Welsh Journals

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death of Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII, and 1610 when James I created his son Prince Henry as prince of Wales, the lordships had been taken into the custody of the reigning monarch but had always retained their distinctive and separate identity. Over the years, successive monarchs had sold much of the land within the lordships to the numerous tenants, subject only to the payment of annual fee- farm rents and of a mise whenever a new lord entered into possession of the lordships. By the end of the seventeenth century, most of the land which remained in the possession of the Crown was common land and waste but still very extensive, half of Denbighshire being reported unenclosed as late as 1810. The Crown also possessed the mineral rights on the wastes which, apparently, were mineral rich. Interest in mineral prospecting was already evident among men of enterprise in the gentry class. Sir Robert Cotton, one of their number, had already been slighted when he sought a grant of mining rights in the lordships. Hence the alarm at the prospect of a foreign interloper who might deprive them of potential wealth was understandable. North-east Wales was fortunate in having alert and experienced MPs during the last quarter of the seventeenth century, some of them having climbed to the most exalted offices of State, like Sir John Trevor and Lord George Jeffreys. Sir William Williams of Glasgoed had also held office in James 11's time, but had fallen out of favour after the Revolution of 1688. Having cut his teeth as a politician in the Exclusion Movement to exclude the Catholic, James, duke of York, from the throne, he was well-suited to lead a movement of political protest. His chief colleague, Robert Price, was not as well-known, but together they shouldered the responsibility placed upon them of leading a delegation of Welsh MPs to the Treasury to protest against the grant. Minutes of the meeting were taken by William Lowndes, Secretary to the Treasury who, in identifying the leading Members present, mistook Sir Roger Puleston for Edward Brereton. Sir William Williams opened their case with a speech setting out the facts, and his presentation was the most fully-recorded by Lowndes. Robert Price followed with a very inflammatory speech, more suitable to a public meeting than a private audience, which was drastically edited by Lowndes, omitting the 'high expressions' which had somewhat alarmed Lord Godolphin, the leading Treasury minister. The official report of the meeting is to be found in the Calendar of Treasury Books and Calendar of Treasury Papers.3 Robert Price has left his own account in a more discreet letter to the duke of Beaufort which is Bodleian Library Carte MS 130, ff. 355-56, recounting mainly his own submission to the Board. Lord Godolphin undertook to convey to the king the objections raised and, thereafter, employed stalling tactics to try to convince the obdurate monarch of the folly of the grant. This allowed the objectors time to organise a petition in Denbighshire