Welsh Journals

'By these flagrant & unheard of wayes', proceeds the complaint, 'Mr Powell obtained a majority upon the Poll.' When a scrutiny of the poll was demanded and agreed to, Powell himself called the mayor a fool, his brother gave him the lie and threatened to shoot him, and his brother-in-law took the town clerk by the nose,-all in full view of the Court. Two of Powell's managers abused the mayor and when he demanded that they behave themselves one of them, John Jones by name, 'pulled a pistoll out of his Breast & bid him Defyance'. Another of Thomas Powell's managers stole a book containing a list of the burgesses of Aberystwyth whereby, upon the scrutiny, several of those who had voted for Lloyd were rejected because there was no documentary evidence to support their right to poll. When the burgesses of Tregaron were challenged at the scrutiny, Powell, in order to support his newly-created burgesses, produced a paper book which the mayor of Tregaron testified to be the record wherein the names of all the burgesses of that place were entered, Confusion again reigned when the town clerk pointed out that it appeared that several of the persons included in this list had been admitted burgesses in 1723, 1724, and 1725, whereas they were actually sworn in since the issue of the election writ. Further detailed examination revealed that the book was a very recent record,-the ink was fresh and the impression of the stamp had been made but a few months since, although the record declared that the latest admission was in 1725. The question of the validity of the records of the other 'two-out Borroughs of Lampeter & Attpar' was then raised, and upon scrutiny it was discovered that 'the names of all persons that voted for Mr. Lloyd (tho' Reale Burgesses thereof) were actually Tore out of the sayd records & none Appearing to be Burgesses there but such as had voted for Mr. Powell'. The conduct of the election was naturally referred in Parliament to the Com- mittee of Privileges and Elections, and the House resolved, on the recommendation of this Committee on 7 May 1730, 'That the Burgesses of the Borough of Tregaron have not a right to vote in the election for the Town of Cardigan'. Richard Lloyd was duly elected, and he also sat for the Cardigan Boroughs during the following Parliament from 1734 to 1741, when he was defeated by Thomas Pryse of Gogerddan. Lloyd thereupon petitioned Parliament against this return, and the petition, which was renewed four sessions successively, was ultimately heard at the Bar of the House on 23 January 1746, when the petitioner's counsel was refused a request for a further deferment of three weeks. In the meantime, on 21 May 1745, Thomas Pryse had died at the early age of 30 years. In view of the time which had elapsed since Lloyd's first application, and of his inability to prove his allegations, the House dismissed his petition and ordered a new writ to be issued. As far as can be ascertained nothing particularly eventful took place in the political life of the Gogerddan family during the remainder of the century. John Pugh Pryse, who was on good terms with the foremost literary men of his day, represented the County from 1761 to 1768, and the County of Merioneth from 1768 until his untimely death at the age of 34 years in January 1774.