Carmarthen

Borough

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Background Information

Right of Election:

in the resident 'burgesses', i.e. freemen

Number of voters:

over 100

Elections

DateCandidate
23 Apr. 1660HON. ARTHUR ANNESLEY
25 Mar. 1661HON. JOHN VAUGHAN
17 Feb. 1679HON. ALTHAM VAUGHAN
1 Sept. 1679HON. ALTHAM VAUGHAN
14 Mar. 1681HON. ALTHAM VAUGHAN
6 Apr. 1685RICHARD VAUGHAN
11 Jan. 1689RICHARD VAUGHAN

Main Article

There were no contributory boroughs in Carmarthenshire, and the Vaughans of Golden Grove monopolized the seat in this period. Excluded as Cavaliers from the election in 1660, they put up Arthur Annesley, who had married the sister-in-law of the 2nd Earl of Carbery, and was returned by about a hundred named ‘burgesses’, besides many more unnamed. Carbery’s second son John sat for the borough in the Cavalier Parliament, and his youngest son Altham in the Exclusion Parliaments. In July 1681 a moderate address was sent by the corporation and ‘commonalty’ thanking the King for his declaration on dissolving Parliament, and further addresses followed abhorring the ‘Association’ and the Rye House Plot. Altham Vaughan had died before the next election, when a cousin, Richard Vaughan, secured the seat. He was replaced as recorder by the Duke of Beaufort (Henry Somerset) under the new charter of 1686. The corporation, now thoroughly Tory, was purged in August 1688, the town clerk, chamberlain, four aldermen and nine common councilmen being removed. Vaughan, who had apparently been appointed Beaufort’s deputy, was re-elected to the Convention, and held the seat till his death in 1724.

London Gazette, 1 Aug. 1681, 17 July 1682, 3 Sept. 1683; CSP Dom. 1686-7, pp. 43-44; PC 2/72/724.

Notes