Welsh Journals

MONTGOMERYSHIRE AND THE ABOLITION OF THE COURT OF GREAT SESSIONS, 1817-1830 MARIAN HENRY JONES, M.A. The fullest account of the abolition of the Court of Great Sessions is still that given by W. Llewelyn Williams in "The Making of Modern Wales", a book published in 1919. There he stated that "The change was opposed by all the Welsh Members of Parliament with one exception, with one exception every petition presented to Parliament was adverse to the proposed abolition of the Courts."1 He was referring to C. W. W. Wynn, M.P. for Montgomery- shire2, and probably to the petition from the same county as well. Why did Montgomeryshire adopt this singular course? The account of Wynn's career given in "Montgomeryshire Worthies"3 makes no mention of this event, but the same volume pays tribute to the part played in the matter by William Owen of Glansevern. The papers of both men are now at the National Library of Wales, Wynn's partly with the Wynns of Wynnstay Papers, partly in the Coed-y-maen Collection; Owen's in the Glansevern Collection. Some additional light is thrown by them, but in the main the full story must be pieced together from the published Reports of the Parliamentary Com- missions of Inquiry, from Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, and from the reports in the Press at the time. The Glansevern Collection is particularly valuable as it contains not only the papers of William Owen but also those of his kinsmen at Garthmyl, including those of his grand-nephew, the future County Court Judge A. J. Johnes. There we see thrown into relief the general differences between Whigs and Radicals epitomised in the two households, and on this particular subject, through the correspondence of the young Johnes, we glimpse the reservations he felt at the course taken by his County. Montgomeryshire could claim in 1832 to be the first County to petition Parliament in support of the Reform Bill. That too was largely the work of 1 p. 192. In point of fact Wynn had the company of the M.P. for Glamorgan on 9th March, 1830, when the Bill for the Abolition was introduced. See infra. p. 17, but subsequently he did stand alone. 3 2nd edition, pp. 328-332. 4 Ibid, p. 231.