Vivian family, Barons Swansea

Family

Vivian family, Barons Swansea

John Vivian of Truro had an interest in the Cornish copper industry. His second son, John Henry, extended the family copper interests from Cornwall to the Swansea area of Glamorganshire, where he opened a copper smelting works near local coal sources. John Vivian's eldest son, Richard Hussey, had a distinguished army career and was eventually elevated to the peerage as 1st Baron Vivian of Truro, but the youngest son, Thomas, died at the early age of 21. John Henry Vivian expanded his business interests in Swansea, and extended them further afield to Liverpool, Birmingham and London from 1810 until his death in 1855. During the last fifteen years of his life he was assisted in his work by his eldest son Henry Hussey Vivian. Like his father, Henry Hussey Vivian became an MP and divided his time between the family copper business and the House of Commons. He was raised to the peerage in 1893, taking his seat in the House of Lords as 1st Baron Swansea. He died in 1894. He married three times. His first wife, Jesse Dalrymple Goddard, whom he married in 1847, died in 1848 shortly after the birth of their son Ernest. He later married Caroline E. Cholmeley in 1853 but she died in 1868 after being an invalid for many years. He lastly married Averil Beaumont in 1870.
H. H. Vivian was succeeded by his eldest son, Ernest, of whom there is little or no mention in this archive. He died in 1922 leaving no direct heir and was succeeded by his step-brother Odo Vivian. The latter inherited a declining family business which he had run since his father's death in 1894. Ernest Vivian had shown little or no interest in the company's affairs.