Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot
Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (born May 10, 1803 at Penrice Castle , † January 17, 1890 ), FRS , was a Welsh politician, industrialist and nobleman. He was a non-stop member of the British Parliament for 59 years .
Childhood and upbringing
Talbot came from the up to the Anglo-Normans attributable family Talbot . His great-grandfather, John Ivory Talbot , of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire had married Mary Mansel , heiress of the Mansel family estates in Glamorgan , so that his grandfather inherited the estates in 1750. Talbot was the only son of Thomas Mansel Talbot and Maria Lucy Fox Strangways . His father died in 1813, so that at the age of ten he became the heir of the largest property in Glamorgan with over 137 km². Until he came of age in 1824, the property was administered by a cousin of his father and two other guardians, his mother married Sir Christopher Cole in 1815 . Talbot first attended a private school in Wimborne , then from 1814 to 1817 Harrow School and then studied at Oriel College , Oxford, where he graduated with honors in mathematics in 1824.
Activity as a member of parliament
After his stepfather Christopher Cole refused to run again, Talbot was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Party MP for Glamorgan in 1830 . He also won his constituency in subsequent general elections under the Reform Act of 1832 and remained a member of Glamorgan until 1885. In 1885, the boundaries of his constituency were changed so that he was MP for Mid Glamorgan from 1885 until his death . 1869 Prime Minister offered him Gladstone a peerage on, but Talbot abandoned in favor of his activities as a deputy in Parliament. As the longest serving member of parliament, he was Father of the House of the House of Commons from 1874 .
From 1848 until his death, he was Lord Lieutenant for Glamorgan.
Activity as an industrialist
In 1831 Talbot was involved in founding a steel mill near Aberavon . To facilitate the expansion of South Wales industry, he introduced a law in 1834 to expand the port of Aberavon. The port quickly developed into an important location for heavy industry and was renamed Port Talbot in honor of Talbot . In 1838 he bought the copper works in Taibach . Talbot also invested in expanding the port of Swansea and building railways in south Wales. As a major shareholder, he was chairman of the board of the South Wales Railway , which was absorbed into the Great Western Railway in 1863 , where Talbot remained on the board.
Personal and family
Talbot was a keen sailor all his life who owned several racing yachts. With his yacht Lynx he took part in the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 . He had been a member of the Royal Yacht Club since 1823 and was its vice commodore from 1851 to 1861. Although himself a non-swimmer, he helped rescue the crew of the crashed sailing ship Sunda at Kenfig Sands in 1859 and was awarded the silver medal of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution as the only member of the House of Commons to date .
Since it was too remote Penrice Castle, the estate of his father, he built from 1830 to 1840 at Margam Abbey , the traditional seat of his ancestors Margam Castle in neo- Tudor style . He was close friends with his cousin William Henry Fox Talbot and supported him and his cousin John Dillwyn Llewelyn in their photographic experiments. In 1831 he was elected a member of the Royal Society .
Talbot married on December 28, 1835 Charlotte Butler (1809-1846), a daughter of Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Glengall . The couple had four children:
- Theodore Talbot (1839–1876)
- Emily Charlotte Talbot (1840-1918)
- Bertha Isabella Talbot (1841–1913) ⚭ 1866 John Fletcher of Saltoun
- Olivia Talbot (1842-1894)
His wife died of consumption in Malta at the age of 37 . Theodore's only son, Theodore, died in 1876 as a result of a riding accident, so that after Talbot's death, his unmarried daughter, Emily Charlotte, inherited most of his fortune, estimated at £ 6 million. After her death in 1918, the children of his second daughter Bertha Isabella inherited the property.
literature
- John Vivian Hughes: The wealthiest commoner: CRM Talbot, MP, FRS (1803-1890) . West Glamorgan County Council, Port Talbot, 1978
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Retired Section Swansea Docks. Retrieved June 30, 2013 .
- ^ A Guide to Margam Castle. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 20, 2010 ; Retrieved July 2, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Talbot, Christopher Rice Mansel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Welsh politician, member of the House of Commons, industrialist and nobleman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 10, 1803 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Penrice Castle |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 17, 1890 |