Welsh Journals

elected to Parliament as a Knight of the Shire on 19 March 1690, when he defeated John Vaughan of Trawscoed by 185 votes to 91. On i April, on a complaint being made against the high sheriff that he had not yet made his return of the member duly elected for the County of Cardigan, the Serjeant at Arms was directed to take him into custody. Three days later, having made his return and paid his fees, the sheriff was discharged. On 28 November, however, the House of Commons received the petition of John Vaughan, 6 complaining of an undue election and return of Sir Carbury Pryse to serve as a Knight of the Shire for the County of Cardigan. The question at issue was whether the poll was legally adjourned from Aberystwyth to Cardigan. It was argued for the petitioner that according to an Act of Parliament passed in the first year of the reign of Queen Mary, 'the sheriffs Turn shall be kept at Cardigan and Aberystwyth, alternis vicibus. And this time the Turn was to be Kept at Aberystwith'. The sheriff, it seems, was not sworn until 11 March, but he declared some time before the election that for the ease of the county he would adjourn to Cardigan before the close of the poll. Of the four witnesses for the petitioner, who appeared before the Com- mittee of Privileges and Elections, Marmaduke Williams asserted that the sheriff had declared that all the voters should be polled at Aberystwyth before he ad- journed to Cardigan. The election, however, began on the 19th, when the voters were called by several lists and some were polled on both sides. The sheriff there- upon adjourned to the next day, promising Mr. Vaughan that his list would be called first when the poll was re-opened. Nevertheless, on the following day the under- sheriff came and began with Sir Carbury Pryse's list. This evidence was corrobor- ated by John Jones, who testified in addition that beside the 91 who had voted for Mr. Vaughan, he knew of 273 more ready to poll for him at Aberystwyth. John Haberly assured the Committee that he knew of 49 other freeholders in the town, over and above the 273 spoken of by Jones, who were ready to poll for the petitioner. The fourth witness, Rice Vaughan, stated that there were 485 freeholders who favoured Vaughan, of whom 394 did not poll. For Sir Carbury Pryse, William Powell said that at the time of the adjourn- ment which was at 12 o'clock on 20 March there remained 100 unpolled votes for him, when the sheriff, being advised that he could not adjourn after that hour as it was the day of the return of the writ, made his proclamation accordingly. Supporting evidence was given by David Lloyd, who further claimed that when the adjournment to Cardigan was called, the hundred who were waiting to poll for Sir Carbury 'were fain to get Boats because they could not have Horses enough'. Another witness, also named David Lloyd, maintained that the sheriff came at the time of the adjournment to Cardigan, and upon notice that Mr. Vaughan would come to Cardigan stayed an hour or two expecting him. Sir Carbury Pryse had already arrived from Aberystwyth with one hundred voters, and he might have had three hundred more about Cardigan. Erasmus Davies testified that he had heard the proclamation concerning the adjournment from Aberystwyth to Cardigan made at Lampeter in accordance with the sheriff's order that it be made in the market towns, while George Powell stated that several houses were taken