Carmarthenshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Carmarthenshire
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1542–1885
Number of members	one until 1832, then two
Replaced by	East Carmarthenshire and West Carmarthenshire

Carmarthenshire was a parliamentary constituency in Wales which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until its representation was increased to two members for the 1832 general election.

At the 1885 general election, it was divided into two new single-member seats: Carmarthenshire East and Carmarthenshire West.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1542–1640

Parliament	member
1542–1545	Unknown (returns lost)[1]
1545	Hon. Richard Devereux. Died on day of re-election in October 1547[1]
1548	Sir John Perrott[1]
1553	Henry Jones[1]
1555	Richard Jones[1]
1558	Sir Thomas Jones (of Haroldston)[1]
1559	Richard Jones[1]
1563	Sir Henry Jones[1]
1572	John Vaughan died and replaced 1576 by Walter Vaughan[1]
1584	Walter Rice[1]
1586	Sir Thomas Jones [1]
1588	Herbert Croft[1]
1593	Walter Vaughan[1]
1597	Sir Thomas Jones[1]
1601	John Vaughan [1]
1604	Sir Robert Mansell[1]|- [2]
1620	Sir John Vaughan [1]
1624	Richard Vaughan [1]
1629–1640	No Parliament summoned

MPs 1640–1832

Year	Member		Party
April 1640		Henry Vaughan	Royalist
February 1644	Vaughan disabled from sitting – seat vacant
1646		John Lloyd
December 1648	Lloyd excluded in Pride's Purge – seat vacant
1653	Carmarthenshire was not represented in the Barebones Parliament

Year	First Member	Second Member
Representation increased to two members in First Protectorate Parliament
1654	John Claypole	Rowland Dawkins
1656	John Claypole,sat for Northants.
1656	Robert Atkyns[3]
Representation reverted to one member from January 1659

Year	Member		Party
January 1659		Thomas Hughes
May 1659	Carmarthenshire was not represented in the restored Rump
April 1660		John Lloyd
1661		Lord Vaughan (died 1668)
1668		Sir Henry Vaughan (died 1676)
1677		Altham Vaughan
1679		Lord Vaughan
1685		Lord Vaughan
1689		Sir Rice Rudd
1701		Griffith Rice	Whig
1710		Sir Thomas Powell	Tory
1715		Marquess of Winchester	Whig
1717		Sir Thomas Stepney
1722		Edward Rice [4]
1724		Sir Nicholas Williams
1745		John Vaughan I
1754		George Rice
1779		John Vaughan II
1784		Sir William Mansel
1790		Hon. George Talbot Rice	Tory
1793		Sir James Hamlyn
1802		James Hamlyn Williams
1806		Sir William Paxton
1807		Lord Robert Seymour	Tory
1820		Hon. George Rice Rice-Trevor	Tory
1831		Sir James Hamlyn-Williams	Whig
1832	Representation increased to two members by the Great Reform Act

MPs 1832–1885

Election	First member		First Party	Second member		Second Party
1832		Hon. George Rice Rice-Trevor	Conservative		Edward Hamlyn Adams	Whig
1835					Sir James Hamlyn-Williams	Whig
1837					John Jones of Ystrad	Conservative
1842 by-election					David Arthur Saunders Davies	Conservative
1852 by-election		David Jones (to 1868)	Conservative
1857 by-election					David Pugh	Liberal
1868		Edward John Sartoris	Liberal		John Jones	Conservative
1874		Viscount Emlyn	Conservative
1880					Walter Rice Howell Powell	Liberal
1885	Constituency abolished: see East Carmarthenshire, West Carmarthenshire

Election Results

General Election 1868 Carmarthenshire[5] Electorate
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Edward John Sartoris	3,280
	Conservative	John Jones	2,942
	Conservative	Henry Lavallin Puxley	2,828
	Liberal	David Pugh*	1,340
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. Williams, William Retlaw (1895). The parliamentary history of the principality of Wales, from the earliest times to the present day, 1541–1895, comprising lists of the representatives, chronologically arranged under counties, with biographical and genealogical notices of the members, together with particulars of the various contested elections, double returns and petitions. Brecknock: Privately published. pp. 43–44.
2. The Dictionary of National Biography records Mansell as MP for Carmarthen borough in the 1604 Parliament and for the county only in 1614, but Cobbett's Parliamentary History names Mansell as MP for the county in 1604 and Sir Walter Rice as the borough MP
3. Claypole chose for Northampton
4. On petition, Rice was declared not to have been duly elected and his opponent, Sir Nicholas Williams, was seated in his place
5. "Carmarthenshire Election". Welshman. 27 November 1868. p. 5. Retrieved 10 September 2015.

Bibliography

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 3)
• Robert Beatson, A Chronological Register of Both Houses of Parliament (London: Longman, Hurst, Res & Orme, 1807)
• D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
• Cobbett's Parliamentary history of England, from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the year 1803 (London: Thomas Hansard, 1808)
• F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1832–1885 (2nd edition, Aldershot: Parliamentary Research Services, 1989)
• Welsh Biography Online