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A VISITATION OF THE SEATS OF THE NOBLEMEN AND GENTLEMEN OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
KINMEL PARK, in the county of Denbigh, the beautiful seat of Hugh Robert Hughes, Sq. Nephew and heir of the first Lord Dinorben.
In early times this property belonged to the celebrated Gryffydd Lloyd, from whom it passed by his daughter Alice, to her husband, Richard ap Evan. Their daughter and heiress, Catherine, conveyed it by marriage to Pierce Holland, eleventh in descent from Sir Thomas
Holland, a son of John Holland, Duke of Exeter. From this family, passing again by Marriage, it devolved to the Carters, and was alienated by John Carter to Sir George
Wynne, Bart.
From the last-named, the estate was purchased by David Roberts, Esq., who sold it to the Rev. Edward Hughes, of Llysdullas whose son, William Lewis Hughes—Baron Dinorben—obtained his peerage by letters patent, dated September 10th, 1811, to him and the heirs male of his body.
In the eighteenth century the old house was almost entirely pulled down, and a new and splendid mansion was erected within a quarter of a mile of its site, after plans by Samuel Wyatt. This was destroyed by fire in 1842, and was rebuilt by Lord Dinorben on "a scale of great magnificence."
Some remains of the old building still exist, rendered yet more interesting from their ruined state and the dark ivy with which they are overgrown.
Within this venerable pile they still show a room, about thirty feet long, by eighteen wide, said to have been occupied by Oliver Cromwell, during a visit he paid at Kinmel to his friend and comrade, Sir John Carter, the same that had acquired the estate by his marriage
with Miss Holland, whence the wits of the time took occasion to say, in reference to Carter's original occupation of a draper, that the Colonel had " carried off' the best piece of Holland in the county." Ever since this memorable visit, Oliver's spur* has been careful
preserved by the Kinmel family, the relique having for many years past been kept in the church for greater security.
One of the outer doors of the old hall, which is of oak, and studded with nails bears within an escutcheon, formed likewise with nails, the following date and initial letters: — 1615 D. H. . .’ l.
Within a few yards of the entrance is a fine old cedar, to which much legendary interest is attached. The modern house is exceedingly spacious as well as handsome, and stands on the side of a richly-wooded hill. It is constructed of excellent freestone, from the Stourton Hill Quarries, in Cheshire. The eastern front, which is the principal, is one hundred and eighty feet in extent, relieved by a portico with four massive iconic columns.
At right angles to it, hut on rather a higher elevation, stand the stables, which are built of the same stone As, and in a corresponding style with, the house. The court is entered by a lofty archway, Surmounted by a handsome clock tower. The western front is relieved by another Portico of the same dimensions as the principal front, and as well as the northern front, opens upon a spacious terrace, which commands a fine view of the Irish Channel and The vale of Clwyd. The view from the mansion is no less beautiful than extensive. On the right is the Clwydian range of mountains, and the ruins of Rhuddlan Castle, so much celebrated in history, that we must not pass over it without some notice, however cursory. In the early days of Welsh independence, it was here that the native princes were wont to receive and entertain their gallant followers. Here, too, it was that King Edward I. decided the half subdued Welsh by a pledge of giving them a ”Prince of their own blood," which he fulfilled by bringing his Queen, Eleanor, to
Lie-in at Caernarvon: — Keeping the word of promise to the ear, but breaking it to h.upe." Tlicre is yet standing in Rhuddlan a portion of the wall of the house in wliicli Edward lield his parliament. The late Dean Shipley,
Of St. Asaph, caused a tablet to be placed upon it, with the following inscription:—
“This fragment is the remains of the building - Wherein King Edward the First held his Parliament, A.l). 12K:i; in which was passed the Statute of Rhuddlan, Securinpr
To the principality of Wales its .judicial rights And Independence." Edward, anxious to seem his new conquest, kept three Christmases at Rhuddlan Castle; and though the fact has been scarcely noticed by historians. His Queen, Eleanor, was delivered “here of a Princess in 1283. Lyons has translated from an old roll a minute account of the Royal expenses while at Rhuddlan, in which are many curious items. As, for instance—" The Queen's gift to a female spy, one shilling. A certain female spy, to purchase her a house as a spy, one pound. The Queen's gift to divers minstrels attending her, ten pounds. For a certain player, as a gift, one shills. For six hundred turves, to place about the Queen's stewpond in the castle, one shilling. For the carriage of eighty casks of wine from the water to the castle, twenty-two shillings," &c. Here, too, the unlucky Prince David was brought prisoner, with all his family, and placed before the judgment-seat of Edward.
After the death of his brother, Llewellyn, and the last slaughter of the Welsh, he had contrived to conceal himself, together with his wife and children, for some months, during which time they were well-nigh famished. At length two of his retainers, who, it is believed, were bribed by the English, betrayed their
Hiding-place; and on a night in June, Edward sent a detachment, who dragged them all from the morass in which they had sought shelter. On being examined before the King at Rhuddlan, some very curious relics were found upon him, among which, one called Croesenydd, or a part of the real cross of Christ, and the crown of the celebrated King Arthur, were taken from him and given up to the conqueror. It is needless to speak here of the brutal sentence pronounced and executed on the unhappy captive—a sentence which disgraces even those days of acknowledged barbarism.
But the people, impotent to resent this cruel outrage,
found a sort of imaginary vengeance in fancying a legend which punished one of the inferior actors in this atrocious scene. A courtier, willing to gain favour by a show of zeal, pierced the heart of David as it lay roasting in the fire which had consumed his body; the heart, swollen by the heat, burst with much force, and flying from the embers, struck the courtier in the eye, and blinded him for life.
We return once more to the subject from whom the prospect of these celebrated ruins have led us thus far astray.
Between Kinmel House and the sea lies that rich and lightly cultivated tract of land called Rhuddlan Marsh, which was reclaimed from the ocean many centuries ago. The embankment is nearly eight miles in length, and of varying thickness according to the force of the tide. The land thus enclosed is a rich dam, part of which was sold under the act to defray the expense of defending the whole marsh from farther inroads.
The park of Kinmel is studded with a profusion of magnificent timber of various kinds. Till within a few years ago, the have stood here a Bahu of Gilead fir, which measured no less than eleven feet in girth, and was supposed to be the largest in Europe. It was blown Down in the high sea-gales of 1839.
From the size and appearance of many of the trees, they must have been planted centuries ago. Besides the various clusters, there are some stately avenues of oak, lime, and beech; and one of tile latter, which has attained an unusual growth, is said to have been planted in the time of the Commonwealth.
This park is supplied with deer of the Choicest sort, from four to five hundred being Constantly kept in stock. They are secured by A very extensive park-wall, the uniformity of Which has been broken by the introduction of iron railings at certain regular intervals.
On a lofty eminence, immediately behind the park, is Pen-y-pave, upon the brow of a Hill towards the left.
Here again we find a Peculiar interest attaching to the locality from the lingering tradition of other times. Upon the top of the hill is the site of Owen Gwynedd's camp, after his retreat before Henry II., whose farther porgies was Brought to a stand by this formidable obstacle, which was most gallantly defended? Traces Of the old fortifications still exist in two wide Deep fosses that surround the summit, and from all appearances it must have been a Place of great strength, especially with reference to the more scanty war-appliances of those days in which it was erected.
The view from This spot is no less extensive than interesting. On one side spreads the romantic vale of Clwyd, bounded by the Clwydian range of Mountains; on another rise up in distant Grandeur the mountains of Caernarvon, and on a third is the Irish Channel, with tile Overhead.
The site, which is covered with Luxuriant woods, is connected with the park by Walks, which afford a delightful retreat during the last of summer. Another interesting feature of the neighbourhood Is the village of Keg dock, of St. George's—Llan-St.-SIOR. In olden times it Was much celebrated for a well dedicated To St. George, to whom, as its tutela saint, it Was customary for which to present a horse, in order to procure his benediction upon the Rest of their stud. The churchyard has also been a subject of Much interest to travellers from its exceeding Neatness and rural beauty, the unsightfullness of Death being tempered and softened down by the shrubs and flowers that are nursed here in Great abundance.
The impression produced by this quiet scene, notwithstanding its associations, may well be caused pleasing,—certainly much more so than that which is excited by the finest monuments of stone or maybe.
The living works of nature seem to harmonize more pleasingly with our ideas of an immortal though parted spirit, than the cold, insensible Productions of human art. The present worthy Rector is the Rev. John Jones. In the church are several flagstones engraved to the memory of the Carter family, already mentioned.
Here, also, is a handsome Gothic mausoleum, erected over the tomb of the late Lady Dinorben.
1ST LORD DINORBEN OF KINMEL PARK
WILLIAM LEWIS HUGHES
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Constituency Dates
WALLINGFORD 1802 - 10 Sept. 1831
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Family and Education
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born 10th November 1767, 1st son. of Rev. Edward Hughes of Kinmel and Mary, daughter and coh. of Robert Lewis of Llysdulas, Anglesey; brother of James Hughes*. educated. Felsted; Christ Church, Oxford. 1786. married. (1) 8 March. 1804, Charlotte Margaret (died. 21 January. 1835), daughter of Ralph William Grey of Backworth, Northumb., 2 sons. (1 d.v.p.) 8 daughters. (6 d.v.p.); (2) 11 February 1840, Gertrude, daughter of Grice Blakeney Smyth of Ballynatray, county Waterford, 2 daughters (1 d.v.p.). suc. fa. 1815; created Baron Dinorben 10 September 1831.
died 10th February 1852.
Offices Held:-
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Militia a.d.c. to Queen Victoria 1840-d.
Captain. (volunteer.) Reserves Anglesey militia 1794, Major 1798, lt.-colonel. Commandant. 1803, Colonel. 1808.
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Biography
Hughes derived his considerable wealth from the proceeds of the Parys Mountain copper mine in Anglesey, on which his father had founded the family’s fortune.
He had also inherited landed property in Anglesey, Caernarvonshire, Denbighshire and Flintshire, and was a partner in the Chester and North Wales Bank.
Although he was a Whig by conviction, a friend of Sir Francis Burdett* and John Cam Hobhouse* and their set and a contributor to party funds, he had never been the most dedicated of parliamentary attenders.
He maintained the same relaxed attitude in this period, until the reform crisis belatedly stirred his interest.
By dint of his wealth and acreage, he carried some weight in North Wales electoral politics, in particular by helping to prop up his brother-in-law Sir Robert Williams in Caernarvonshire; but he never forcefully asserted himself, and mostly avoided active involvement in political campaigns.
At the general election of 1820 he stood again for Wallingford, where venality and systematic bribery were entrenched, and where he had maintained a strong interest since 1802 on the basis of his money, though it was alleged that he was never seen in the borough from one election to the next.
When the leaders of a new campaign to eradicate corruption, inspired by the Tory corporation, offered him their support, he apparently refused to subscribe to their resolutions in favour of electoral purity, which he said was a matter for electors rather than candidates.
He topped the poll after a contest forced by the intrusion of another Whig, who ousted the Tory sitting Member. Just over two years later, it seems, the notorious ‘Miller’ of Wallingford, a local shoemaker, duly distributed packets of sovereigns to Hughes’s supporters, who were mostly impoverished men.
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It is not clear whether it was Hughes or his brother James who voted with opposition on the civil list, 5th May 1820, but he was in their minorities on the same subject, 8 May, and the additional Scottish baron of exchequer, 15 May. He voted against the aliens bill, 1 June, 7 July. Either he or James voted to reduce the standing army, 14 June. He divided against Wilberforce’s resolution calling for compromise in the Queen Caroline affair, 22 June, and the barrack agreement bill, 17 July. He was one of Hobhouse’s minority of 12 in favour of a prorogation, 18 Sept. 1820.
He joined in the opposition onslaught on government over their treatment of the queen in the first weeks of the 1821 session. He voted to condemn the Allies’ repression of the liberal movement in Naples, 21 Feb., and for Catholic relief, 28 Feb. He was in small minorities for receiving the petition of Nathan Broadhurst complaining of his treatment in Lancaster gaol, 7 Mar.,
Creevey’s motion for a reduction in the number of office-holders in the House, 9 March., and delaying the army estimates, 12 March.; but his only subsequent known votes that session were for repeal of the additional malt duty, 3 April., inquiry into Peterloo, 16 May, and economy and retrenchment, 27 June.
Although he was listed as one of the stewards of the London Tavern reform dinner, 4 April. 1821, he did not attend.
Hughes voted for the amendment to the address, 5 February., against details of the Irish insurrection bill, 8 February., and in support of Sir Robert Wilson* over his dismissal from the army, 13 February. 1822. After voting for more extensive tax reductions to relieve distress, 21 February., he divided for the production of information on naval pay, 22 February., relaxation of the salt tax, 28 February., economies at the admiralty, 1 March., and in the army, 4 March., and inquiry into the duties of officers of the board of control, 14 March. He voted for Russell’s parliamentary reform motion, 25 April., abolition of one of the joint-postmasterships, 2 May, the payment of naval and military pensions from the sinking fund, 3 May, and cuts in diplomatic expenditure, 15, 16 May. His only other known votes in 1822 were for inquiry into chancery administration and against the pensions bill, 26 June, and for repeal of the salt duties, 28 June. He was a conspicuously infrequent voter during the following four sessions. He divided against the national debt reduction bill, 13, 17 March., for a repeal of assessed taxes, 18 March., against the deadweight pensions bill, 14 April., for repeal of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 16 April., and for inquiry into the prosecution of the Dublin Orange rioters, 22 April. 1823.
He was in a minority of 13 against the trial of capital offenders in the army by court martial, 11 July 1823. His only recorded votes in 1824 were for inquiry into the state of Ireland, 11 May, and proper use of Irish first fruits revenues, 25 May. He was given a month’s leave to deal with urgent private business, 15 Feb. 1825. He went up to vote for Catholic relief, 21 April., and against the Irish franchise bill, 26 April., and was present to divide against the duke of Cumberland’s grant, 30 May, 2 June, and for a reduction in judges’ salaries, 17 June 1825.
In late October he wrote to Hobhouse from Kinmel Park that he had ‘no thought of leaving the country before Christmas or indeed, unless compelled, before the meeting of Parliament’.
In the event, his first known votes in the 1826 session were against government on the salary of the president of the board of trade, 7, 10 April. He paired in favour of reform of Edinburgh’s representation, 13 April., but voted in person for Russell’s general reform proposals, 27 Apr. 1826.
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From November 1825 Hughes had been vilified as a hypocrite and sham reformer in the Tory Berkshire Chronicle, which mounted a campaign to expose the ‘Miller’ system at Wallingford. In March 1826 he announced his intention of standing at the next election and, joining forces with his Whig colleague Robarts, canvassed in response to threats of opposition which then came to nothing.
At the election in June John Dodson*, an anti-Catholic Tory, started on the independent interest. On the hustings, Dodson’s proposer, Alderman Charles Allnatt, repeatedly asked Hughes to renounce bribery, but he remained silent until, giving thanks after his return at the head of the poll, with Robarts in second place, he replied to his critics, assuming for himself the mantle of ‘a genuine Whig’, but disclaiming slavish adherence to a party line. He asserted that he had consistently voted for an extension of the franchise:
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I have always felt convinced of the necessity for general parliamentary reform, but I never have been friendly to that species of reform which would have borne on the poor elector only while it left the borough proprietor in undisturbed possession of his property ... On this principle I refrained from voting for the disfranchisement of Grampound, because I would not consent to disenfranchise that borough, while so many equally corrupt were to be left untouched ... and which had for a series of years been held as property by individual patrons, which had been repeatedly been publicly brought to market.
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He added that for this reason he had not felt able to vote for Russell’s resolutions of 26 May 1826 aimed at curbing the practice of electoral bribery, ‘which (however well intentioned) would have the effect of throwing a stronger fence around boroughs the property of individuals, and thus throw additional power and influence into the hands of the oligarchy’. When asked by a member of the corporation to confirm that he had voted for Russell’s reform motion only seven weeks earlier, he was said to have replied, ‘I suppose I did. I am not certain. I have voted so often for reform, that I really cannot recollect that motion in particular’.
It was alleged in some quarters that Hughes had deserted Williams, who was forced out of the Caernarvonshire seat by county hostility to his pro-Catholic views; but in fact he had done what he could for his brother-in-law before advising him to give up a hopeless cause. When ill health forced Robarts to resign his seat for Wallingford in December 1826, Hughes publicly endorsed the candidature of the veteran Whig Robert Knight, who easily defeated the corporation man and so strengthened Hughes’s hold on the borough.
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He voted for Catholic relief, 6 March. 1827. On 30 March. he was in the opposition minority for withholding supplies until the uncertainty over the new ministry had been resolved. His attitude to Canning’s brief ministry is unknown. In the autumn of 1827 he was host at Kinmel to his friend the duke of Sussex (one of whose executors he was appointed in 1840) and his mistress Cecilia Buggin, ‘a very agreeable person though perhaps not a very refined one’.
Hughes, who is not known to have spoken in debate in this period, presented a Wallingford inhabitants’ petition in favour of Catholic relief, 8 May, and voted thus, 12 May 1828. He was reported to have paired in favour of the grant to Canning’s family the following day.
He voted for reduction of the salary of the lieutenant-general of the ordnance, 4 July 1828. He was a virtual cypher for the rest of the Parliament. He presented petitions in favour of Catholic relief from Wallingford and a Suffolk parish, 19 March., and turned up to vote for the third reading of the relief bill, 30 March. 1829. He was granted a month’s leave on account of ill health, 1 March 1830; and his only known vote that session was against the administration of justice bill, 18 June.
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At the general election of 1830 Hughes was returned again for Wallingford, with Knight, after a token contest. Ministers of course numbered him among their ‘foes’, but he was not present to vote them out of office on the civil list, 15 November., and on 2 December 1830 he was granted a month’s sick leave. He attended to vote for the second reading of the Grey ministry’s reform bill, by which Wallingford was to lose one seat, 22 March., presented a constituency petition in its favour, 18 April., and voted against Gascoyne’s wrecking amendment the following day. He and Knight easily defeated a local Tory at the ensuing general election. He voted for the second reading of the reintroduced reform bill, 6 July, and against the adjournment, 12 July. His steady support of its details in committee during the next five weeks contrasts strikingly with his previous idleness. His last known votes in the Commons were with ministers on the Dublin election controversy, 23 August. 1831.
He was rewarded with a coronation peerage the following month. His nominee was returned for Wallingford in his place, after a contest, but his interest there was destroyed by the Reform and Boundary Acts.
As Lord Dinorben, he remained loyal to his Whig friends. His private life was studded with tragedy, for he lost six of the ten children produced by his first wife, and his only surviving son, William Lewis, born in 1821, was an imbecile.
In a second marriage, made at the age of 72, he fathered two daughters, only one of whom survived him. He died in February 1852, having failed to recover consciousness after being seized with paralysis at dinner two days previously.14 His will, dated 5 Jan. 1848, confirmed the provisions made by his father in 1805 for the benefit of his children.15 His idiot son survived him by only eight months, and on his death the peerage became extinct.
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The entailed estates passed to Hughes’s nephew, Hugh Robert Hughes (1827-1911), who unsuccessfully contested Flintshire as a Conservative in 1861.
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Author: David R. Fisher
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1840s–1910s The Hughes's, Denbighshire and London
No family in the British Isles travelled such a steep track to riches as the Hughes's of Kinmel. From the discovery of the untold amounts of copper in the hill they owned, or half-owned, in Anglesey, by 1815 they had acquired 85,000 acres of North Wales, which had cost them something like £496,000.
A title—Lord Dinorben—then came their way, but the first Lord Dinorben’s only son was ‘incapacitated, by imbecility of mind, from the exercise of the privileges of his rank.’ Dinorben was faced with the prospect of his nephew, Hugh Robert Hughes, born in 1827, inheriting everything he had.
Dinorben didn’t like him. They were opposed politically, the older man more liberal, the nephew, who would come to revel in his initials HRH, was by instinct a deep Tory, increasingly interested by genealogy and heraldry, three generations away from the raw money-making phase in Anglesey.
The story of the following sixty years at Kinmel is of HRH relentlessly denying the memory of an uncle who had wanted to exclude him; of a vastly rich Victorian squire who spent the bulk of his life enraged; and of a sharp-eyed, peaky-nosed man trying to establish a position in the world which would expunge the memory of having once been the grasping nephew and the anxious inheritor.
He had money but he wanted dignity.
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