Kilvrough Estate

Deeds of the Kilvrough estate, Glamorgan, 1697-1937; a survey of the lordship of Gower, 1650 (copy made after 1832); accounts, 1847-1942; correspondence, 1915-1936; wage records, 1919-1922; sale catalogues, 1914-1932; farm records, 1904-1920; household accounts, 1859-1881; and photographs, [c. 1920].

The Dawkin family, owners of the Kilvrough estate, traced their descent from Sir William de Langton, lord of the manors of Langrove and Henllys in the Gower. Rowland Dawkin built the house at Kilvrough in 1585. The last male Dawkin to own Kilvrough and builder of the present mansion was William Dawkin. His heir was his daughter Mary who married a French gentleman assuming the title of Marquis de Choiseul, by whom she had no issue. Mary sold the mansion and estate to Thomas Penrice (1789-1846) in 1820. He died without issue and the estate passed to his nephew, Thomas Penrice (1820-1897). According to the 1873 return of owners of land, Thomas Penrice of Kilvrough owned an estimated 5,415 acres in Wales (all in Glamorgan), with an estimated rental of £5,065. Thomas's heir was his eldest daughter and only surviving child, Louisa Jane, Lady Lyons of Kilvrough, who married Sir Algernon Mclennan Lyons in 1870. Their eldest son and heir was Commander Algernon Edmund Penrice Penrice-Lyons (b. 1886), of Glazebrook, South Brent, Devon, who sold Kilvrough in 1920. Commander Algernon assumed by deeds poll the additional name of Penrice in 1922.

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It is the policy of the West Glamorgan Archive Service to withhold the names of depositors.

Compiled by Mair James for the HMC/NLW Family and Estates project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Collis, Kim, The West Glamorgan Archive Service: A Guide to the Collections, (West Glamorgan Archive Service, 1998); James, Brian, 'The Great Landowners of Wales in 1873', National Library of Wales Journal, XIV (1965-6); Nicholas, Thomas, Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County families of Wales, (London, 2 vols, 1872), vol. II, Burke's Landed Gentry, (London, 1952).

Hard copies of the catalogue are available at West Glamorgan Archive Service and the National Register of Archives.

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Further papers relating to the Kilvrough estate are West Glamorgan Archive Service: D/D Xtr, D/D Z 21, and D/D Z 127; and University of Swansea, LIS Archives: Kilvrough deeds.