Carmarthenshire

Single Member Welsh County

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Number of voters:

about 1,000

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
25 Apr. 1754George Rice785
 Richard Vaughan390
2 Apr. 1761George Rice 
21 Mar. 1768George Rice 
23 Apr. 1770Rice re-elected after appointment to office 
17 Oct. 1774George Rice 
2 Sept. 1779John Vaughan vice Rice, deceased 
28 Sept. 1780John Vaughan 
8 Apr. 1784Sir William Mansel 

Main Article

About the middle of the eighteenth century the Vaughans of Golden Grove were the leading family in Carmarthenshire. On the retirement of John Vaughan in 1754, his son Richard was opposed by George Rice of Newton, whose grandfather had sat for the county in Queen Anne’s reign and whose father had been unseated on petition in 1722. Rice was supported by Griffith Philipps of Cwmgwili, who was then establishing his control over the borough. Although John Vaughan had been an adherent of the Pelham Administration, Newcastle noted in his survey for the general election that Rice had been promised support by ‘Mr. Pelham and all the Whigs’. The result was a triumph for Rice, who retained the seat without opposition until his death in 1779. An attempt by Vaughan to organize an opposition to him at the general election of 1768 came to nothing.1

Rice’s eldest son was only 13 at his father’s death, and Carmarthenshire reverted to the Vaughans. On John Vaughan’s retirement in 1784 Sir William Mansel of Iscoed, an influential local squire, was returned unopposed.

Author: Peter D.G. Thomas

Notes

  • 1. Vaughan to Wm. Powell, 15 Sept. 1766, Nanteos mss, NLW; Add. 38457, ff. 181-2.