Ashburnham family, Earls of Ashburnham

Family

Ashburnham family, Earls of Ashburnham

Before 1677 the Ashburnham Welsh estate belonged to the Vaughan family, originally of Brodwardine, Herefordshire. Following the marriage of Sir Richard Vaughan to Anne, daughter and heiress of John Butler of Pembrey, the family acquired both the Pembrey and Dunraven estates. Sir Walter's son, Sir Richard's heir, was sheriff of Carmarthenshire in 1557 and living at Dunraven in 1584.

Sir Walter Vaughan's son, Sir Thomas Vaughan, married Catherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Jones of Abermarlais, and through this marriage acquired the Fallerstone estate in Wiltshire (sold, apparently, in 1649). Sir Charles Vaughan, Sir Walter's son, acquired the Porthamel estate in Breconshire following his marriage in 1605 to Catherine, co-heiress of Sir Robert Knollys. A Bill of Complaint of Rowland Vaughan in 1664, however, claims that Sir Thomas Vaughan actually purchased the estate from Sir Robert Knollys. After the death of Sir Charles Vaughan in 1630 and of his father in 1637 the estate devolved upon Sir George Vaughan, Sir Walter's eldest son by his second marriage. It was Sir George who sometime during the 1640s sold the Dunraven estate to Humphrey Wyndham, with the exception of some 250 acres in Llangennith and Rhossilly. Sir George died in 1650 without issue and the estate passed to his younger brother, the Rev. Frederick Vaughan. Following the death of Frederick Vaughan, of his son Walter and of his infant grandson between November 1661 and November 1662 the estate passed to an heiress, Bridget Vaughan, the daughter of Walter Vaughan by his wife Alice. In 1677, Bridget married John, 1st baron Ashburnham, of Battle, Sussex. The estate descended with the Ashburnham title until the death in 1924 of Thomas, 6th earl of Ashburnham. Under the terms of the will of the 5th earl the estate then passed to Mary Charlotte Ashburnham, sister of the last earl. She died in 1953.

Large portions of the Welsh estate had been sold prior to the extinction of the Ashburnham title. The most insignificant part of the estate, namely the remainder of the old Dunraven estate in the parishes of Llangennith and Rhossilly in Glamorgan was sold in 1839-1840. A further 1,800 acres in the parishes of Llanddeusant and Myddfai, Carmarthenshire, were offered for sale in 1844.The major sales came in the half century after about 1870 and more especially the period 1900-1925. Annotations on a survey of the Ashburnham Welsh estate compiled in 1881 reveal that parts of the Llanddeusant estate (the Carmarthenshire portion of the estate was divided into two parts: the Llanddeusant estate and the Pembrey estate] were sold between 1892 and 1900 and parts of the Porthamel estate in Breconshire between 1889 and 1905. In 1900 the unsold portion of the Llanddeusant estate was disposed of whilst the rest of the Porthamel estate was sold in 1907, 1913 and 1918. Finally, in 1922-1923, the greater part of the Pembrey estate, the most valuable of the Ashburnham estates in Wales, was sold.

According to the 1873 return of owners of land, the Earl of Ashburnham owned an estimated 7,568 acres in Wales (all in Carmarthenshire and Breconshire), with an estimated rental of #5,511. There was also some 2,230 acres of sheepwalk in Breconshire, excluded from the above, and the Earl of Ashburnham was also a 'great landowner' (over 3,000 acres with a rental of over #3000 a year) in resepect of land outside of Wales.