Edward Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn of Llandygai

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Edward Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn of Llandygai (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.

In 1824, he was a member of the record breaking crew which rowed the Thames from Oxford to London, 118 miles, in under 16 hours.

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 honourary 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 in 2016.

The family used the vast sums made from the slave trade to fund their industrial ventures in Wales.

 

His daughter, Adela, was a renowned organist.

 

See also:

  • The Douglas-Pennant Family
  • Douglas Arms, Bethseda
  • Archibald and Eleanor (portrait)
  • Edward rows the Thames (External link)
  •  

    Sources


    Sources for this article include:

    •  Dictionary of National Biography.

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    Last modified: Thursday, 22 February 2024