OWEN family of Cefn-hafodau and Glangynwydd in Llangurig later of Glansevern in Berriw, Montgomeryshire

This family, of South-Welsh origin (pedigree in Mont. Coll., iii, 232), emerges into notice towards the middle of the 18th century, when it produced two successive generations of noteworthy men.

DAVID OWEN (1700 - 1777), who married Frances Rogers of Cefn-y-berain (Kerry), had four sons, of whom three claim notice here:

1. OWEN OWEN (1723 - 1789), sheriff of Montgomery, 1766,

married Anne, daughter and heiress of Charles Davies of Llifior (Berriw), and had three sons:

(a) Sir ARTHUR DAVIS OWEN (1752? - 1816), sheriff of Montgomery LawPublic and Social Service, Civil Administration, 1814,

a lawyer, took an active part in the public life of his shire (deputy-lieutenant, chairman of the quarter sessions), and was second in command of its Yeomanry Cavalry from 1803 till his death, childless, 18 October 1816. He lived at Glansevern, Cefn-hafodau having been sold.

(b) DAVID OWEN

He was bapt. 16 September 1754 in Berriew church. The father was described as a ‘gent. of Keel’ and the family owned much property in the area. He attended his uncle's school at Warrington before going up to Trinity College, Cambridge where he was a Senior Wrangler in 1777 and won the principal Smith Prize in the same year. He gained his M.A. degree in 1780, and became a Fellow of his college. He took orders, but afterwards settled in New Brunswick, where he died, unmarried, on 10 December 1829.

He. was bapt. 22 August 1758 in Berriew church. He was educated at Warrington under his uncle Edward (2, below), went to Jesus College, Oxford, for a short period, and at Trinity College, Cambridge (fifth Wrangler, 1782, and Fellow), was called to the Bar (K.C. 1818); after the death of his brother, Sir Arthur, he inherited Glansevern and became a distinguished figure in the county, and chairman of quarter sessions. A Whig, he strongly supported the abolition of the ‘Great Sessions of Wales,’ and rallied his county to the support of the Reform Bill of 1832. He died 10 November 1837; his widow, Anne Warburton Owen (Montgomeryshire Worthies, 214), died 1876, left Glansevern to his great-grand-nephew, A. C. Humphreys, who thereupon changed his name to Humphreys-Owen (he is separately noticed). There are monuments to all three at Berriw.

2. EDWARD OWEN (1729? - 1807), schoolmaster, is separately noticed.

3. WILLIAM OWEN (died 1778 at Madras)

entered the Navy as a boy in 1750, and was at Plassey (1757) and at the taking of Pondicherry (1760) while still a midshipman; he became captain c. 1770. He had two sons, who attained high rank in the navy :

(a) admiral Sir EDWARD CAMPBELL RICH OWEN (1771 - 1849),

who took part (as commander) in the Walcheren expedition of 1809, was knighted in 1815, was vice-admiral on the East India Station, 1828-32, and in the Mediterranean, 1841-5, became admiral in 1846, and died 8 October 1849.

(b) viceadmiral WILLIAM FITZWILLIAM OWEN (1773 - 1857),

who was in the ‘First of June’ action of 1794 and at the Spithead mutiny of 1797, after which he was commissioned. In the 1803-15 war he fought in many actions (he was prisoner of war 1808-10), but both then and afterwards, he was chiefly famed as a hydrographer; his charts were of high repute. He carried out surveys in many parts of the world. In 1847 he was given flag rank, and in 1855 retired, as vice-admiral. He died 3 November 1857, in New Brunswick, which had long been his ‘shore’ residence, as he had acquired the lands there which belonged to his cousin David (1 (b) above).

Authors

Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969), Bangor
Dr Llewelyn Gwyn Chambers, Bangor

Sources

Collections Historical and Archaeological relating to Montgomeryshire, iii, 232, 252-62, an account of the whole family by Edward Hamer;
the two admirals and the schoolmaster appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and (with several others of the family) in R. Williams, Montgomeryshire Worthies (1894).
Alumni Cantabrigienses (1951), 611, 614;
Berriew parish registers at N.L.W.

Published date: 1959

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