Humphrey Mackworth

Sir Humphrey Mackworth (born January 1657 in Betton Grange , Shropshire , † August 25, 1727 ) was a British businessman and politician. After all, he was widely regarded as a cheat because of his controversial business practices, but his activity turned Neath in South Wales into an early industrial center.

Origin and youth

Humphrey Mackworth was the second son of the landowner Thomas Mackworth (around 1628-1696) from the hamlet of Betton Grange south of Shrewsbury and Anne Bulkeley. His grandfather was Humphrey Mackworth (1603-1654), who was a well-known Puritan military and politician during the English Civil War . His father had also been a Member of Parliament during the Commonwealth . Mackworth studied from December 11, 1674 at Magdalen College in Oxford and from June 10, 1675 at the Middle Temple in London . On May 26, 1682 he was admitted to the bar, he eventually rose to the Master of the Bench . In contrast to his father and grandfather, however, he politically supported the Tories and was knighted by King Charles II on January 15, 1683 . As a younger son he received an annual pension of £ 80 from his father, of which he was able to buy a small estate at Tardebigge in Worcestershire around 1683 .

Married and worked as an entrepreneur in Neath

In 1686 he married Mary Evans (around 1660 - before July 1696), a daughter of Sir Herbert Evans of Neath in Glamorgan and of Anne Morgan. Through his marriage, Mackworth moved to Neath, where he lived with his wife and family in the Great House . David Evans, his wife's grandfather, and her father had leased mining rights to mine coal. This gave them a kind of coal monopoly in the Neath area, generating an annual income of around £ 1200. Mackworth's wife became her father's only heir after the death of her sisters. After Herbert Evans' death, his widow married another David Evans, who initially continued the business, but died unexpectedly in 1696.

Mackworth now took over the business. He renewed the leases and expanded the coal mining around Neath, in addition he took over the no longer in operation copper smelter at Melyncryddan . He used the coal extracted in his mines for operation, while he imported the copper ore from Cornwall and Cardiganshire . In 1698 he expanded his business to Cardigan, where Sir Carbery Pryse had started copper and lead mining. After the Society of Mines Royal's mining monopoly ended in 1693 , Pryse's business had become significant, but he died in 1694. Mackworth bought the Esgain Hir silver and lead mine in Cardiganshire from his heir Edward Pryse for £ 16,440 . He now planned to combine his coal, copper and lead mines as well as his copper smelters into an industrial complex, for which he lacked the financial means. However, he managed to win Lord William Digby , Thomas Thynne, 1st Viscount Weymouth and other investors for his company. With them he founded the Company of Mine Adventurers , of which he was deputy director for life. Copper production in Neath, where the coal needed for smelting was available and which was cheaply accessible from both the Cardigan copper mines and those in Cornwall, increased sharply as a result. Between 1698 and 1708 Mackworth invested around £ 16,900 in its operations, mines and the port of Neath, which boosted the region's economy.

Political career

Spurred on by his economic success, Mackworth sought from June 1699 a member of the House of Commons , for which he also used gifts and bribes. Politically, he remained a supporter of the Tories despite his Puritan origins. In the election in February 1701, Mackworth was elected Knight of the Shire for Cardiganshire at the instigation of Mine Adventurers , but his candidacy failed in the second election of the year in December against Lewis Pryse. But when he fell ill shortly afterwards, Mackworth was re-elected in 1702. He was an active member of parliament and was represented in numerous committees, representing his own interests and those of his cousin and business partner Sir Thomas Mackworth . He was a leading advocate of the Anglican State Church and a strong advocate of the Occasional Conformity Act , which banned nonconformists and Catholics from public office. After the law failed in parliament in 1702 and 1704, it was passed in 1711. As an advocate of the Anglican State Church, he allied himself with Sir Edward Seymour , who in return supported him in granting a Royal Charter for his Company of Mine Adventurers. In Mackworth's parliamentary work, a draft for a law on the poor, which a committee he chaired drew up from November 1702, is particularly noteworthy. The law was intended to replace a number of existing laws, in which Mackworth advocated the creation of workhouses . One of the opponents of his design was the writer Daniel Defoe , who criticized the fact that the workhouses propagated by Mackworth represented inadmissible competition to manufactories and would therefore tend to increase the number of poor in the long term. After a first attempt failed, Mackworth revised his draft in 1704 and 1706, which was nevertheless rejected by the House of Lords. Mackworth had the climax of his political importance in 1704 when he belonged to a group of Tories who tried in vain to overthrow the newly appointed Secretary of State Robert Harley .

As a leading proponent of the State Church, Mackorth ran in the general election of 1705, encouraged by Henry Dingverell and others, for the University of Oxford , but lost the election clearly to Sir William Whitlock . However, with the support of Sir Edward Seymour and Bishop Trelawny , he was elected as MP for Totnes in Devon. In December 1706 he moved from the Tories to the Whigs, but then retired from parliamentary work after he had to take care of his Mine Adventurers' Company.

Economic and political disputes with the Mansels

Mackworth became embroiled in heated disputes with other miners in the area. His company fought fierce competition against the Mansel family businesses , which turned into violent conflicts. The conflict had not only an economic but also a political component. While the Mansel family supported Robert Harley, Mackworth was a Tory and thus an ally of Lord Thomas Windsor and the Duke of Beaufort .

The cause of the dispute with the Mansels were probably the coal mines of Thomas Mansel at Briton Ferry, which were in direct competition with the operations of Mackworth. From 1703, the competition turned into open opposition. In 1705 there were attacks against a railway line laid by Mackworth near Neath. However, since Thomas Mansel was assisted by his powerful relative Edward Mansel of Margam , Mackworth received no assistance from the Glamorgan judiciary . He therefore brought the conflict to the royal court, and in December 1705 lodged a complaint in the House of Commons. His opponents responded with complaints from his workers, from whom he had withheld their wages until they had promised not to testify against him as a witness. Ultimately, the complaints did not lead to a decision, so that Mackworth was unable to assert himself against his powerful opponents in the House of Commons. 1706 Thomas Mansel became heir of his cousin of the same name and his father Edward Mansel, he continued the conflict with Mackworth. Mackworth accused his opponents of trying to ambush him and declined a challenge to duel against William Phillips, a follower of Mansel, due to his religious beliefs. He then brought the challenge to Parliament, where Phillips eventually had to ask for a pardon. Mackworth's controversial business practices, political ambitions, and economic success earned him the opposition of numerous Neath citizens. Mackworth had to make concessions to the city first, but then succeeded in 1707 in removing him from unpopular citizens the right to vote, thereby gaining political control over Neath, which had previously supported the Mansels. Through these actions, through his economic success and through further land acquisition, he became the main opponent of Mansel. However, when Mackworth joined the Whigs and the Duke of Beaufort reconciled with Thomas Mansel, Mackworth had no allies to successfully run for either Glamorgan or Cardiff . When his friend Edward Seymour also died, his re-election in Totnes failed in the 1708 general election. He tried now to be elected again as Knight of the Shire for Cardiganshire, but failed there again to Lewis Pryse.

Bankruptcy and continued activity as an entrepreneur and landowner

Mackworth now focused on further land acquisitions, including in the area around Loughor in South Wales. The city was previously part of Beaufort's sphere of influence, so that Mackworth was now also an economic competitor for Beaufort. With this Mackworth had made yet another powerful opponent, and as a result his economic activities, which were now without his parliamentary protection, were more closely scrutinized. Dubious speculators were involved in his Company of Mine Adventurers, which had led to financial difficulties as early as 1705. Mackworth tried to hide the financial position, which led to the bankruptcy of the company in 1709. This was investigated in 1710 by a committee of the House of Commons, which finally accused Mackworth of serious fraud. Only the fall of the Whig government that same year saved Mackworth from conviction. Pressed by creditors, his reputation had been badly damaged. He therefore tried again to be elected as a Member of the House of Commons in order to be protected by parliamentary immunity . His candidacy for a by-election in Cardigan in early 1710 failed, but in the General Election in 1710 he was elected Knight of the Shire for Cardiganshire against Lewis Pryse with the support of the Duke of Marlborough and a promise to help build a port in Aberystwith .

As a member of parliament, protected by immunity, he came to an agreement with his creditors in 1711. The Mine Adventurers' Company was restructured, Mackworth lost the position of director and his influence on the management. Immediately in 1712 he founded a new company, the Mineral Manufacturers, with several investors. In 1713 Mackworth left the House of Commons for good. The Mineral Manufacturers, however, competed with the previous Mine Adventurers' Company until he was finally pushed out of management by his opponents in 1720. His attempts to become an entrepreneur again afterwards failed. He fought for compensation and property claims until his death.

Mackworth was constable of Neath Castle in 1703 and 1709, and from 1709 he was constable of Afan Castle . In 1715 he bought the two lordships with the corresponding land. In the same year he moved to the newly built Gnoll House , which he surrounded with a magnificent formal garden. On his death he left a property worth about £ 14,450 but encumbered with over £ 17,000 in debt.

Social and religious engagement

Despite his controversial business policies, Mackworth was personally charitable and strictly religious. On March 8, 1699 he was one of the five founders of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK), which he enthusiastically supported over the next few years, and in 1701 he co-founded the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Although he withdrew from the leadership of the SPCK after 1703, he remained connected to it. Through this activity he got to know members of the Anglican landed nobility, whom he was able to win as investors in his companies. Mackworth gave a fixed part of the profits of his companies for charity and from 1706 he supported a school for the children of his workers at his Esgair Hir mine in Cardiganshire, where he also paid a clergyman. He supported another school for his working class children at Neath, in addition he built workers' housing and set up a fund for sick and disabled workers. His workers valued him for this care. On the other hand, he had no qualms about using convicted criminals as forced laborers as an alleged benefactor. To this end, he maintained a group of thugs to protect his property and intimidate competitors.

Mackworth himself wrote several religious works in which he advocated reading the Bible, praying, fasting and receiving the sacraments. He was a staunch advocate of the state church and an opponent of the dissenters . He considered the unity of church and state necessary for the peace and well-being of the government. He wrote political pamphlets on this well into old age, which ultimately led to his break with his older brother Bulkeley. He also kept a diary in which he openly wrote down the goals of his economic endeavors.

progeny

From his marriage he had three sons and two daughters, including:

• Herbert Mackworth (1687-1765)
• Kingsmill Evans Mackworth (* 1688)
• William Mackworth-Praed (1694-1752)

His heir became his eldest son, Herbert Mackworth.

Works (selection)

• Peace at home, or, A vindication of the proceedings of the honorable the House of Commons, on the bill for preventing danger from occasional conformity ... Freeman Collins, London 1703
• Free Parliaments or, a vindication of the fundamental right of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled ... London 1704
• The case of Sir Humphrey Mackworth and the Mine Adventurers, with respect to the extraordinary proceedings of the agents, servants and dependents, of the Right Honorable Sir Thomas Mansell, Bar. London 1707

Web links

• Sir Humphrey Mackworth, on thepeerage.com , accessed October 16, 2015.
• David Williams MACKWORTH, Sir HUMPHREY (1657-1727) (Dictionary of Welsh Biography)
• DW Hayton: MACKWORTH, Sir Humphrey (1657-1727), of Gnoll Castle, Neath, Glam. (History of Parliament online, Ref Volumes: 1690-1715)
• William P. Griffith: Mackworth, Sir Humphry (1657-1727). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gnoll Estate Country Park: The Gnoll Families. Retrieved October 16, 2015 .