Brecon was a parliamentary constituency in Wales which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessors, from 1542 until it was abolished for the 1885 general election.

Boundaries

From its first election in 1542 until some time before 1715, the constituency consisted of a number of boroughs within the historic county of Brecknockshire or Breconshire in Wales. From then until 1885 the seat represented the parliamentary borough of Brecon alone. The constituency should not be confused with the county constituency of Breconshire, which existed from the sixteenth century until 1918.

On the basis of information from several volumes of the History of Parliament, it is apparent that the history of the borough representation from Wales and Monmouthshire is more complicated than that of the English boroughs.

The Laws in Wales Act 1535 (26 Hen. VIII, c. 26) provided for a single borough seat for each of 11 of the 12 Welsh counties and Monmouthshire. The legislation was ambiguous as to which communities were enfranchised. The county towns were awarded a seat, but this in some fashion represented all the ancient boroughs of the county as the others were required to contribute to the members wages. It was not clear if the burgesses of the contributing boroughs could take part in the election. The only election under the original scheme was for the 1542 Parliament. It seems that only burgesses from the county towns actually took part. An Act of 1544 (35 Hen. VIII, c. 11) confirmed that the contributing boroughs could send representatives to take part in the election at the county town. As far as can be told from surviving indentures of returns, the degree to which the out boroughs participated varied, but by the end of the sixteenth century all the seats had some participation from them at some elections at least.

The original scheme was modified by later legislation and decisions of the House of Commons (which were sometimes made with no regard to precedent or evidence: for example in 1728 it was decided that only the freemen of the borough of Montgomery could participate in the election for that seat, thus disenfranchising the freemen of Llanidloes, Welshpool and Llanfyllin).

In the case of Breconshire, the county town was Brecon. The township of Llywel, eleven miles due west of Brecon, formed part of the constituency. There is no evidence to suggest any other boroughs actually took part in elections before 1597. The out boroughs then participating were Bulith now known as Builth Wells, Crickhowel or Crickhowell, Hay now Hay-on-Wye and Telgarth or Talgarth.

At some point between 1603 and 1715 the out boroughs ceased to participate in elections for the constituency. Until 1727 all the freemen of Brecon formed the electorate, but in 1727 the House of Commons ruled that only the resident freemen could vote. There had been about 180 electors in 1723 and 1727, but only 69 in 1744 after the basis of the franchise had been changed. There were about 100 voters between 1754 and 1790.

When registration of electors and an additional householder franchise were introduced in 1832 Brecon, still based on the town of Brecon, had the smallest electorate in Wales with just 242 registered voters. Even after the extension of the franchise in 1868, the number of voters only increased to 814.

After 1885 Breconshire was represented in Parliament by the single member county constituency, which included all the boroughs at one time in the Brecon constituency.

Members of Parliament

Members of Parliament 1542-1640

As there were sometimes significant gaps between Parliaments held in this period, the dates of first assembly and dissolution are given. Where the name of the member has not yet been ascertained or (before 1558) is not recorded in a surviving document, the entry unknown is entered in the table.

The Roman numerals after some names are those used in The House of Commons 1509-1558 to distinguish a member from another politician of the same name.

Elected	Assembled	Dissolved	Member	Note
1542	16 January 1542	28 March 1544	Edward Games
1545	23 November 1545	31 January 1547	Edward Games
1547	4 November 1547	15 April 1552	Edward Games
1553	1 March 1553	31 March 1553	Edward Games
1553	5 October 1553	5 December 1553	Edward Games
1554	2 April 1554	3 May 1554	Edward Games
1554	12 November 1554	16 January 1555	Meredith Games
1555	21 October 1555	9 December 1555	unknown
1558	20 January 1558	17 November 1558	William Aubrey
1559	23 January 1559	8 May 1559	Roland Vaughan
1562 or 1563	11 January 1563	2 January 1567	Sir Roger Vaughan
1571	2 April 1571	29 May 1571	Richard Price
1572	8 May 1572	19 April 1583	Walter Games
1584	23 November 1584	14 September 1585	David Williams
1586	13 October 1586	23 March 1587	David Williams
1588	4 February 1589	29 March 1589	David Williams
1593	18 February 1593	10 April 1593	Sir Matthew Morgan
1597	24 October 1597	9 February 1598	David Williams
1601	27 October 1601	19 December 1601	Henry Williams
1604	19 March 1604	9 February 1611	Sir Henry Williams
1614	5 April 1614	7 June 1614	Sir John Crompton
1620	16 January 1621	8 February 1622	Sir Walter Pye
12 January 1624	12 February 1624	27 March 1625	Sir Walter Pye
4 March 1625	17 May 1625	12 August 1625	Sir Walter Pye
12 January 1626	6 February 1626	15 June 1626	Sir Walter Pye	Elected to sit for Herefordshire
February 1626			Sir Henry Lynde
31 March 1628	17 March 1628	10 March 1629	Walter Pye (junior)
1640	13 April 1640	5 May 1640	Herbert Price

Members of Parliament 1640-1660

This sub-section includes the Long Parliament and the Rump Parliament, together with the Parliaments of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate (before the Convention Parliament of 1660).

Elected	Assembled	Dissolved	Member	Note
1640	3 November 1640	5 December 1648	unknown	Long Parliament
...	6 December 1648	20 April 1653	unknown	Rump Parliament
...	4 July 1653	12 December 1653	unrepresented	Barebones Parliament
1654	3 September 1654	22 January 1655	unrepresented	First Protectorate Parliament
1656	17 September 1656	4 February 1658	unrepresented	Second Protectorate Parliament
1658/59	27 January 1659	22 April 1659	unknown	Third Protectorate Parliament
...	7 May 1659	20 February 1660	unknown	Rump Parliament restored
...	21 February 1660	16 March 1660	unknown	Long Parliament restored

Members of Parliament 1660-1885

First Election		Member	Party	Note
	1660, c. April	Sir Henry Williams, Bt
	1661, April 26	Sir Herbert Price
	1678, February 14	Thomas Mansel
	1679, February 28	John Jeffreys
	1689, January 10	Thomas Morgan (of Dderw)	Whig	(1664-1700)
	1690, March 6	Jeffrey Jeffreys
	1698, July 25	Thomas Morgan (of Dderw)	Whig	(1664-1700)
	1701, January 17	Sir Jeffrey Jeffreys
	1709, November 28	Edward Jeffreys
	1713, September 11	Roger Jones
	1722, March 29	William Morgan		(1701-1731) Elected to sit for Monmouthshire
	1723, May 24	Thomas Morgan		(1702-1769)
	1734, May 1	Hon. John Talbot
	1754, April 15	Thomas Morgan (of Rhiwpera)		(1727-1771) Resigned to contest Monmouthshire
	1763, December 5	Charles Morgan		(1736-1787) Resigned to contest Breconshire
	1769, May 15	John Morgan		(1742-1792) Resigned to contest Monmouthshire
	1772, January 31	Charles Van		Died 3 April 1778
	1778, April 23	Sir Charles Gould		(1726-1806) Resigned to contest Breconshire
	1787, December 6	Sir Charles Gould		(1760-1846) Elected to sit for Monmouthshire
	1796, November 2	Sir Robert Salusbury, Bt	Tory
	1812, October 9	Charles Morgan Robinson Morgan	Whig	(1792-1875)
	1818, June 20	George Gould Morgan	Tory	(1794-1845)
	1830, August 3	Charles Morgan Robinson Morgan	Whig	(1792-1875)
	1832, December 12	John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins	Liberal 1
	1835, January 6	Charles Morgan Robinson Morgan	Conservative	(1792-1875)
	1847, August 3	John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins	Liberal 1
	1852, July 9	Charles Rodney Morgan	Conservative	(1828-1854) Died 14 January 1854
	1854, February 6	John Lloyd Vaughan Watkins	Liberal 1	Died 28 September 1865
	1866, February 27	Earl of Brecknock	Liberal	Became the 3rd Marquess Camden
	1866, October 3	Howel Gwyn	Conservative	Election declared void on petition
	1869, April 24	Lord Hyde	Liberal	Became the 5th Earl of Clarendon
	1870, July 19	James Price William Gwynne-Holford	Conservative
	1880, April 7	Cyril Flower	Liberal
1885		Constituency abolished

Supplemental Notes:-

• ¹ F. W. S. Craig, in his compilations of election results for Great Britain, classifies Whig, Radical and similar candidates as Liberals from 1832. The name Liberal was gradually adopted as a description for the Whigs and politicians allied with them, before the formal creation of the Liberal Party shortly after the 1859 general election.

Election results

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977)
• The House of Commons 1509-1558, by S.T. Bindoff (Secker & Warburg 1982)
• The House of Commons 1558-1603, by P.W. Hasler (HMSO 1981)
• The House of Commons 1715-1754, by Romney Sedgwick (HMSO 1970)
• The House of Commons 1754-1790, by Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke (HMSO 1964)
• The Parliaments of England by Henry Stooks Smith (1st edition published in three volumes 1844-50), second edition edited (in one volume) by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1973)