Denbighshire

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:

1,500-2,300

Elections

DateCandidateVotes
2 Feb. 1715SIR RICHARD MYDDELTON 
30 June 1716WATKIN WILLIAMS vice Myddelton, deceased840
 Robert Myddelton644
28 Mar. 1722WATKIN WILLIAMS WYNN856
 Robert Myddelton673
26 Aug. 1727WATKIN WILLIAMS WYNN 
22 May 1734WATKIN WILLIAMS WYNN 
24 Dec. 1740WYNN re-elected after appointment to office 
26 May 1741JOHN MYDDELTON847
 Sir Watkin Williams Wynn758
 WYNN vice Myddelton, on petition, 23 Feb. 1742 
8 July 1747SIR WATKIN WILLIAMS WYNN 
5 Dec. 1749SIR LYNCH SALUSBURY COTTON vice Wynn, deceased 

Main Article

At George I’s accession the predominant interest in Denbighshire was that of the Myddeltons of Chirk Castle, Tories, whose head, Sir Richard Myddelton, represented the county from 1685 till his death in 1716. At the ensuing by-election the seat was wrested from them by Watkin Williams, later Williams Wynn, a Jacobite, who was again successful after a contest in 1722, and unopposed in 1727. Before the general election of 1734 the Myddeltons concluded an agreement with Wynn, under which they promised to support him for the county, in return for his supporting them in Denbigh Boroughs.1

Early in 1739 John Myddelton, the then head of his family, obtained a promise from Walpole of government support for himself against Wynn at the forthcoming general election.2 In 1741 a costly campaign, marked by the mass creation of new voters on both sides, resulted in a victory for Wynn at the poll by 1352 to 933; but Myddelton was returned by the sheriff, his kinsman, who disallowed nearly 600 of Wynn’s voters. On a petition, which was heard after Walpole’s fall, the Commons awarded the seat to Wynn, committing the sheriff to Newgate.3

Wynn retained the seat unopposed till his death in 1749, on which Pelham urged John Myddelton’s son Richard, ‘to push for the county’.4 Myddelton, however, preferring his safe seat for Denbigh Boroughs, arranged for the return of Sir Lynch Cotton, the head of Denbighshire’s third leading family, on condition that he would vote with the ministry in Parliament.5

Author: Peter D.G. Thomas

Notes

  • 1. NLW, Wynnstay mss L. 917.
  • 2. NLW, Chirk Castle mss E. 4650.
  • 3. Add. 32919, f. 267; CJ, xxiv. 18-19, 89-92.
  • 4. Pelham to Myddelton, 30 Sept. 1749, Chirk Castle mss E. 613.
  • 5. Thomas Brereton to Myddelton, 1 Oct. 1749, Chirk Castle mss E. 593; P. D. G. Thomas ‘Wynnstay v. Chirk Castle: Parl. Elections Denb. 1716-41’, NLW Jnl. (1959).