Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T08:43:41.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tory Industrialism and Town Politics: Swansea in the Eighteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Philip Jenkins
Philip Jenkins
Affiliation:
The Pennsylvania State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the last two decades, British urban history has flourished. The Tudor and Stuart periods have attracted particular attention, so that we are well informed on the party factions and politics of this time. There are excellent general accounts by Drs Clark, Slack and others; and notable local studies like Dr Evans' account of Norwich. However, it is interesting that early eighteenth-century towns are by no means as well covered, especially in the area of politics. We have studies of Norwich and the West Midlands, but these mostly concern the period after 1760. On the first half of the century, most of the available published material comes from incidental references in books on broader party politics and organization; for instance in works by Drs Holmes, Brewer and Colley.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 1985 , pp. 103 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 See for instance the essays in Clark, P. (ed.), The early modern town: a reader 1976)Google Scholar; Clark, P. and Slack, P., Crisis and order in English towns, 1500–1700 (1972)Google Scholar; Clark, P., Country towns in pre-industrial England (Leicester, 1980)Google Scholar; Evans, J. T., Seventeenth-century Norwich (Oxford, 1979)Google Scholar.

2 Corfield, P. J., The impact of English towns, 1700–1800 (1982)Google Scholar; Chalklin, C. W., Provincial towns of Georgian England (1974)Google Scholar; Phillips, John A., Electoral behaviour in unreformed England (Princeton, 1982)Google Scholar; Money, John, Experience and identity (Manchester, 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Daunton, M. J., ‘Towns and economic growth’, in Abrams, P. and Wrigley, E. A. (eds.), Towns in societies (Cambridge, 1979), pp. 245–278Google Scholar; Jackson, G., Hull in the eighteenth century (1972)Google Scholar;O'Sullivan, D. S., ‘Politics in Norwich, 1701–1835’ (M.Phil. Disscrtation, University of East Anglia, 1975)Google Scholar.

3 Colley, L., In defiance of oligarchy (Cambridge, 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brewer, J., Party ideology and popular politics at the accession of George III (Cambridge, 1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Holmes, G., British politics in the age of Anne (1967)Google Scholar.

4 Rogers, N., ‘Aristocratic clientage, trade and independency’, Past and Present, LI (1973), 70–106CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Jenkins, P., ‘The Old Leaven’, Historical Journal, XXIV (1981)Google Scholar.

6 Jones, F., ‘The Society of Sea Serjeants’, Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. (1967). 57–92Google Scholar.

7 P. Jenkins, ‘The tory tradition in eighteenth-century Cardiff’, forthcoming in Welsh History Review.

8 Jenkins, P., The making of a ruling class: the Glamorgan gentry, 1640–1790 (Cambridge, 1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 Ibid. pp. 65–7 for ‘bluewater’ policies.

10 Rees, W., Industry before the Industrial Revolution (2 vols., Cardiff, 1968)Google Scholar.

11 Works that have been used throughout this article include the Swansea Corporation MSS, in Swansea University Library; Dillwyn, L. W., Contributions towards a history of Swansea (Swansea, 1840)Google Scholar; Jones, W. H., History of the port of Swansea (1922)Google Scholar; S., and Webb, B., English local government: the manor and the borough (Book 2, Part 1: 1980) especially pp. 239–40Google Scholar; W. C. Rogers, ‘Swansea and Glamorgan Calendar’ (typescript copy, no date, in N[ational] L[ibrary of] W[ales]); Rogers, W. C., ‘The port of Swansea’, in Williams, S. (ed.), Glamorgan Historian, v (Cowbridge, 1968), 175–87Google Scholar. Also Thomas, W. S. K., ‘A history of Swansea, 1485–1662’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales, 1958)Google Scholar; Thomas, W. S. K., ‘Municipal government in Swansea’ in Williams, S. (ed.), Glamorgan Historian, 1 (Cowbridge, 1963), 27–36Google Scholar; The borough of Swansea: local historical records (Swansea, 1969)Google Scholar; Ross, J. E., Letters from Swansea (Swansea, 1969)Google Scholar; Balchin, W. G. V., Swansea and its region (Swansea, 1971)Google Scholar; Griffiths, R. A., The boroughs of medieval Wales (Cardiff, 1978)Google Scholar. Much genealogical material has been taken from Davies, J. D., Historical notes on West Gower, 4 parts in 2 volumes (Swansea, 1877–1894)Google Scholar.

12 Thomas, , ‘History of Swansea’, 1, 168Google Scholar.

13 Dineley, T., Official progress of the duke of Beaufort through Wales, 1684 (London, 1888)Google Scholar; Jenkins, Making, for the politics of the dukes of Beaufort.

14 For the hearth tax, see Public Record Office 179/221/294. A convenient list of aldermen and burgesses in 1706 is found in Swansea University Library, Mackworth MSS, no. 508 in Baker-Jones catalogue. For the Collins family see NLW, Penrice and Margam MSS, L 338, 341, 928, 1031; Swansea University Library, Collins MSS.

15 Morgan, K. O., Wales in British politics, 1868–1922 (Cardiff, 1970), p. 213Google Scholar.

16 Jenkins, ‘Old Leaven’ Gawler, Francis, A record of some persecutions…(1659)Google Scholar.

17 Dictionary of Welsh Biography on individual ministers; Jones, O. W. and Walker, D. (eds.), Links with the past (Swansea, 1974)Google Scholar; Jenkins, P., ‘Antipopery on the Welsh Marches’, Historical Journal, XXIII (1980), 275–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Williams, G. (ed.), Glamorgan County History, IV (Cardiff, 1974), 474, 485Google Scholar; Hugh, R. L., ‘Annibyniaeth yng Ngorllewin Morgannwg’ (MA thesis, University of Wales, 1945)Google Scholar.

18 William Salt Library, Stafford, Salt MS 33.

19 Jenkins, ‘Antipopery’. For New England, see the letters of John, Man in the Calendar of State Papers Domestic, passim 1665–80Google Scholar. For the disputes, see NLW Badminton MSS 1453 (1675); 2127 (1694) and 2150 (1716). For Davies, Matthew see Gower, XIV (1961), 62–6Google Scholar. For disputes between Swansea and Loughor in 1734 see Rogers, , ‘Calendar’, 1, 51Google Scholar; and ibid. III, 227.

20 Jenkins, P., ‘Two poems on the Glamorgan gentry’, NLW Journal, XXI (1979), 176Google Scholar.

21 Glamorgan Record Office, Society of Friends MSS, D/DSF/2; Swansea University Library, Padley MSS; Clement, M., Correspondence and minutes of the SPCK (Cardiff, 1952), p. 47Google Scholar and note 74.

22 Bodleian Library, Oxford, Walker MS C4, fos. 65–72.

23 Hancorne, Thomas, The right way to honour and happiness (Bristol, 1710)Google Scholar.

24 NLW, Add. MS 790 B, fos. 43–4.

25 Jones, W. T., The rise and progress of religious free thought in Swansea (1900)Google Scholar.

26 NLW, Gaol Files, 610/7.

27 NLW, Add. MS 398B.

28 Jenkins, ‘Cardiff’.

29 Matthews, J. H. (ed.), Cardiff Records (6 vols., Cardiff 1898–1911), 11, 190–1Google Scholar.

30 Jones, , ‘Sea Serjeants’; NLW, Philipps of Picton Castle MSS, 471–3Google Scholar, 804; and Box 12. The Shewens involved were William and Joseph.

31 NLW, Add. MS 5471E.

32 For Sea Serjeants' meetings in Swansea, see: NLW, Add MS 5458E; Badminton MS 2396; Philipps of Picton Castle MSS 591.

33 Andrews, C. Bruyn (ed.), The Torrington diaries (4 vols. 1934–8), 1, 303–4Google Scholar; Jenkins, P., ‘Jacobites and freemasons in 18th Century Wales’, Welsh History Review, IX (1979), 391–406Google Scholar.

34 Price, C., The English theatre in Wales (Cardiff, 1948), pp. 48–51Google Scholar.

35 Jenkins, , Making, pp. 146–9Google Scholar.

36 NLW, Badminton MS 2335; Rogers, , ‘Calendar’, 11, 253–7Google Scholar.

37 Martin, J. O., ‘The landed estate in Glamorgan, 1660–1760’ (Ph.D. thesis, Cambridge University, 1978), pp. 88–90Google Scholar; NLW, Badminton MS 2399.

38 Jones, and Walker, , Links with the past, pp. 117–41Google Scholar.

39 NLW, Church in Wales MSS, SD/QA 62, visitation reply of Rev. Miles Bassett (1799).

40 Plumb, J. H., The growth of political stability in England (1967), pp. 62–6Google Scholar.

41 Dillwyn, , Contributions, pp. 12–13Google Scholar; Cal. of State Papers Domestic, 1684–5, p. 94.

42 Jenkins, , Making, pp. 148–9Google Scholar.

43 Jenkins, ‘Two poems’.

44 Dillwyn, , Contributions, pp. 20–2Google Scholar; Cal. of State Papers Domestic, 1682, p. 230 for Thomas Philipps. Jenkins, ‘Old Leaven’; lists of aldermen are taken from: Dillwyn, Contributions, pp. 12–13, 28–30 (1657, 1661, 1685)Google Scholar; Rogers, , ‘Calendar’, 1, 13 (1694)Google Scholar; Grant-Francis, G.The Free Grammar School, Swansea (Swansea, 1849)Google Scholar, IX (1694); Swansea University Library, Mackworth MS, no. 508 in Baker-Jones catalogue (1706); Swansea University Library, Morris MSS, ‘History of the copper concern’, fo. 43 (c, 1735). For a list of Swansea's elite in 1695, see the account of the cause célèbre of ghosts and apparitions in NLW, Penrice and Margam MS A 93.

45 For Talbot's remark see NLW, Badminton MS 2195. For the Oriel scholarship, see for example Swansea University Library, Collins MS, Box 7. Powell's, diligence is suggested by his 1764 ‘Survey of Gower’ (Swansea University Library)Google Scholar.

46 Aldermen for 1802 are taken from Grant-Francis, Free School, pp. 21–2Google Scholar. Hatred of the Powells and conflict with the family could be illustrated at great length. However, see chiefly: Morgan, Prys, ‘The Glais boundary dispute’ in Williams, S. (ed.) Glamorgan History, IX (1973), 203–10Google Scholar; Price, , English theatre, pp. 47–51Google Scholar; Martin, J. O., ‘Mineral property disputes in mid-eighteenth century Glamorgan’ Welsh History Review, 9 (1978), 155–75Google Scholar. NLW, Badminton MSS 2115, 2195, 2321; Penrice and Morgan MSS, A118.

47 NLW, Badminton MS 2185.

48 The Bevans are extensively discussed in NLW, Badminton MSS; and Swansea University Library, Morris MSS, ‘History of the copper concern’. Dictionary of Welsh Biography; Roberts, R. O., ‘Dr. John Lane’ in Gown, IV (1951), 18–24Google Scholar; Roberts, R. P., ‘History of coalmining in Gower’ (MA thesis, University of Wales, 1953)Google Scholar; Grant-Francis, G.The smelting of copper in the Swansea district (London, 1881)Google Scholar. Raistrick, A.Quakers in science and industry (Newton Abbot, David and Charles, 1968), pp. 283–8Google Scholar.

49 Colley, In defiance of oligarchy, pp. 138–40, 166–8Google Scholar.

50 Jenkins, Making, pp. 65–7Google Scholar.

51 NLW, Neville MSS.

52 Williams, D. E., ‘The Popkin family’ Carmarthenshire Antiquary, VII (1971), 120–34Google Scholar.

53 Rogers, , ‘Calendar’, 111, 94Google Scholar; Cardiff Central Library, Deeds, 318A, 500A; and CCL MS D23–43. NLW, Penrice and Margam L 1107; Swansea University Library, Mackworth MSS 2–6.

54 Davies, West Gower, II, part 4, p. 68Google Scholar.

55 For industry in West Glamorgan see John, A. H. and Williams, G. (eds.) Glamorgan County History, v (Cardiff, 1980), especially pp. 1–96Google Scholar. Also Martin, ‘Landed estate’; Roberts, ‘Coal-mining’; Grant-Francis Smelting; Rees Industry; Jenkins Making; Nance, E. MortonThe pottery and porcelain of Swansea and Nantgarw (1943)Google Scholar.

56 Swansea University Library, Morris MSS, ‘History of the copper concern’. For other copper enterprises see NLW, Penllergaer MS 808, Badminton MS 2121; Swansea University Library, Mackworth MS 491.

57 Jenkins, P., ‘A Welsh Lancashire’ Recusant History (1980), 176–88Google Scholar, for Pytt. For the iron and tinplate group see NLW, G. E. Owen MSS, Robert Morgan letterbooks; NLW, Philipps of Picton MSS 571–3 (Sir John Philipps' list of correspondents 1743–53); Green, F., ‘Carmarthen tinworks’, in West Wales Historical Records (Carmarthen, 1915), v, 245–70Google Scholar; Morris, W. H., ‘Kidwelly tinplate works’ Carmarthenshire Antiquary, v (1967)Google Scholar; Williams, L. J., ‘Welsh tinplate trade’, Econ. Hist. Rev., XIII (1961)Google Scholar; Williams, L. J., ‘A Carmarthenshire ironmaster’ Business History, II (1959), 32–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58 Martin, , ‘Landed estate’, pp. 157, 167Google Scholar; Swansea University Library, Morris MSS, ‘History of the copper concern’, fo. 43.

59 Roberts, , ‘Coalmining’, pp. 20–6Google Scholar; Grant-Francis, Smelting, pp. 97–8Google Scholar.

60 Rees, Industry, 1, 573–6Google Scholar; Craig, R., ‘Notes on the Mansel Lewis papers’ Carmarthenshin Antiquary, III (1964), 88–92Google Scholar.

61 P.R.O. C 2347/85 (1793).

62 Cooke, G. A.Topographical and statistical description of the principality of Wales (c. 1815), p. 93Google Scholar; for the workhouse see NLW, Badminton MS 1503. For Jews, see Badminton MS 1328; Cardiff Central Library, diary of William Thomas, 6 October 1762. Oliver, A. (ed.) The journal of Samuel Curwen, Loyalist (Cambridge, Mass., 1972), 1, 383–91Google Scholar.

63 Jenkins, Making, pp. 246–50Google Scholar. For the 1787 controversy see NLW, Penrice and Margam MS 9125; Price, English theatre, pp. 47–51Google Scholar; Jenkins, ‘Jacobites and freemasons’. Sir Watkin Lewes was related to the Popkin family. Ross, J. E.Radical adventurer (Bath, 1971)Google Scholar.

64 NLW, Badminton MS 1326, Tredegar MS 72/81, Penrice and Margam MS 9125.

65 Money Experience; Roberts, , ‘Coalndashmining’, pp. 208–9Google Scholar; Hay, D. et al. , Albion's fatal tree (1975), p. 327Google Scholar; Jones, D. J. V.Before Rebecca (1973), pp. 20, 26, 228–30Google Scholar. For Voss, see Davies, , West Gower, 11, part 4, pp. 415–16Google Scholar.

66 Windsor Castle, Stuart Archives, MS 65/16 (consulted on microfilm in Cambridge University Library).

67 Colley, In defiance of oligarchy, pp. 9–10, 148Google Scholar; Holmes, British politics, 151–75Google Scholar; Ward, J. T. and Wilson, R. G., Land and industry (Newton Abbot, 1977)Google Scholar; Raybould, T. J.The economic emergence of the Black Country (Newton Abbot, 1973)Google Scholar. Compare Rowe, J., Cornwall in the industrial revolution (Liverpool, 1953)Google Scholar. North Wales tories like the Mostyns and Myddeltons were also deeply involved in industrial development. Jenkins, , ‘Welsh Lancashire’, p. 185Google Scholar for Welsh catholics as industrialists.