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Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn

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British politician

The Right HonourableThe Lord Pernrhyn
Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire
In office
1866–1886
Preceded bySir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, Bt
Succeeded byJohn Ernest Greaves
Member of Parliament
for Caernarvonshire
In office
1841–1866
Preceded byJohn Ormsby-Gore
Succeeded byGeorge Douglas-Pennant
Personal details
BornEdward Gordon Douglas
6 June 1800
Goldsborough Hall, Yorkshire, England
Died31 March 1886 (age 85)
Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd, Wales

Edward Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn (born Douglas; 20 June 1800 – 31 March 1886), was a Scottish Conservative Party politician, landowner in Wales, and slave owner in Jamaica. He played a major part in the development of the Welsh slate industry.

Life

"Slate". Caricature by "Spy" (Leslie Ward) published in Vanity Fair in 1882.
Lord Penrhyn with a deputation of quarrymen from the Penrhyn Quarry

Penrhyn was the younger son of the Hon. John Douglas and his wife, Lady Frances Lascelles, daughter of the 1st Earl of Harewood. The 14th Earl of Morton was his paternal grandfather and The 17th Earl of Morton was his elder brother. He served as an officer in the Grenadier Guards.

He inherited the Penrhyn Estate near Bangor in north-west Wales through his wife's father, George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, and changed his name to Douglas-Pennant by Royal licence in 1841.

This made him the owner of the Penrhyn Quarry near Bethesda, Wales, which under his ownership developed into one of the two largest slate quarries in the world. He was also involved in politics and sat as Member of Parliament for Caernarvonshire between 1841 and 1866. He also held the honorary post of Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire.

On 30 August 1852, he was commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant to revive and command the county militia regiment, the Royal Carnarvon Rifles. He commanded the regiment until 1858, when he became its Honorary Colonel.

In 1866, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Penrhyn, of Llandegai in the County of Carnarvon.

In 1868, he sacked 80 workers from Penrhyn Quarry for failing to vote for his son George Douglas-Pennant in the general election.

The village of Llandygai was developed by Lord Penrhyn as a 'model village' for his estate workers, in which 'no corrupting alehouse' was permitted. The village lies immediately outside of the walls of the Penrhyn Castle demesne walls, with the entrance to the village being some 100m from the castle's Grand Lodge. Pennant loaned the land the village was to be built on as a 30-year lease to the quarrymen who were to live there. The quarrymen built the entire village infrastructure and buildings with no help from Pennant, but 30 years later he took full ownership of the land and village.

Lord Penrhyn also earned a fortune from slave labour plantations in Jamaica.

Lord Penrhyn died in 1886, aged 85.

Marriage and issue

Lord Penrhyn married, firstly, Juliana Isabella Mary (died 25 April 1842), daughter of George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, in 1833. They had two sons and four daughters.

After her death, he married, secondly, Lady Maria Louisa, daughter of Henry FitzRoy, 5th Duke of Grafton, in 1846. They had five daughters:

  • Hon. Louisa Mary (13 July 1847 – 19 June 1911), died unmarried
  • Hon. Mary Georgina (1 May 1849 – 20 October 1926), died unmarried
  • Hon. Eva Anna Caroline (12 January 1852 – 3 January 1934), married Lord William Seymour
  • Hon. Gertrude Emma (11 June 1856 – 20 July 1944), died unmarried
  • Hon. Adela (26 May 1858 – 26 May 1955), died unmarried

He died in 1886 and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, George.

Arms

Coat of arms of Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn
Crest
"1st, Out of a ducal coronet an antelope's head argent, maned and tufted or, charged on the neck with a cross crosslet sable, for distinction; 2nd a sanglier, statant, between two clefts of an oak tree, with a chain and lock holding them together all proper, and above it the motto Lock sicker."
Escutcheon
"Quarterly: 1st and 4th per bend sinister ermine and ermines, a lion rampant or (Pennant), 2nd and 3rd grand quarters quarterly, 1st and 4th argent, a man's heart gules, ensigned with an Imperial crown proper, on a chief azure, three mullets of the field; 2nd and 3rd argent, three piles gules, on the two outer ones a mullet of the field" (Douglas).
Supporters
"On either side an antelope proper, collared and chain reflexed over the back or, and pendant from the collar of the dexter supporter an escutcheon gules, charged with the bust of a man's head affrontée proper."
Motto
Aequo Animo "With an even mind"

Notes

  1. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. pp. 3097–3098. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  2. Owen, pp. 47, 54, 72–5.
  3. Cregier, Don M. (1976). "Knickerbockers and Red Stockings, 1863-1884". Bounder from Wales: Lloyd George's Career before the First World War. Columbia & London: University of Missouri Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-8262-0203-9.
  4. A. H. Dodd (1968) A History of Caernarvonshire, Caernarvonshire Historical Society/Bridge Books ISBN 1 872424 07 4.
  5. ^ Lodge, Edmund (1901). The Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire as at Present Existing: Arranged and Printed from the Personal Communications of the Nobility. Hurst and Blackett Limited. pp. 557–558.
  6. Debrett's peerage & baronetage 2003. London: Macmillan. 2003. p. 1262.

References

  • Dictionary of Welsh Biography
  • Bryn Owen, History of the Welsh Militia and Volunteer Corps 1757–1908: 1: Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, Caernarfon: Palace Books, 1989, ISBN 1-871904-00-5.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded byJohn Ormsby-Gore Member of Parliament for Caernarvonshire
1841–1866 		Succeeded byGeorge Douglas-Pennant
Honorary titles
Preceded bySir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, Bt Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire
1866–1886 		Succeeded byJohn Ernest Greaves
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New title Baron Penrhyn
1866–1886 		Succeeded byGeorge Douglas-Pennant
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