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 a Conservative Party politician. He played a major part in the development of the Welsh slate industry.

Portrait of Edward Gordon Douglas Pennant
"Slate". Caricature by "Spy" published in Vanity Fair in 1882.
Lord Penrhyn with a deputation of quarrymen from the Penrhyn Quarry

Life

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 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. Lord 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.

In 1868, he sacked 80 workers from Penrhyn Quarry for failing to vote for his son, George Douglas-Pennant, in the general election.[1]

The village of Llandygai was developed by Lord Penrhyn as a ‘model village’ for his estate workers, in which ‘no corrupting alehouse’ was permitted.[2] 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.

Lord Penrhyn died in 1886, aged 85.

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.

Notes
  1. 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.
  2. A. H. Dodd (1968) A History of Caernarvonshire, Caernarvonshire Historical Society/Bridge Books ISBN 1 872424 07 4.
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References
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John Ormsby-Gore		 Member of Parliament for Caernarvonshire
1841–1866		 Succeeded by
George Douglas-Pennant
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Sir Richard Williams-Bulkeley, Bt		 Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire
1866–1886		 Succeeded by
John Ernest Greaves
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New title Baron Penrhyn
1866–1886		 Succeeded by
George Douglas-Pennant
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