Rice family, Barons Dynevor

Family

Rice family, Barons Dynevor

Dynevor was held by the Rice family since the 15th century. Rhys ap Griffith of Dynevor was beheaded in 1531, his possessions being forfeited to the Crown. His son Griffith ap Rice managed to regain parts of his father's Pembrokeshire lands before being convicted of the murder of Mathew Walshe in Durham. On the accession of Elizabeth I he was pardoned, and in 1560, the forfeited lands were again restored to him, together with other lands in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, including the manor of Newton. (The name Dynevor Castle and occasionally Dynevor Park was a 19th century creation).

Griffith's son and heir was Sir Walter Rice of Newton, who married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Edward Mansel, of Margam, Glamorgan. The estate devolved in the male line for three generations, until Sir Edward Rice, who built the present mansion, died without issue. The estate then passed to his brother Walter Rice and then to Griffith Rice of Newton, M.P. for Carmarthenshire 1701-1710, who married Katherine, daughter and co-heiress of Philip Hobby of Neath Abbey. The Neath Abbey estate was partitioned into three parts, with the Rice family receiving the residue of the properties with 7/8 rights to minerals, excluding that under Graig and Longford land.

Griffith was succeeded by his grandson, George Rice, M.P for Carmarthenshire 1754-1779, who married Cecil, (Baroness Dynevor), only daughter and heiress of William Talbot, Earl Talbot of Hensol, Glamorgan, thus acquiring the Hensol estate. Cecil succeeded her father in the barony of Dynevor in 1782, and assumed by royal licence the surname de Cardonnell in 1787. Their heir was George Talbot Rice, 3rd Baron Dynevor, who assumed the additional surname of de Cardonnell by royal licence in 1793, but resumed the name Rice by royal licence in 1817. He was succeeded by his only son, George Rice, 4th Baron Dynevor, who assumed the additional surname of Trevor as inheritor of the Bromham estate from the Trevors of Glynde, Sussex, through the will of John 3rd viscount Hampden who died in 1824. He died without male heir so that the Dynevor estate passed to his cousin, Francis William, 5th Baron Dynevor, vicar of Fairford, Gloucestershire.

Francis' grandson was Walter Fitzuryan, 7th Baron Dynevor, who married Lady Margaret Child-Villiers, eldest daughter of the 7th Earl of Jersey. He re-assumed by royal licence the surname of Rhys in lieu of Rice. His heir, Charles Arthur Uryan Rhys, sold the Dynevor portion of the Neath Abbey estate in September 1946. This portion amounted to 2,620 acres, extending from Cilfrew to Crumlyn Brook at Jersey Marina, and included 13 farms and industrial sites. Richard Charles Uryan Rhys, 9th Baron Dynevor, inherited the remaining holding of the Llandeilo estate, comprising 23 farms and 2,000 acres, a ruined castle, a deer park with a herd of rare White Park cattle, and substantial unpaid death duties. Most of the estate has since been sold.

According to the 1873 return of owners of land, The Rev. William 5th Lord Dynevor, owned 10,509 acres in Wales (in Carmarthenshire and Glamorgan), with an estimated annual rental of £18,552.