History of the Powis Castle Estate Analysed in First ISWE Annual Lecture

Dr Humphreys is a leading expert on the country estates of Montgomeryshire, with a distinguished research and publication record focusing on the social, economic, and cultural histories of the region. His seminal work, The Crisis of Community: Montgomeryshire, 1680-1815, remains an essential text for understanding the role of rural estates in shaping Mid-Wales society. His extensive bibliography includes Garth: Estate, Architecture and Family (2020) and Plas Newydd and the Manor of Talerddig (2022). As an Honorary Research Associate of ISWE, he shares the Institute’s mission of deepening our understanding of Welsh estates, making it a privilege to welcome him as the speaker for our first Annual Lecture. As Dr Humphreys pointed out in his opening remarks, there is an illustrious history of association between the Powis Estate and Bangor University, as the 3^rd Earl of Powis was one of the founders of the University and its first President.  It was wonderful to have the current Earl and Countess of Powis, as well as National Trust colleagues from Powis Castle, amongst the very large audience that assembled for the lecture.

Dr Humphreys is currently working on a new book which will provide a comprehensive study of the Powis estates from 1660 to the early-nineteenth century. Central to this work is the Powis Estate Archive, one of the largest estate archives in Wales, a rich yet under-researched resource. Over recent years Dr Humphreys has worked closely with Murray Chapman and colleagues at the National Library of Wales to provide catalogue descriptions for all of the Powis Castle records – a hugely significant endeavour that will provide an outstanding foundation for research for years to come.  Melvin is shedding new light on the estate using these records and drawing out the histories attached to them. His lecture explored the complex forces that have shaped the estate’s survival over centuries, from shifting patterns of inheritance to economic pursuits such as lead and limestone mining. It traced the ebb and flow of money in and out of the estate, highlighting periods when the expenditure outweighed the income, when debt threatened to ruin the estate, and how the estate adapted and survived. 

First, Dr Humphreys painted a picture of how the Herbert family expanded the estate over the course of the seventeenth century, having purchased the Barony of Powis with Powis Castle in 1587. He suggested that one of the main reasons why the Herberts were drawn to Powis – beside its princely connotations and fine castle – was the fact that a number of manors attached to the Barony were ‘ripe for enclosure’, which they took advantage of in the ‘true Tudor capitalistic, aggressive style’. As well as enclosing common land, they also purchased a number of manors around Powis Castle in order to build up a ‘land bank’, and Dr Humphreys estimates that the Powis estate may have been the largest estate in Wales in 1700. There was also a series of marriages which ‘pushed the Herberts up the aristocratic scale’, including unions with the Craven, Somerset and Preston families, all of which brought them estates in Northamptonshire. 

However, over the course of the eighteenth century, the Powis Estate was plagued with debts; one of the most shocking figures we heard was the increase in debt from £50,000 in 1700 to £280,000 in the 1720s, on an income of £10,000 per annum. Dr Humphreys proceeded to explore the reasons for these debts, describing provisions for younger children, including dowries for daughters, as ‘a critical element in the debt problem’. This highlights a tension in the English landed estate system, between primogeniture and wanting to provide adequately for the futures of younger sons and daughters. Another factor was the Herbert family’s involvement in two financial schemes which ended in financial collapse, the Mississippi Bubble in Paris and the South Sea Bubble in London; the Powis estate’s losses from these endeavours is believed to have been somewhere in the region of £140,000. Of course, there were other ‘peculiar, individual’ factors, for example the fall of Roman Catholic William Herbert at the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and his exile to France with James II, which resulted in the Powis estates being seized by the Crown. 

So, what saved the Powis estate? First of all, the Herberts were able to recover their estates which had been seized because they were tied up in ‘strict settlements’ which preserved the male entail. There were a few instances in the eighteenth century where the male line of the Herbert family failed, which were overcome by shifting the patterns of inheritance. For example, the unmarried William Herbert, 3^rd Marquess of Powis (1698-1748), left his fortune to his first cousin, seven times removed, who in turn married the Marquess’ niece, heiress to the entailed estates. Another heiress, Henrietta Herbert (1758-1830) married Edward Clive (1754-1839) in 1784, and their son was able to inherit the Powis estates on the condition that he adopted the Herbert name and titles and forsook his Clive inheritance. 

However, Dr Humphreys’ lecture also explored the activity ‘on the ground’ which enabled the estate to overcome their debts. This included the ‘miraculous’ discovery of a 15-foot-wide, 500-foot-deep vein of exceptionally high-quality lead ore on estate land in the Berwyn Mountains in 1725. Capitalising on this discovery, the estate constructed nine furnaces and began the process of smelting this lead and shipping the produce to Bristol, generating an incredible turnover; between 1725 and 1744 the Llangynog Lead Mine was the largest lead mine in Europe. This entire operation of the estate was adapted to support this essential industrial endeavour.  Dr Humphreys emphasised how unusual it was for a great estate’s profits from industrial activities to exceed their landed income in the eighteenth century, as at Powis. 

Other activity ‘on the ground’ included the mass enclosure of common land from about 1760. Indeed, the 26% rental increase in the rent books from this period is directly attributable to the process of enclosure. Thanks to these new acquisitions, the estate was also able to make a ‘foray’ into limestone quarrying, which required the construction of new lime kilns, canals and railroads, all under the direction of Land Agent John Probert, who was in post from circa 1770 to 1819. 

In his closing comments, Dr Shaun Evans, Director of ISWE, remarked on how Dr Humphreys’ lecture had ‘demonstrated how landed estates and their archives are prisms which provide rich insights into so many aspects of life and society’, from the lives poor cottagers and lead miners to the role of women, to politics, economy, and industry, all themes that ISWE is endeavouring to shine a spotlight on through our various projects. There was time at the end for questions from the audience before the evening was brought to a close.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Dr Melvin Humphreys for his insightful lecture and to everyone in attendance. We were absolutely delighted to have such a large audience. Your continued support is sincerely appreciated.

We look forward to the publication of Dr Humphreys’ new book in due course.

(Authored by Bethan Scorey and Sean Martin)