The Right Honourable
The 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
Born6 June 1800
Died31 March 1886 (age 85)

Edward Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn (20 June 1800 – 31 March 1886), was a Scottish landowner in Wales and Jamaica, and a Conservative Party politician. 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

Born Edward Gordon Douglas, he was the younger son of the Hon. John Douglas and his wife Lady Frances (née Lascelles). 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.[1]

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.[1] 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.[1] 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.[1][2]

In 1866 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Penrhyn, of Llandegai in the County of Carnarvon.[1]

In 1868 he sacked 80 workers from Penrhyn Quarry for failing to vote for his son, George Douglas-Pennant, in the general election.[3]

The village of Llandygai was developed by Lord Penrhyn as a ‘model village’ for his estate workers, in which ‘no corrupting alehouse’ was permitted.[4] 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.[1]

Family

Lord Penrhyn married, firstly, Juliana Isabella Mary, daughter of George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, in 1833. They had two sons and three daughters. After her death in 1842 he married, secondly, Maria Louisa, daughter of Henry FitzRoy, 5th Duke of Grafton, in 1846. They had eight daughters. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, George.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Burke's: 'Penrhyn'.
  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.

References

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