Thruston Family Papers, Pennal

Deeds of the Pennal Tower estate in Merioneth and Montgomeryshire, 1684-1908, letters, 1842-1927, and letters and reports relating to the prospects of the Gellyllog and Cwmbreichiau slate and slab quarries, Merioneth, 1869-1893.

The land that would form the Pennal Towers estate was originally part of Esgairweddan (formerly called Plas yn (y) Rofft). The male line of the Pryce or Price family of Esgairweddan became extinct with the death of Robert Price in 1702. His daughter and heir Mary eventually devised the estate to Humphrey Edwards of Talgarth, near Pennal, who was responsible for building the present mansion at Talgarth. Humphrey Edwards was succeeded by his son Lewis Edwards of Talgarth and Tonfane. Some time before 1708 he married Mary, daughter of John Davies of Machynlleth, adding property in the parish of Trefeglwys and in the town of Machynlleth to the estate. His son, Humphrey Edwards, married Mary, daughter of James Turner of Oldport, near Oswestry, Shropshire, thereby acquiring the Oldport estate. Humphrey's son, another Lewis Edwards, (c. 1748-1797), left a daughter, Frances (c. 1790-1828), who inherited Talgarth and Tonfane. She married Captain Charles Thomas Thruston (d. 1858), RN, a member of the Thruston family of Hoxne, Suffolk, and had a son, Charles Frederick Thruston. Captain Charles Thomas Thruston married secondly Eliza (d. 1840), daughter of Admiral Thomas Sotheby (1759-1831), the younger brother of the author, William Sotheby (1757-1833), and had a son, Clement Arthur Thruston. Pennal Towers mansion (the family used Pennal Tower) was built in the 1850s, and the small Pennal Towers estate was created out of the existing Talgarth estate, probably to provide this second son, Clement Arthur Thruston (d. 1863), with an adequate estate. Clement Arthur Thruston succeeded to Pennal Towers in 1858 on his father's death. He married Constance Sophia Margaret, daughter of Major-General Lechemere-Coore Russell of Ashford Hall, Shropshire. Their eldest son and heir, Edmund Heathcote Thruston, was born in 1863 and succeeded to the estate in 1883 on his father's death. In 1895 an agreement for the auction of the Pennal Towers estate was made between Edmund Thruston on the one hand and his mother, his brother Arthur Blyford and his sisters Marion and Olwen on the other. The intention was to establish a trust fund as a security for a jointure for both parties, but the estate failed to sell and the house was let for a number of years to the McNair family. Major Arthur Blyford Thruston was killed in October 1897 in an uprising at Fort Luburan in Uganda.

Arranged chronologically

No restrictions

Compiled by Stephen Benham for the HMC/NLW Family and Estates project. The following sources were used in the compilation of this description: Gwynedd Archives Service, Catalogue of the Thruston Family Papers, Pennal; National Library of Wales, Schedule of Pennal Tower Estate Records .

Hard copies of the catalogue are available at Meirionnydd Archives, National Library of Wales and the National Register of Archives

Usual copyright regulations apply.

All records deposited at the Meirionnydd Archives have been retained.

Accruals are not expected

The main Pennal Tower archive is National Library of Wales, Pennal Tower Estate Records.