvell’s defeat a petition was presented reviving the claim of the borough of Newborough to share in the representation, but no decision was reached on it. In 1727, when Bertie appears to have been unwilling to undertake to resign in favour of the fifth Lord Bulkeley on his coming of age in 1728, the Baron Hill interest was given to Watkin Williams Wynn, who was returned against Bertie and Bodvell. Petitions by the defeated candidates were rejected by the House of Commons on 3 Mar. 1730, when the right of election was determined to be in the Beaumaris corporation only.1 On this Wynn gave up his seat to Lord Bulkeley by opting to sit for Denbighshire, where he had also been elected. Thereafter the Bulkeley dominance was unchallenged until 1832.

Author: Peter D.G. Thomas

Notes

  • 1. CJ, xx. 25, 230, 335; xxi. 29, 35, 48-49, 188, 202, 472-3; Mr. Bodvell’s case, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss.