Family and Education

b. c.1648, o.s. of Bussy Mansel. educ. Jesus, Oxf. matric. 10 Apr. 1663, aged 15. m. settlement 22 May 1667, Elizabeth (d.1686), da. and h. of Richard Games of Penderin, 1s. 2da.

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Brec. and Glam. 1673-80, j.p. 1675-80; steward of Penkelly manor, Brec. by 1681-d.1

Biography

Mansel married the heiress of an ancient Breconshire family which had frequently sat in Tudor Parliaments, and he was returned unopposed for the borough at a by-election in 1678. He was described to (Sir) Joseph Williamson as ‘a very honest, worthy gentleman’, by which was presumably meant a court supporter, but Shaftesbury also marked him ‘worthy’, and he probably voted with the Opposition during his short career in the Cavalier Parliament. He was appointed to only four committees, of which three were chiefly of Welsh interest, those for the endowment of St. Asaph Cathedral and for the estate bills of (Sir) Ralph Bankes (who owned property in Carmarthen) and Sir Trevor Williams. He also helped to draft the address for the trial of Popish priests in custody on 15 Nov. At the general election he was involved in a double return with John Jeffreys, who was allowed to sit. Mansel is not known to have stood again, but presumably supported exclusion, as he was removed from the commission of the peace, together with his father, in 1682. He died on 13 Dec. 1684, aged 38, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His son sat for Glamorgan from 1699 to 1701, and for Cardiff until his death in 1706.2

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: Leonard Naylor

Notes

• 1. Cat. Penrice and Margam Mss (ser. 3), pp. 11, 167.
• 2. CSP Dom. 1677-8, p. 656.