David Pugh (14 August 1789 – 20 April 1861) was a wealthy tea trader, a Welsh landowner and

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

in 1832, and again between 1847 and 1861.

Career

Pugh was a

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in the

Montgomeryshire Yeomanry The Montgomeryshire Yeomanry was a Welsh auxiliary unit of the British Army first formed in 1803. It served in home defence and for internal security, including deployments to deal with Chartist disturbances in the 1830s. It provided volunteers ...

from 10 December 1819 to 1828, when the regiment was disbanded. When it was reformed in 1831, he was appointed

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

; he resigned in 1844. He was

Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

Welshpool Welshpool ( cy, Y Trallwng) is a market town and community in Powys, Wales, historically in the county of Montgomeryshire. The town is from the Wales–England border and low-lying on the River Severn; its Welsh language name ''Y Trallwng'' m ...

. He was

High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire The office of High Sheriff of Montgomeryshire was established in 1541 since then a High Sheriff was appointed annually until 1974 when the office was transformed into that of High Sheriff of Powys as part of the creation of Powys from the amalgama ...

in 1823, and Deputy Lieutenant of Montgomeryshire. He was elected M.P. for the Montgomery Boroughs in 1832, but unseated on petition the next year. In 1847 he was elected, and there being a double return, his opponent's ( Hon. Hugh Cholmondeley who had been the sitting member since 1841) return was annulled, 14 February 1848. In 1852, 1857, and 1859 Mr. Pugh was again successively returned. His death in 1861 triggered a by-election.

Lands and estates

He was often described as David Pugh of Llanerchydol, to distinguish him from others of the same name. The 2000-acre estate of Llanerchydol Hall,

, Powys was the home of the Pugh family from 1776 until 1912 when the estate was split up and sold. His father built the house in 1776 on the site of an original house which is thought to have been destroyed by fire. In 1820 David Pugh rebuilt the house in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style introducing the romantic turrets and castellations. Later, in 1848 the architect

Thomas Penson Thomas Penson, or Thomas Penson the younger (c. 1790 – 1859) was the county surveyor of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire. An innovative architect and designer of a number of masonry arch bridges over the River Severn and elsewhere. He was th ...

was consulted on the drawing room. The family also placed great importance on landscaping the surrounding parkland by employing

John Adey Repton John Adey Repton (1775–1860) was an English architect. Biography John Repton was the son of Humphry Repton, born at Norwich, Norfolk on 29 March 1775, and educated at Aylsham grammar school and later in a Norwich architect's office. From 1796 ...

. The gardens, including a Japanese water garden and

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

, were introduced along with bold planting of trees in a grand style. He donated a site in

Newtown, Powys Newtown ( cy, Y Drenewydd) is a town in Powys, Wales. It lies on the River Severn in the community of Newtown and Llanllwchaiarn, within the historic boundaries of Montgomeryshire. It was designated a new town in 1967 and saw population growt ...

for the building of St David's Church.St David's Church, Newtown
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Personal

David Pugh was the son of Charles Pugh (died 1796) and his wife Jane Lloyd (died 1819). On 11 July 1814 Pugh married, his cousin Anne, only daughter and heiress of Evan Vaughan of Beguildy, Radnorshire. He died 20 April 1861, having had three sons and two daughters, viz.: *1. David Pugh, born 24 April 1815, and died 15 September 1857, unmarried. *2. Charles Vaughan Pugh of Llanerchydol, born 19 May 1818; married, 28 June 1849, Felicia Harriet, daughter of Capt. Gosling, R.N., and niece to Lady Edwards (who died 2lst August 1874). Sometime a captain in the 90th Light Infantry, and a Deputy-Lieutenant for the co, of Montgomery; unsuccessfully contested the Montgomery Boroughs in 1863. Died 28 December 1874, without issue, whereupon, the Llanerchydol estate devolved upon his elder sister, Margaret Ann. *3. Margaret Ann Pugh, married, in September 1856, to John Willes-Johnson, Capt. R.N., of Hannington Hall. Wilts. Elected M.P. for Montgomery Boroughs on the death of his father-in-law, D. Pugh, in 1861. Died 1881. *4. Mary Jane Pugh, Died 1869. *5. John Cadwalader Pugh, born in 1826; Lieutenant in the Ist, or Royal Regiment. He died on his passage home from Canada with his regiment, 19 July 1851, aged 25 (Memorial in Welshpool church), unmarried. His descendant, Captain Peter Audley David Arthur Lovell, also became High Sheriff for Montgomeryshire in 1900.

References

External links

*
Records of David Pugh, M.P. for Montgomery, at the National Archive.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pugh, David 1789 births 1861 deaths Conservative Party (UK) MPs for Welsh constituencies UK MPs 1847–1852 UK MPs 1852–1857 UK MPs 1857–1859 Montgomeryshire Yeomanry officers