Richard Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn (1737 – 21 January 1808), was a Welsh politician and nobleman who served as an MP in the British Parliament, representing Petersfield and Liverpool for 29 years between 1761 and 1790. He was the owner of Penrhyn Castle, an estate on the outskirts on Bangor, North Wales.
Pennant owned numerous properties in Caernarfonshire, Wales, half of which he inherited from his wife, Ann Susannah Pennant née Warburton, the daughter of British Army officer Hugh Warburton; the other half he inherited from his father, who was Warburton's business partner. As the owner of Penrhyn quarry, he was prominent in the development of the Welsh slate industry.[3]
Pennant was also the absentee owner of six sugar plantations in Jamaica, which were operated with the forced labour of over six hundred enslaved Africans. Despite this, Pennant never visited the island, managing them from his estates in Britain. The wealth Pennant generated from his sugar plantations were invested by him into road and dock construction, alongside the Welsh slate industry- most prominently the Penrhyn quarry.[4]
Death and legacy
On his death on 21 January 1808, Penrhyn's entire estate went to his second cousin, politician George Hay Dawkins, who subsequently adopted the surname of Dawkins-Pennant. Dawkins' daughter Juliana and her husband were named as co-heirs of the estate on the condition that they also took the surname Pennant, which they duly accepted. Dawkins' son-in-law, Edward Gordon Douglas, was later created 1st Baron Penrhyn of Llandygai.[5] The widowed Lady Penrhyn moved to a home in Grosvenor Square.[6]
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