Beaumaris ( ; ) was a parliamentary borough in Anglesey, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of England from 1553, then to the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and to the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1885, when the constituency was abolished. After 1832, the constituency was usually known as the Beaumaris District of Boroughs or simply the Beaumaris Boroughs.

History As elsewhere in Wales, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 provided Anglesey with two members of parliament, one representing the county and the other representing a borough constituency named after the county town but including other "contributory boroughs" who were jointly responsible for providing for the upkeep of the MP and, in return, were granted a say in his election. However, at this period two towns, Beaumaris and Newborough, were disputing the right to be considered Anglesey's county town: under Henry VIII, Newborough was the assize town, but early in the reign of Edward VI (1547–1553) this function was transferred to Beaumaris. The new constituency was designated as Beaumaris, with Newborough as its only contributory borough, and first returned an MP in 1542; but at the same time as the assize was transferred, Newborough was also relieved of the obligation to contribute to the wages of the MP for Beaumaris which, under the terms of the relevant statute, also extinguished its right to vote in his election. Porritt, the early 20th century expert on the history of the Unreformed House of Commons, concludes that "the probability is that Newborough broke the connection in a fit of ill-humour" rather than that it was contrived by Beaumaris; but within a few decades, as the desirability of being directly represented in Parliament became more widely recognised, Newborough was trying unsuccessfully to regain its former status. On several occasions until the early 18th century, Newborough's inhabitants attempted to vote, but had their votes refused by the returning officer and his decision was upheld by Parliament whenever they petitioned in objection.

The franchise was further restricted in 1562, when Elizabeth I granted Beaumaris a new municipal charter, which reserved the right to vote in parliamentary elections to members of the town corporation. Thereafter until 1832, Beaumaris was a closed "corporation borough" of a type common in England but unknown elsewhere in Wales; its only voters were the mayor, two bailiffs and 21 "capital burgesses", and since they had the sole right to fill any vacancies arising in their number their power was entirely self-perpetuating, making the constituency a completely safe pocket borough. For the best part of two centuries before the Great Reform Act 1832, the nomination was in the hands of the Bulkeley family of Baron Hill, and the elections were never contested.

By 1831, the borough of Beaumaris had a population of 2,497 (though, still, only 24 voters). The Reform Act extended the franchise, and also added three contributory boroughs – Amlwch, Holyhead and Llangefni. This raised the population of the revised Beaumaris Boroughs constituency to 8,547, though the number of qualified voters on the register in 1832 was only 329. This was still in practice a pocket borough, and the first contested election did not take place until the further extension of the franchise by the Representation of the People Act 1867, which brought the electorate up to almost 2,000 in the elections from 1868.

The constituency was abolished by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, being merged into the Anglesey county constituency.

Members of Parliament

1542–1640

Members for Newborough ParliamentMember 1541 Richard ap Rhydderch, of Myfyrion 1545 Owen ap Hugh 1547 John ap Robert Lloid

Members for Beaumaris ParliamentMemberNotes 1553 (Mar) Maurice Grifith 1553 (Sep) Rowland Bulkeley 1554 (Nov) William Bulkeley? or William Goodman? name damaged 1555 Hugh Goodman 1558–1567 William Price 1571 William Bulkeley 1572 Rowland Kenrick 1584–1593 Thomas Bulkeley Died 1593 1597–1598 William Jones 1601 William Maurice 1604 William Jones 1614 William Jones 1621–1622 Sampson Eure 1624 Charles Jones 1625 Charles Jones 1626 Charles Jones 1628 Charles Jones 1629–1640 No Parliaments summoned

1640–1885

YearMemberParty 1640 (Apr)Charles Jones November 1640 John Griffith Royalist August 1642Griffith died – seat vacant 1646 William Jones December 1648Jones excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant1653Beaumaris was unrepresented in the Barebones Parliamentand the First and Second Parliaments of the Protectorate January 1659 Griffith Bodwrda May 1659Unrepresented in the restored RumpApril 1660 Griffith Bodwrda April 1661 Heneage Finch July 1661 John Robinson February 1679 Richard Bulkeley August 1679 Hon. Henry Bulkeley Tory 1689 William Williams 1690 Thomas Bulkeley 1695 Sir William Williams 1698 Owen Hughes January 1701 Coningsby Williams December 1701 Robert Bulkeley 1703 Coningsby Williams 1705 Hon. Henry Bertie 1727 Watkin Williams-WynnWilliams-Wynn was also elected for Denbighshire, which he eventually chose to represent, and did not sit for Beaumaris Tory 1730 Richard Bulkeley Tory 1739 James Bulkeley Tory 1753 John Owen Opposition Whig 1754 Richard Thelwall Price 1768 Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Hugh Williams 1780 Sir George Warren 1784 Hon. Hugh Fortescue 1785 Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Hugh Williams 1794 Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn 1796 Thomas Wynn 1807 Sir Edward Lloyd 1812 Thomas Lewis 1826 Sir Robert Williams Whig 1831 Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley Whig 1832 Frederick Paget Whig 1847 Lord George Paget Whig 1857 Hon. William Owen Stanley Whig 1859 Liberal 1874 Morgan Lloyd Liberal1885 Constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1830s

Williams' death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1840s

Elections in the 1850s

Elections in the 1860s

Elections in the 1870s

Elections in the 1880s

References

Sources

F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)

J Holladay Philbin, Parliamentary Representation 1832 – England and Wales (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965) Edward Porritt and Annie G Porritt, The Unreformed House of Commons (Cambridge University Press, 1903) Robert Walcott, English Politics in the Early Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1956)