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MANSEL, BUSSY (1623-1699), of Briton Ferry, Glam. , parliamentary commander and Member of Parliament; b. in 1623, the younger but only surviving son of Arthur Mansel of Briton Ferry (third son of Sir Thomas Mansel, baronet, of Margam, who d. 1631) and Jane, daughter and heiress of William Price of Briton Ferry. At the early age of 22 Bussy Mansel was appointed, 17 Nov. 1645, commander-in-chief of the parliamentary forces in Glamorgan. He was added to the High Court of Justice, 25 June 1651, received a commission, 13 July 1659, as colonel ‘to command the Militia Troop in cos. Pembroke, Carmarthen, and Cardigan,’ and on 30 July in the same year, to command ‘the whole militia forces in South Wales, horse and foot, to lead them against the enemy if need be.’ He had previously (14 March 1654) been appointed a militia commissioner for South Wales. Among other appointments held by him was that of membership of the County Committee for Glamorgan, 1645, commissioner to raise money in Glamorgan (Feb. 1647), an assessment commissioner for Glamorgan (1657), commissioner for providing for the safety of Oliver Cromwell (4 May 1658), and a commissioner under the Act for ejecting insufficient ministers and schoolmasters. Document 1137 amongst the Penrice and Margam muniments in N.L.W. is a warrant of justices in the county of Glamorgan to the governor of Chepstow castle, authorising the release of Bussy Mansell and others who had been arrested as ‘disaffected and suspitious persons.’ The warrant is dated 25 July 1685, one of the signatories being Sir Edward Mansell, bart., of Margam.

Mansel was elected Member of Parliament for Glamorgan in 1679 (twice) and again in 1689, 1690, 1695, and 1698. He had m. 17 April 1646, Catherine, daughter of Hugh Perry and widow of Sir Edward Stradling of S. Donat's castle, Glamorgan. (Catherine must have been his first wife; see below).

Some of Bussy's correspondence for the period 1670-95 is preserved among the Penrice and Margam muniments; the references are L 104a and b, 126, 149, 190, 206, 224, 228-9, 232-5, 238, 240-2, 244, 260, 263, 293-5. L 104 (14 and 15 Feb. 1669/70) refers to the working of a coal mine. L 149 shows that Bussy had m., as his second wife, an Anne, to whom he writes on 5 May 1678, requesting her to pay Sir Edward Mansell the sum of £62 ls. 6d., ‘Sir Edward haveing allready disbursed soe much for me to my souldiers …’ L 190 (16 Aug. 1687) is a letter to him about timber bought of Sir Humphrey Mackworth, L 224, dated 5 April 1691, refers to the impressment of seamen. In some of the letters, many of which are addressed to his kinsman, Sir Edward Mansel, bart., Bussy gives parliamentary and other news from London.

Bussy Mansel d. in May 1699 (buried at Briton Ferry 25 May 1699 — his will is dated 30 March 1699), leaving as his heir his grandson THOMAS MANSEL (Clark, Cartae, vi, 2250), who, on his death in 1706, was succeeded in the ownership of the Briton Ferry estate by BUSSY, 4th baron Mansel, who m. (2) lady Barbara, daughter of William, 2nd earl of Jersey.

Bibliography:

G. T. Clark, Cartae;
W. R. Williams, Parl. Hist.;
Arch. Camb., II, ii, 238;
L.J. viii, 52;
Whitelock Memorials, 180;
Cal. S.P. Dom., 1645-7 (136), 1651 (266-7), 1658-9 (325), 1659-60 (24, 56);
Richard Symonds, Diary of the Marches;
Hist. MSS. Comm., Rep. Portland MSS., i, 345, 351-2;
Cal. Ctte. for Compounding, i, 747;
W. de Gray Birch, Cat. of Penrice and Margam MSS., iii, no. 1137;
C. A. Maunsell and E. P. Statham, Hist. of the Family of Maunsell (London, 1910);
N.L.W., A Schedule of Penrice and Margam Muniments, ii.

Author:

Sir William Llewelyn Davies, M.A., LL.D., F.S.A. (1887-1952), Aberystwyth