Flintshire

County

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

Background Information

Number of voters:

about 800 in 1702

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
16 Feb. 1715SIR ROGER MOSTYN 
11 Apr. 1722SIR ROGER MOSTYN 
13 Sept. 17271SIR ROGER MOSTYN431
 Thomas Puleston301
15 May 1734THOMAS MOSTYN 
26 May 1741SIR JOHN GLYNNE 
22 July 1747SIR THOMAS MOSTYN 

Main Article

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the representation of Flintshire was shared by the heads of its leading Tory families, Sir Thomas Hanmer, Sir John Conway and Sir Roger Mostyn, under agreements ratified at county meetings. From 1705 Hanmer took to sitting for English constituencies, leaving Conway and Mostyn to be returned for the county and Flint Boroughs, exchanging seats at agreed intervals. After Conway’s death without a male heir in 1721 Mostyn remained in possession of the county seat till he retired in 1734. A new agreement was then made between the leading Tory families, providing that his son Thomas should stand for the county and Sir John Glynne for the Boroughs; that in the event of a contest they should support one another, sharing expenses; and that if Glynne wished to stand for the county at the next election Mostyn should withdraw.2 Duly returned without opposition in 1734, Mostyn was succeeded by Glynne in 1741, after which the Mostyn family represented the county in every Parliament till 1837.

Author: Peter D.G. Thomas

Notes

  • 1. UCNW, Mostyn mss.
  • 2. NLW, Glynne of Hawarden mss 5198.