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The local Whig observer, William Morris, commented that 'Mr Meyrick was fairly bit by the Tories, who ran over from their engagements to Sir Nicholas Bayly', and later, on 20 August, stated that there was 'abundance of reason to suspect that Mr Owen intended from the beginning to desert' Bodorgan.25 Owen, however, had been genuinely angry at what on 15 July he privately called 'the treacherous conduct of Mr Lewis and Mr Meyrick, which has occasioned an alteration in me with regard to the election'.26 In a public letter printed in the London Evening Post on 26 September to justify his conduct, he claimed that 'his vigorous assistance' had secured 'a clear majority' for Meyrick. Was he expected 'to sit down quietly and suffer himself and his friends to be sacrificed to selfish and private views'? This letter was avowedly a reply to criticism in the St. James's Evening Post of 1 September. Evidently Owen's behaviour had been so notorious as to attract national attention. The electoral re-alignment of 1747 proved to be more permanent than that of 1741. In 1749 Lord Bulkeley married Emma, daughter of the Presaddfed ally, Thomas Rowlands of Caerau. He died, however, in 1752, leaving a posthumous heir Thomas James, born on 12 December of that year. John Owen succeeded him as MP for Beaumaris, and the Dowager Lady Bulkeley took control of the Baron Hill interest during the long minority of her son. It so happened that in 1745 there had been strong Anglesey expectations that she was about to marry the younger Meyrick.27 Instead, he chose a London bride that year. Perhaps a broken romance reinforced her determination in the next two decades to defend the Baron Hill interest against the persistent challenge of Bodorgan. The younger Owen Meyrick issued a canvassing letter as early as 13 March 1753, over a year before the next general election was due to take place. The voting strength of the Bodorgan estate is revealed by a rent-roll for 1754. Of 141 tenants who paid altogether £ 657, no fewer than 81 qualified for the 40s. county franchise, a solid foundation for an interest in a total Anglesey electorate of about 400. 28 This time Bodorgan adopted a different tactic. Placing no further reliance on uncertain allies, Meyrick applied at once to the Whig ministry for assistance. He obtained an introduction to the Prime Minister, Henry Pelham, who promised full support. 'He will do me all the 25 Morris Letters, I, 115, 118. 26 Bodewryd MSS., no. 975. 27 Morris Letters, I, 85. 28 Bodorgan MSS. (University College of North Wales Library), no. 1592.