The Cornish MP Edward Wynne Pendarves to the Swansea industrialist and later MP John Henry Vivian 1831

 

The thriving commercial and industrial town of Swansea obtained parliamentary representation in the Reform Act of 1832; its first M.P. was elected unopposed as a reform-minded Whig and held his seat unopposed until his death in 1855. He was John Henry Vivian (1785-1855), the recipient of this letter, a Cornishman who made his fortune in Wales from copper mining and smelting. Both energetic in business and civic-minded he also became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has a statue in Swansea; his children were painted by John Hayter RA, a fact I discovered from a fragment of a letter to Mrs Vivian which includes a pencil drawing done to amuse them. That I have two items addressed to the Vivian family in Swansea suggests that there are more circulating in the public domain.

The March 1831 letter transcribed below is written by a fellow Cornishman, Edward Wynne-Pendarves (1775-1853), who is in London and optimistic about the passage of the Reform Bill. Writing in March 1831 he does not foresee the die in the ditch opposition mounted in the House of Lords which delayed passage of the Bill until June 1832 and whose obstruction incited widespread and violent disorder, twice, in October 1831 and May 1832. As a moderate reform-minded Whig Pendarves had been M.P. from Cornwall from 1826 alongside the |Tory Sir Richard Vyvan and thus has Free Frank privilege to send this letter and was subsequently elected as the first M.P. for the new constituency of West Cornwall where he held the seat until his death in 1853.

Transcription

Addressed to: J H Vivian Esqr   Singleton   Swansea

Datelined: London March 15 [1831]

Parliamentary Free Frank postmark 16 MR 1831

My Dear John

I am delighted to hear that you are going on so well in your canvass – Guest told me he thought Dilwyn would stand, but I hope he is mistaken. [Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778–1855) was elected to Parliament in 1832 as a Whig member for Glamorgan]

Ministers appear to have very little doubt about carrying their [Reform] bill, & certainly they will not let it sleep – if the debate on the 2d [second] reading is not long, they will go into the Committee [stage] before Easter it is there that the fight will be but after the almost unanimous expression of feeling throughout the country I think many members who are against the bill will be shy of voting on it. It is even doubted by some whether there will be a division on the 2d reading.

The acct. from Hussey [could be Sir Hussey Vivian, also an MP at this period] today is rather better.

With best Regards to Mrs V

I am very truly yrs. EdwwPendarves

John Hayter RA "a sketch for Miss & Master Vivian"

References

Wikipedia: Edward Wynne-Pendarves

Wikipedia: John Henry Vivian