Edward Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn
Edward Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn (20 June 1800 – 31
March 1886) was a Scottish landowner in Wales, and politician. He
played a major part in the development of the Welsh slate industry.
Born Edward Gordon Douglas, he was the younger son of the Hon.
John Douglas and his wife Lady Frances (née Lascelles).
James Douglas, 14th Earl of
Morton, was his paternal grandfather and
George Sholto Douglas, 17th
Earl of Morton, his elder brother.
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 license in 1841. Penrhyn was
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. In 1866 he
was raised to the peerage as Baron Penrhyn, of Llandegai in the
County of Carnarvon.
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 died in 1886, aged
85, and was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son,
George.
Baron Penrhyn, whose family made much of their money from the slave
trade, left £761,880 in his will in 1886 to his son Lord George
Sholto Gordon Douglas Pennant.
The vast fortune left by Baron
Penrhyn, who owned Penrhyn Castle near Bangor, was the equivalent of
£45,628,993.20 today.
The family used the vast sums made from
the slave trade to fund their industrial ventures in Wales.
See also:
Douglas Arms, Bethseda
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