Emilia Gwinnett was the youngest daughter born to the Reverend Samuel Gwinnett of Down Hatherley in Gloucestershire and his wife, Anne, neé Emes.  Samuel (1699-1775) and Anne (c.1700-1767) had seven children in all:

• Anna Maria, 1731 – 1745, died Cottrell, Glamorgan
• Samuel, 1732 – 1792, died Cottrell, Glamorgan
• Button, 1735 – 1777, died in America; signatory of the American Declaration of Independence
• Thomas Prise, 1736; believed to have died in infancy
• Robert, 1738; believed to have died in infancy
• Emilia, 1741 – 1807, died Cottrell, Glamorgan
• John Prise, c. 1742? – 1777, died in Bengal, India

The Gwinnett family had been settled in Gloucestershire since the last quarter of the 16^th century but, suddenly, a branch appeared in South Wales in the middle of the 18^th century.  As part of research into Button Gwinnett’s immediate family, the transcribing of the 1808 will of Emilia Gwinnett, his younger sister, raised a number of questions about her.

• How did she end up in Glamorgan?
• Why did she inherit Penllyn Castle?
• What was her relationship with Louisa Barbara Vernon?
• Why did she inherit Cottrell Park?
• Why were Thomas, Earl of Clarendon, William Chute Hayton and George Tyler the main beneficiaries of her will?

So, where exactly in Glamorgan did the Gwinnetts settle?  Travelling west from Cardiff along the A48, you reach St. Nicholas, about 2 miles from the western outskirts of Cardiff.  It is a small village which straddles the A48 and is where the Church of St Nicholas is located.  (It should not to be confused with St Nicholas Church, in the city of Gloucester which also has links with the Gwinnett family.)  No more than a mile west of St Nicholas lies Cottrell Park, now a golf course.  About 7 miles west of St Nicholas is the town of Cowbridge and about a mile northwest of Cowbridge is the village of Penllyn and Penllyn Castle.  The original castle is now in ruins, but the large house still stands there and is in private ownership.  Those Gwinnetts who settled in Glamorgan were all within a few miles of each other.

18^th century map showing the homes of Rev. Gwinnett at Cottrell (right) and

Mrs Gwinnett at Penlline Castle(top left)

From ‘A Map of the County of Glamorgan’ by George Yates, 1799’

 

The occurrence of two Samuels and two Emilias in the family can lead to confusion, as can the two churches called St. Nicholas.  For the sake of clarity, the Revd. Samuel Gwinnett, (1699 – 1775) will be referred to as ‘senior’, and his son, also the Revd. Samuel Gwinnett, (1732 – 1792) as ‘junior’.  Emilia Button (1708 – 1785), who married the Reverend Samuel Gwinnett, junior, is referred to, after her marriage, as Mrs Emilia Button Gwinnett.  Emilia Gwinnett (1741 – 1807), the daughter of Revd. Samuel Gwinnett, senior, remains Miss Emilia Gwinnett throughout.  The two churches dedicated to St. Nicholas will be described as being of Glamorgan or Gloucester to distinguish between them.

So, what was the link between the Gwinnetts of Down Hatherley in Gloucestershire and those of Glamorgan?  Samuel Gwinnett, senior, matriculated from Oriel College Oxford in 1750[1] and was made vicar of Down Hatherley on 25^th September 1727 and, later, also, as curate of St Nicholas Church, Gloucester on 23^rd August 1735[2].  His wife, Anne Gwinnett (nee Emes[3]), was a cousin of Barbara Button of Cottrell Park.  They were double cousins – related through both the Button family of Glamorgan and the Price family of Wistaston Court, Herefordshire.[4] This is why the names Button and Price or Prise appear in the forenames of the children of the Revd. Samuel, senior, and his wife Anne.

The first Gwinnett with a Glamorgan connection seems to be their eldest daughter, Anna Maria, who died aged 14, and was buried in St Nicholas Church, Glamorgan in 1745.  Maybe Anna Maria was visiting her relatives or possibly living with her mother’s cousin, Barbara Button, at Cottrell Park at that time of her death, the cause of which is unknown.

The next Gwinnett to move to Glamorgan was Samuel, junior, ordained as a deacon on 1^st July 1758.  There is no evidence that Samuel was actually a vicar of St Nicholas, Glamorgan; he is not recorded in Shepherd’s[5] list of incumbents at St Nicholas, Glamorgan.  In addition, William Thomas[6], describing the death of Samuel Gwinnett junior, in January 1792, wrote:

 ‘Was buried in St Nicholas, the Revd. Samuel Gwinnett, a man very learned in the Languages, but very selfish and passionate.  He was rose up a Clergyman but served no Churches but lived a Gentleman, for he married the heiress of Cottrell, his Relation, and had the Estate after her Death.  He dy’d the second instant of a lingering disease, of 61 years old.’

Barbara Button[7] died in 1755 and each of Revd. Samuel, senior, and Anne’s surviving children received a bequest in her will.  Her estate, Cottrell Park, she left to her niece, Emilia Button, who probably lived with her at Cottrell before her death.  Nine months after Barbara Button’s death, Samuel Gwinnett, junior, married Emilia Button who was then 47 years old, Samuel being only 23 years old.  Samuel, junior, and his wife Emilia moved into Cottrell Park where they lived together for the rest of their lives.  They had no children.

Several years after the marriage of Samuel, junior and Emilia Button, they were visited at Cottrell by Samuel’s younger brother, John Prise Gwinnett.  John, then a Captain serving in the Indian Army, according to the diarist William Thomas[8], fathered an illegitimate child with the housekeeper of Samuel, junior, and Emilia Button Gwinnett.  In January 1763, Thomas records the death of the housekeeper in childbirth and that the child was stillborn.  Richards[9] speculates on ‘the effect of such a tragedy on the clerical household’.

Miss Emilia Gwinnett was the youngest daughter of Samuel, senior, and his wife, Anne, and the younger sister of Button Gwinnett.  She outlived her brothers and sister and with her death, that branch of the Gwinnett family ended.  At some point in her life, she moved to Glamorgan permanently.  Paterson[10] and Jenkins[11] suggest that Miss Emilia moved there when the family home in Down Hatherley was broken up – presumably at the death of her father in 1775.  This seems most likely.  By then her brother, Button, was in America, her brother, John, was back in India and her brother Samuel was her nearest relative, in Glamorgan.  So it is probable that Emilia moved to be with her brother Samuel and his wife at Cottrell Park and thus became friendly with Lady Louisa Barbara Vernon at nearby Penllyn Castle.

Lady Louisa Vernon owned Penllyn Castle.  She had an unhappy marriage to George Vernon and at the time of her death in 1786 was estranged from her only surviving daughter, Louisa.  In her will, Lady Vernon[12] makes clear the cause of her daughter’s estrangement and disinheritance and her unhappy marriage:

The reason of my taking but little notice of my near relations is because they have never thought fit to assist me in my troubles or ever made a point of my getting my child.  Mr Vernon is the sole cause of his child being disinherited for which she has reason to bless him and the true reason of my parting with him which I now make known to the world was his attachment and intimacy with Mrs Brown, his daughter’s maid, which many now testify the truth of in Sussex and other intimacys well known …

The reason for leaving Pennlyn Castle to Emilia Gwinnett is also made clear:

I give and devise my Penline Castle Estate which ……is situate lying and being in the County of Glamorgan …. with all the manors, advowsons, messuages, buildings, farms and tenements and hereditaments thereto …. unto Mrs Emily Gwinnett,[13] Spinster, of Cotterel in Glamorganshire at her disposal after her decease and it likewise to her heirs for ever for her friendly attention to me in all my troubles with this request to her that she would add to the castle and reside there mostly in summer

In her will, Louisa Vernon directs that ‘all my dogs may be carried to Mrs Emily Gwinnett wherever she is’ and ‘I request that the Box I always keep under my bed only be opened and examined by Mrs Gwinnett alone the contents she knows what to do with 

Emilia was thus, along with Penllyn Castle, entrusted with the care of Louisa Vernon’s pet dogs, and also with the mystery contents of the box under her bed.  Louisa Vernon’s main residence was Newick Park in Sussex.  It was there that she made her will and there that she was buried

I desire to be buried in Newick Church and that a monument be erected to my memory and placed beside that of my dear and honoured Mother

For her part, Miss Emilia requested in her will that

I desire to be buried at Newick in the County of Sussex as near the remains of the late Lady Louisa Barbara Vernon as may be….

Thus the relationship between Emilia and Louisa Vernon was one of deep friendship.  Emilia chose to be buried, not at St Nicholas Church in Glamorgan, where she was living, nor in Down Hatherley near her parents, but in Sussex near to Lady Vernon.  Their friendship was to endure beyond the grave.

Securing her inheritance from Lady Vernor was not straightforward for Emilia.  In June 1786 she wrote to Lord Dartmouth[14] as follows:

My Lord

The Devisees named, in the Will of my deceased, and dear Friend, Lady Vernon, are advised that it is necessary to file an amicable Bill in Chancery to perpetuate the testimony of the Witnesses, and that it is necessary to state therein the Deeds made prior to her Ladiships (sic) Marriage impowering (sic) her to make such will, I have a paper written by her Ladiship mentioning that your Lordship and Lord Clarendon were the Trustees as to the Penlline Estate.  I have applied to Lord Clarendon who thinks that you have the deed and that you mentioned it to him.  I therefore am under a necessity of troubling your Lordship to favor me with the Date & Parties of the Deed relating to the Penlline Estate & if it is a separate Deed I am advised that it is perfectly consistant with the trust that I may have the custody of it, as I am solely interest, to avoid giving your Lordship trouble

I am

My Lord with Great respect, Most obliged, Humble Servant

         Emilia Gwinnett

From this letter it seems Lord Dartmouth and Lord Clarendon were trustees of the Penllyn Castle estate and Miss Emilia had to apply to them for the Deeds of the estate.

In the meantime, Emilia Gwinnett took up residence at Penllyn and added to the estate. Letters and other documents in the National Library of Wales[15] show Emilia living at Penllyn.  She writes to various friends about a fire at Penllyn, winter storms, poor quality hay for the livestock, and the deaths of close friends in the neighbourhood.  There is, also, correspondence about debts and mortgages and interest to be paid.  At some point she became a promoter and a shareholder in the Newport canal[16], and owned mines in Glamorgan[17].  She thus had wide interests in the local economy, which are reflected in her will.

On Mrs Emilia Button Gwinnett’s death in 1785, Samuel, junior, inherited Cottrell Park, a year before his sister inherited Penllyn Castle.  However, Emilia Button Gwinnett’s inheritance of Cottrell Park was not clear-cut, as documents in the National Library of Wales[18] show.  In her will, Barbara Button, after a number of bequests to family members, bequeathed the bulk of her estate to her niece, Emilia Button, whom she had made her executrix:

‘Also I give, devise and bequeath all and singular my manors, messuages, lands, tenements and hereditaments whatsoever ….. unto my cousin, Emilia Button, Spinster for and during the term of her natural life and for and after her Decease, I give, devise and bequeath all and singular my said manors, messuages, lands, tenements and hereditaments ….. unto the heirs of her body lawfully to be begotten’.

In the event of Mrs Emilia Button Gwinnett having no ‘heirs of her body’, as was indeed the case, then Barbara Button’s estate was bequeathed to

‘my said Cousin, Mary Radcliff, the wife of the said Joseph Radcliff and to her heirs and assigns for ever.  And also I give and bequeath all and singular the rest, residue and remainder of my goods, chattels and personal estate whatsoever and wheresoever unto my said cousin Emilia Button’.

Mary Radcliffe was another cousin of Barbara Button and her husband, Joseph, was a lawyer[19]. It is likely that he initiated the legal opinions which were sought on Barbara Button’s will.  Legal opinion was asked to confirm that Emilia Button was the rightful heir and not just a ‘tenant for life’; also, whether she could raise money by selling timber and raising a mortgage in order to pay off funeral expenses and outstanding debts on the Cottrell estate.  Furthermore, legal opinion was asked to confirm that Mrs Emilia Button Gwinnett could ‘dispose of it as she pleases’ or would it, after her death, ‘fall to her cousin Mary Radcliffe and her heirs’. 

The outcome of the legal questions on Barbara Button’s will was that ‘nothing will fall to her (Mary Radcliff) or her heirs on the death of Mrs Button but Mrs Button may either dispose of it in her lifetime or Devise it to whom she thinks proper after her death’.  In summary, Emilia Button was entitled to inherit the estate of Barbara Button, entitled to raise money from the estate to settle debts and expenses, and entitled to leave the estate to whomever she pleased.

During the marriage of Emilia Button and Samuel Gwinnett a series of mortgages and loans were taken out, presumably against the Cottrell Park estate[20]. There were two main ones which were outstanding when both of them had died.  In April 1755, three months after her aunt Barbara Button died, Emilia Button took out a mortgage of £1000.  In April 1763, Samuel Gwinnett took out a mortgage of £700.  There is much correspondence about the interest due and payment, or lack of payment, thereof.  When Samuel Gwinnett died, his sister Emilia paid off some of the outstanding interest.  However, these debts were to cause problems after Emilia’s death, as we will see.

In 1792 Emilia’s brother Samuel died and she inherited Cottrell Park. By then, Samuel’s only direct relatives were his sister Emilia and his brother William.  Given the above cited poor relationship between William and his family, Emilia is the logical heir to the Cottrell estate.  Or did Emilia inherit Cottrell Park?  There are stories [21] that Emilia burnt her brother’s will after his death in order to inherit Cottrell Park, and that because of this her ghost haunted the house!  The inheritance of Cottrell Park , however it happened, added to Emilia’s property holding and meant she was woman of some substance and standing in that part of Glamorgan.

At the time of her death in 1807 Emilia Gwinnett was in possession of two estates in Glamorgan, had interests in mines and canals and was in expectation of inheriting estates in Gloucestershire from her Uncle, George Gwinnett.  However, at the time of her death she had no direct heirs.  All her siblings had predeceased her and none of them had living children.  In her will one member of the family to have a bequest was her sister-in-law, Betty Gwinnett.   Betty was the widow of her brother William, who as we already know, had a poor relationship with his family.  Betty had remarried and was Betty Harrington by the time Emilia made her will.

Emilia made Thomas, Earl of Clarendon both her executor and primary beneficiary, for his lifetime,  of her will.  I was initially puzzled by this, as there was no direct link between Emilia and the Earl of Clarendon.  However it seems the link was with Lady Vernon, the niece of the Earl of Clarendon.  As we have already seen, he was apparently a trustee of the Penllyn Castle estate.  He was the primary beneficiary in Lady’s Vernon’s will (apart from her bequest of Penllyn Castle to Emilia) and also the executor of her will.  Perhaps by making him a beneficiary of her will, Emilia intended to return to her friend Lady Vernon’s family the estate she had inherited.  However, along with the estates of Emilia’s came debts and mortgages.  Thomas, Earl of Clarendon did not have an easy time as executor or beneficiary of Emilia’s will. In November 1807[22] he wrote:

It is very clear and I have no doubt that it is perfectly correct Mrs Gwynnett’s affairs, under her own direction, seem to have been managed with so little order as to render every investigation very puzzling and unsatisfactory.  An Executor under such circumstances, even when ably advised can only advance very slowly. 

In March 1809, he again wrote:

Nothing could be more gratifying to my own mind, as Executor, than to satisfy the just demands of each of Mrs Gwinnett’s (?) without even giving them the trouble of an application to me upon the subject….. but the confused and embarrassed state of Mrs Gwinnett’s affairs is such that I cannot safely proceed except under legal advice’.

In 1820, 13 years after Emilia’s death, the case went to Chancery[23] as creditors of Emilia’s estate took the Earl of Clarendon to court to secure payment of the debts owing.  This case clarified all the debts outstanding from both Samuel Gwinnett and Emilia Gwinnett.  It confirmed that Emilia Gwinnett was the heir to the Cottrell Park Estate, Penllyn Castle state and estates in Gloucestershire inherited from Mary Chester on the death of George Gwinnett[24].  The court directed that the Earl of Clarendon must settle the debts of Samuel Gwinnett and Emilia Gwinnett before dealing with the legacies in Emilia Gwinnett’s will.  Interestingly, the Earl of Clarendon does not mention his Glamorgan inheritances in his own will when he died in 1824.  Presumably, after dealing with Emilia’s estate he was glad to dispose of the estates in Glamorgan!

The other member of Emilia’s family to receive a bequest from her was her distant cousin, on her mother’s side, William Chute Hayton of Wistaston Court, Herefordshire. He inherited Penllyn Castle with the condition that he changed his name to Gwinnett.  In 1840 he changed his name to Gwinnett and inherited the Penllyn Castle estate[25].   However, the will of Maria Eleanor, Countess of Clarendon[26] , sister-in-law of Thomas Earl of Clarendon, shows that she expected to inherit Penllyn Castle Estate if William Chute Hayton died without heirs.

A further major beneficiary of Emilia Gwinnett’s will was George Tyler – again, someone with no obvious connection to Emilia Gwinnett.  Emilia bequeathed Cottrell Park to the Earl of Clarendon for life and then to George Tyler:

I do hereby give and devise the same unto George Tyler oldest Son of Charles Tyler …..by Margaret his wife late Margaret Leeke and to the heirs and Assigns of the said George Tyler the son for ever

Richards[27] has a plausible explanation for this bequest.  He suggests that Samuel Gwinnett, following the death of his wife, wanted to marry Margaret Leach (or Leeke), but she married Charles Tyler instead.  There is a suggestion that Emilia Gwinnett destroyed her brother’s will because he left his estate to Margaret Tyler.  So leaving Cottrell Park to Margaret’s son, George Tyler, could have been ‘an act of atonement for having deprived Margaret Leach and her heirs of their inheritance’.  As George Tyler was 14 at the time Emilia made her will, it would have been sensible to make the Earl of Clarendon a beneficiary in the short term as he was already 53 years old and unmarried.  George Tyler eventually inherited Cottrell Park in 1824, on the death of the Earl of Clarendon, although it was Charles Tyler, his father, who mainly occupied the estate.

In answering the questions posed by Emilia Gwinnett’s will, the settlement and visits of various siblings of Button Gwinnett in Glamorgan have been described.  A web of family relationships in which inheritance is both important and complex, spreading far beyond the Gwinnetts has been uncovered.  In addition to extensive land holdings, there were mineral rights and canals, indications of the industrialization of Glamorgan which was to follow in the 19^th century.  Alongside these were debts, mortgages and interest unpaid, leading to at least one court case.  Expectations, real and imagined, ran high in the 18^th century, for the class of people who depended on inheritance and family connections rather than waged income.

Based on research by Barbara Gwinnett