The Cawdor Estates in South-West Wales in the Nineteenth Century
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_________________________________________________________________________Swansea University E-Theses The Cawdor estates in south-west Wales in the nineteenth century. Davies, John Edward How to cite: _________________________________________________________________________ Davies, John Edward (2008) The Cawdor estates in south-west Wales in the nineteenth century.. thesis, Swansea University. http://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42270 Use policy: _________________________________________________________________________ This item is brought to you by Swansea University. Any person downloading material is agreeing to abide by the terms of the repository licence: copies of full text items may be used or reproduced in any format or medium, without prior permission for personal research or study, educational or non-commercial purposes only. The copyright for any work remains with the original author unless otherwise specified. The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder. Permission for multiple reproductions should be obtained from the original author. Authors are personally responsible for adhering to copyright and publisher restrictions when uploading content to the repository. Please link to the metadata record in the Swansea University repository, Cronfa (link given in the citation reference above.) http://www.swansea.ac.uk/library/researchsupport/ris-support/ The Cawdor estates in south-west Wales in the nineteenth century. A thesis submitted to the University of Wales for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor by John Edward Davies B.A., D.A.A. December 2008. ProQuest Number: 10797978 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10797978 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 The Cawdor estates in south-west Wales in the nineteenth century. Contents Declaration p.i Summary p.ii Acknowledgements p.iii Illustrations p.iv Maps p.v Tables p.vi Family pedigree p.vii List of Abbreviations p.viii Introduction pp.ix-xviii 1. The Region, the Cawdor family and the making of the Welsh Estate pp. 1-22 2. Estate Administration pp.23-45 3. The Agricultural Estate pp.46-101 4. The Cawdors as Industrial Entrepreneurs pp.102-152 5. The Cawdors and the Community pp.153-236 6. The Cawdors and British politics pp.237-276 7. The Cawdors: their private and social lives pp.277-322 8. Conclusion pp.323-333 Bibliography pp.334-360 Summary This work is a consideration of the role and influence of the Cawdor estate in south west Wales in the nineteenth century. The estate was by far the largest in this remote area, and consequently its influence spread far and wide. The fundamental belief in the stability of the land to produce an income for the owner was at its zenith when this study commences. However, as the nineteenth century progressed this belief was eroded by a combination of democratic, political and economic forces, until, by the first decade of the twentieth century, it seemed that all that was left for the majority of landowners was to sell-off their estates and abandon their so recently unassailable position of power and influence. This study examines the role of the Cawdor estate in this century-long demise and investigates how the Earls Cawdor reacted to the erosion of their influence. As such the study examines the main sources of their wealth—the agricultural estate, and to a lesser extent the industrial estate. As a major part of the agricultural estate was let out to tenant farmers, the treatment of tenants takes precedence, since without their rent the Cawdors would have enjoyed no life of conspicuous wealth. Exploitation of mineral wealth also assisted in swelling the Cawdor coffers; thus an examination of the industrial estate is undertaken to ascertain the extent of such involvement. As a concomitant to the expansion of the Cawdors’ industrial estate, their role in the development of the infrastructure of south-west Wales will also come under scrutiny. As Anglican Christian paternalists the Cawdors’ responsibility towards the established church and its revival and to the moral well-being of the poor via their education, will be explored. These areas brought the Cawdors into conflict with the fast-growing nonconformist denominations and the accompanying political Liberalism, and their reaction to these, and to the growing call for the new phenomenon of democracy are examined to ascertain how, if at all, the Cawdors were able to change their paternalist philosophy in order to cope with the newer political and religious forces. As leaders of the two counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire their input to the political arena, both at a local level as Lords Lieutenant and magistrates, and at national levels as Welsh MPs, will establish their vital contribution (or not) to the political well-being of Wales. Finally, a picture will be drawn of the Cawdors’ leisure pursuits in the countryside—hunting and shooting, horse racing and yachting—and of their life in the Metropolis, where much of their income from the estates was spent, whether at the theatre or in the purchase of art with which they adorned their homes. In conclusion, the impact that the Cawdors wrought on the immediate locality of south-west Wales and further afield will be assessed in order to decide whether they were a force for the good or otherwise. Acknowledgements This work is the product of six years’ part-time research funded by a University of Wales Postgraduate bursary. During the research period, I have received invaluable assistance from the staffs of the National Library of Wales, the British Library, the library of the University of Wales Swansea, and the Pembrokeshire Record Office. Thanks are also due to the archivists at the Royal College of Agriculture, Cirencester, Bath University, the Royal Yacht Squadron, Castle Howard and Christ Church, Cambridge. I would like to thank in particular my colleagues at the Carmarthenshire Archive Service for putting up with my forever talking about Cawdor, and for their suggestions (some of which are printable!). My greatest debts are personal. Professor David Howell, my research supervisor, has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. My son Gawain has kept the technology in fine form and also reproduced the maps. However, lastly but by no means least, my wife, Marilyn, has been a paragon of patience throughout the whole process, but particularly during the writing-up process, when she hardly saw me. Illustrations John Campbell, First Lord Cawdor, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1778 (Original at Cawdor Castle). Frontispiece. John Frederick Campbell, First EarlCawdor, 1790-1860 by J. R. Swinton, 1848 (Cawdor Maps 161). Between pp. 45-46. John Frederick Vaughan Campbell, Second Earl Cawdor, 1817-1898 (Cawdor unlisted) Between pp. 101 -02. Frederick Archibald Vaughan (Campbell), Third EarlCawdor, 1847-1898, (Cawdor Maps 161). Between pp.236-37. Stackpole Court in c.1870 (NLW, Welsh Landscape Coll. B12/13/B240). Between pp. 276-77. Golden Grove as depicted by the architect Sir Jeffrey Wyatville,c. 1828. (Cawdor unlisted). Between pp. 322-23. Maps Map one: showing Golden Grove Park and garden and holdings mainly in the Llanflhangel Aberbythych, Llandeilo and Llandybie parishes. Note the almost total ownership of Llandybie village and land surrounding it. Map two: showing holdings in the southern parts of Llanfihangel Aberbythych, and Llandybie parishes. Map three: showing the holdings in Llangathen parish, and in the vicinity of Llandeilo town. Map four: showing holdings along the Tywi Valley westwards towards Carmarthen in Llangathen and Llangunnor parishes. Note the extent of ownership of Llanarthne village and surrounding land. Map five: showing holdings in Newcastle Emlyn, and the holdings in the western part of Cenarth parish, including the Gellidywyll estate. Map six:showing the remaining holdings in Cenarth parish and those in Penboyr parish. Note: The above maps are to be found on the CD in the pocket inside the back cover. The map of the Ystrad estate in the north east of Carmarthenshire and the one showing the holdings in Betws parish on the Black Mountains are not extant. Plan of Stackpole farm and new deer park, c.1795 (Cawdor box, 277). Between pp.284-85. No nineteenth-century map of the Stackpole estate’s Pembrokeshire properties exists, and although the whole of the estate was surveyed in 1777, the survey of the Pembrokeshire estate is only extant as a photographic copy kept at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, in Aberystwyth. However, as with the Campbell’s Carmarthenshire property survey (CRO, Cawdor/Campbell map-books 1 and 2), the Pembrokeshire one depicts individual farms rather than the estate as a whole. v Tables Table 1: Size of Agricultural Holdings from the Agricultural Returns,1875. Table 2: Estate expenditure on Building repairs, 1863-1899 Family pedigree John Campbell 1695-1777 Pryse Campbell c. 1727-1768 John Campbell, Baron