Haverfordwest

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 freeholders, freemen and inhabitants paying scot and lot

Number of voters:

about 450

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
14 Feb. 1715JOHN LAUGHARNE 
3 May 1715SIR GEORGE BARLOW vice Laugharne, deceased222
 John Barlow181
 JOHN BARLOW vice Sir George Barlow, on petition, 4 July 1715 
4 Mar. 1718SIR JOHN PHILIPPS vice Barlow, deceased 
17 Apr. 1722FRANCIS EDWARDES 
8 Feb. 1726ERASMUS PHILIPPS vice Edwardes, deceased 
30 Aug. 1727ERASMUS PHILIPPS 
6 May 1734ERASMUS PHILIPPS215
 Wyrriott Owen153
12 May 1741SIR ERASMUS PHILIPPS247
 Hugh Barlow207
13 Dec. 1743GEORGE BARLOW vice Philipps, deceased 
4 July 1747WILLIAM EDWARDES 

Main Article

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. In his petition he alleged that the mayor and sheriff, who were both in the interest of Sir George Barlow of Slebech, had illegally created many new voters, the mayor declaring that ‘he would make as many new burgesses as would serve his turn’. The Commons passed a resolution that the ‘proceeding of the mayor and common council in making burgesses without the consent of the commonalty was illegal’.1 There were no further contests until 1734, when Sir Arthur Owen, the lord lieutenant of Pembrokeshire, whom the Philipps family had opposed in the county election of 1727, set up his nephew, Wyrriott Owen, who was defeated by Erasmus Philipps, an opposition Whig. In an unsuccessful petition Owen alleged that the returning officer, being the servant of the Philipps family, accepted the votes of many electors who, according to the 1715 House of Commons resolution, were not qualified.2 At the next election Sir Arthur Owen again put up a nephew, Hugh Barlow of Lawrenny, in an unsuccessful attempt to use the 1715 resolution to oust Erasmus Philipps.3 Thereafter Tory candidates were returned unopposed. About 1749-50 the 2nd Lord Egmont observed in his electoral survey: ‘The best interest is in Edwardes ... Sir John Philipps has the next best interest’. The Edwardes family held the seat, with one brief interruption, from 1747 to 1818.

Author: Peter D.G. Thomas

Notes

  • 1. CJ, xviii. 199.
  • 2. CJ, xxii. 332.
  • 3. CJ, xxiv. 19, 30.