Flintshire

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

DateCandidate
1 May 1754Sir Thomas Mostyn
26 Apr. 1758Sir Roger Mostyn vice Sir Thomas Mostyn, deceased
6 Apr. 1761Sir Roger Mostyn
13 Apr. 1768Sir Roger Mostyn
19 Oct. 1774Sir Roger Mostyn
19 Sept. 1780Sir Roger Mostyn
21 Apr. 1784Sir Roger Mostyn

Main Article

The Mostyn family possessed the dominant interest in Flintshire, and only in 1784 was there any challenge to their hegemony. Sir Roger Mostyn was a supporter of Fox but there was a strong movement in Flintshire in favour of Pitt and parliamentary reform, and in January 1784 Sir Thomas Hanmer was reported to be ready to canvass the county.1 Mostyn was subjected to severe criticism, and Thomas Pennant wrote, in his Letter from a Welsh Freeholder to his Representative: ‘There is not a wish to change our representative, provided he acts consonant to our principles, but none of us ought to give up principle to affection.’ But Mostyn brought considerable pressure to bear on the smaller freeholders, and at the end of February the county meeting expressed approval of his conduct by 212 votes to 82.2

Author: Peter D.G. Thomas

Notes

  • 1. NLW, Glynne of Hawarden mss, 4235.
  • 2. Chester Chron. 5, 26 Mar. 1784.