Llanover estate documents

Deeds and documents relating to the Llanover estate, including purchased properties, mainly in Monmouthshire but including a few properties in Brecknockshire, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire. The properties represented include Llanover Court (purchased c.1792), 1794-1826, Park Lettice (purchased 1826), 1754-1874, Ty Mawr, 1725-1832, and Fro, 1621-1859, all in the parish of Llanover. The remaining properties are mainly in the town of Abergavenny and the parishes of Goetre, Llanelen, Llanover, Llanwenarth and Llantilio Pertholey.

In 1615 Rhys Williams was lord of the manor and court of Llanover, Monmouthshire, including the manors of Parc Llettis and Dyfnwal. He had been succeeded by 1628 by his grandson Matthew Williams. Herbert Williams, son or grandson of Matthew Williams, was the last of the Williams family to own the manor, selling it for £340 in 1672 to Dame Anne Morgan (d. 1688). Dame Anne Morgan bequeathed the manor of Park Lettice to her grand-niece, Mary wife of Baron Otto Schwerin of the Netherlands, and the manor was escheated to the Crown by reason of Otto being a foreigner. Some time before 1740 the manor of Park Lettice was purchased by John Burgh of Troy, steward to the Duke of Beaufort, who also purchased Llanover Court and demesne land. The Rev. Henry Burgh, his son, left a daughter and heir, Maria, the wife of Colonel Thomas Johnes, MP, of Hafod Uchtryd, Cardiganshire. Having no surviving issue, Maria left her manor of Park Lettice to her mother, and other lands in Llanover to her sisters Amy wife of John Powell of Llanhamlach, and Anne the wife of Edward Williams of Llangattock Crickhowell. In 1816, Thomas Powell, son of Amy Powell, and Osborne Yeates, who had married the granddaughter of Anne Williams, were joint lords of the manor. In 1826, Thomas Harcourt Powell sold the manor and estate to Benjamin Hall (1802-67), afterwards Lord Llanover. Benjamin Hall (1778-1817) was the eldest son of Dr Benjamin Hall, chancellor of Llandaff cathedral. He married Charlotte, the younger daughter of Richard Crawshay the ironmaster (1739-1810) of Cyfarthfa, in 1801. Crawshay made Hall a partner when he purchased the Rhymney ironworks in 1803, presented him with the Abercarn estate in 1808, (which Richard Crawshay had purchased from Samuel Glover for £3,500 in 1807), and bequeathed him a three-eighths share in his estate in his will, which Hall eventually sold to Crawshay's son William (1764-1834). Benjamin Hall also purchased the manor of Park Lettice from Thomas Harcourt Powell in 1826. Benjamin Hall (1802-1867) of Abercarn married Augusta (1802-1896, 'Gwenynen Gwent'), the youngest of the six daughters of Benjamin Waddington (1749-1828) of Llanover, in 1823. Benjamin Waddington, the third son of a Nottinghamshire cleric, had bought Llanover from the Cecil family of The Dyffryn in about 1792, and married Georgina Mary Anne Port (1771-1850) of Ilam, Derbyshire. With the arrangement of the other daughters, the Llanover estate was settled on Augusta, and the neighbouring estates of Llanover and Abercarn were united. Benjamin Hall died in a shooting accident in 1867 having survived both his sons. After her death the estate passed to her only surviving child, Augusta, the widow of J.A.E. Herbert of Llanarth, Monmouthshire. She purchased the Coldbrook estate near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, in 1896. Her heir was Major-General Sir Ivor John Caradoc Herbert (1851-1934) who became Baron Treowen in 1917.

Arranged by original bundles

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Deposit. It is Gwent Record Office's policy to withold information about donors or depositors in view of possible misuse.

Compiled by Stephen Benham for the HMC/NLW Family and Estates project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Bradney, Sir Joseph, A History of Monmouthshire, vol. I, part 2b; (London, 1992. facsimile ed.), vol. V, (Cardiff and Aberystwyth, 1993, facsimile ed.). Gwent Record Office, Catalogue of documents relating to Llanover Estate.

Hard copies of the catalogue are available at Gwent Record Office, National Library of Wales and the National Register of Archives.

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All records deposited at Gwent Record Office have been retained.

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Further papers relating to the Llanover estate are held by Gwent Record Office: D3416, accounts, ledgers, rent rolls and cash books. Further papers, mainly family papers, are held at National Library of Wales, Llanover Papers, 1786-1940, and the Bunsen & Waddington Letters, 1817-63.