Welsh Journals

THE PEMBROKESHIRE ELECTIONS OF 18311 THE election of a member of parliament for Pembrokeshire in May 1831 was, according to The Times, the most bitterly contested in the United Kingdom.2 This in itself would make it noteworthy. It was made the subject of an inquiry by a select committee of the house of commons which resulted in a second election in October. Besides, these elections were not only accompanied by disorder during the poll; they led to no less than three challenges to duels, of which two were fought, and the litigation they engendered continued for years. Disorder was endemic in the early nineteenth century, and contested elections provided an opportunity for its outbreak. What is remark- able is that the supporters of reform were as prone to disorder, and even to gross malpractices, as their opponents. This offers an explana- tion why the change in the political scene in the constituencies after 1832, when the reformers did attain power, was not as marked as it has been represented; electoral habits were not discarded overnight, and there was no abrupt abandonment of old abuses. The two elec- tions must also be among the most fully documented in the pre-reform period. Not only is it possible to see, on this account, that influence was still more potent than principle, and that traditional rivalries among the landed gentry outweighed their common economic or class interests; the repercussions of these clashes in the countryside can also be examined, and their effect on the lives of much less eminent people, the frequenters of ale-houses and notorious poachers. The member for Pembrokeshire since 1812 was Sir John Owen of Orielton, whose seat lay south of the Haven, some three miles from the town of Pembroke. The Owens, originally of Bodeon in Anglesey, had obtained Orielton in the late sixteenth century through marriage.4 The property which they thus acquired gave them pre-eminence in the shire, and the various offices which they held, as high sheriffs and magistrates, together with the patronage and advowsons at their disposal, extended their influence beyond the limits of their estate. 1 I have to thank Dr. B. G. Charles, of the National Library of Wales, for assistance in preparing this article. I The Times, 24 May 1831. This echoes the statement in Carmarthen Journal, 20 May 1831, and is repeated in Cambrian, 4 June 1831. 8 In addition to the Report of the Select Committee on the Pembroke County Election Petition, 1831 (262). IV. 535-654 (119 pages, folio, referred to below as Report), and the accounts in The Times and in the local weekly newspapers, there is a mass of material in the Haverfordwest, Williams and Williams MSS.. and the Haverfordwest, Eaton Evans and Williams MSS., in the National Library of Wales. There is much material relating to the trial of Samuel Harries (mostly affidavits) in the Public Record Office (K.B. 28/522 and K.B. 1/57, 1/58). For the family, see J. R. Phillips. Memoirs of the Ancient Family of Owen of Orielton (1886). and Henry Owen, Old Pembrokeshire Families (1902).