Carmarthenshire

County

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Elections

DateCandidate
19 Jan. 1559RICHARD JONES
7 Jan. 1563SIR HENRY JONES
1571SIR HENRY JONES
1572JOHN VAUGHAN II
1576WALTER VAUGHAN vice Vaughan, deceased
19 Nov. 1584WALTER RICE
1586SIR THOMAS JONES
17 Oct. 1588HERBERT CROFT
1593WALTER VAUGHAN
1597SIR THOMAS JONES 1
1 Oct. 1601SIR JOHN VAUGHAN

Main Article

The leading family in Elizabethan Carmarthenshire was that of Jones of Abermarlais, members of which represented the county in five Parliaments during this period. Next in the county hierarchy came the Vaughans of Golden Grove, who were to supersede the Jones family in the next century. Three Vaughans represented the county in Parliament. Walter Vaughan came in at a by-election in 1576, succeeding to his father’s parliamentary seat as well as his estates. Walter Rice (1584) of Newton, from an old and well-connected Carmarthenshire family, was Walter Vaughan’s brother-in-law. The only knight of the shire in this period who did not reside in the county was Herbert Croft of Croft Castle, Herefordshire (1588/9). However, through his great-aunt, Joyce Gamage, Croft was a substantial Carmarthenshire landowner. He was also connected with Gelly Meyrick, steward of the 2nd Earl of Essex, who was beginning to build up a parliamentary interest in South Wales for his master.

Author: M.A.P.

Notes

  • 1. Folger V. b. 298.