A shock to the system

For over eighty years members of the staunchly Conservative Williams Wynn family had represented Montgomeryshire in the Westminster Parliament. And for the most part they had been elected unopposed, the seat passing to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn in 1830, then to his nephew Herbert Watkin Williams Wynn in 1850, then to Charles’s son, another Charles, in 1862.

But in the General Election of 1880 the sitting Member for the Montgomeryshire seat, Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, of Coedymaen, in Meifod, was challenged by a Liberal candidate originally from England: Stuart Rendel.

Charles had claimed earlier that the Williams Wynns were elected ‘ungrudgingly’ – but with a challenger in view his opponents preferred the phrase ‘to the regret of a vast number of electors’.

And a fierce battle for the hearts and minds of the people of Montygomeryshire ensued.

Who was Stuart Rendel? What was his appeal to the electors?

On Thursday 17^th September popular local historian Edward Parry will be telling the dramatic story of the campaign, the election, and the aftermath, drawing on the many fascinating reports in local papers, including an account of a near riot in Welshpool.

Liberals Triumphant: the 1880 County and Boroughs elections in Montgomeryshire. 

Edward Parry

Thursday 17^th September, Meifod Village Hall, at 7.30pm

The event is free to members of Meifod Local History Group, and costs £4 for non-members.