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About Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech
Nathaniel Phillips was born in England in 1733, the illegitimate son of a merchant trading between London and Kingston, Jamaica. Following his father he arrived at Kingston in April 1759 and used his father's connections to join a partnership with the Kingston merchants who owned sugar plantations which supported the slave trade to obtain workers. Over twenty five years he built a fortune and his Jamaican properties were valued £160,000 Jamaica currency, as well as ownership of 706 slaves valued at £50,000. In 1793, he bought the estate at Slebech from a bankrupt slaver. As well as Slebech Hall, which he had re-modelled by Anthony Keck,[11] Phillips bought 600 acres (2.4 km2) of park land and woodland. In 1796 he married Mary, a Philipps forty years younger than him and had two sons (Nathaniel and Edward Augustus) and two daughters (Mary Dorothea and Louisa Catharine). After his death, Phillips' heirs continued to operate the Jamaican estates but they became unprofitable after the end of slavery in 1834
http://welshjournals.llgc.org.uk/browse/viewpage/llgc-id:1277425/ll...
Nothing is known of the ancestry of Nathaniel Phillips, except that his father's Christian name was also Nathaniel, and there is no evidence to suggest that he was in any way connected with the numerous West Wales families bearing the surname Phillips. The coat of arms used by him-quarterly, gules and argent, in the first quarter an eagle displayed or-proved that he himself claimed no kinship with a Welsh family.
Neither do we know his place of birth. Born on 10 June 1730, he grew up to become a planter in Jamaica where he engaged in the sugar trade and its by-products, owning Phillipsfield, Suffolk Park, Boxford Lodge, Pleasant Hill, and other valuable properties worked mainly by coloured slaves. By industry and application he amassed a fortune and his worldly successes may be traced in the Slebech muniments.
On 18 June 1761, Nathaniel Phillips married at Jamaica, Anne, daughter of Richard and Anne Swarton. The union was of short duration, for Anne died on 6 October 1766 and was buried in the chancel of the church at Kingston. The only surviving child of the marriage, Anne, born 2 November 1765, was, for many years heir apparent to her father's vast fortune.
In the late 1770s Nathaniel spent some time in England, and took a house in Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London. He returned frequently to Jamaica to attend to business.
In 1785 he fought a duel and killed his man, in a dispute concerning the conviction of one of his slaves, an affair described in detail in the documents that have survived. It was some time after this event that he settled permanently in Britain'.
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The Philipps family has owned the Slebech estate for centuries. It spent a brief time out of the family immediately after World War II but in the late 1950s it was bought back by Geoffrey Philipps’ father.
The park dates back to the 12th century but was bought by Nathaniel Phillips – who built his fortune through Jamaican sugar plantations– in 1795.
Then aged 65, he settled at Slebech with his 19-year-old wife, a member of the Philipps family.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/future-slebech-park-sa...
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Page 339
"Nathaniel Phillips had taken a house in London shortly before 1779. After he had retired from personal direction of his Jamaican concerns, he entertained the idea of acquiring an estate in Wales where he would settle down as a country gentleman. He came in contact with William Knox, a similar 'nabob', who some years previously, had bought the Llanstinan and Slebech estates in Pembrokeshire. In 1792 he entered into negotiation for the sale of the Slebech estate, and by 1795 had bought it and was resident there.
An estate was not the only acquisition he made in Pembrokeshire. About this time he decided on a second matrimonial venture. He was 66 years of age and had been a widower for 30 years. His choice fell on the attractive daughter of a Pembrokeshire parson, Mary Dorothea Philipps, then a minor, about 19 years old. They were married, by Licence, at St. Mary Islington, in February 1796. The great difference in their ages proved in no way prejudicial to what turned out to be a happy and successful union. The marriage allied him to the older landed families in West Wales and no doubt contributed to the ease with which Nathaniel Phillips fitted into local society. In the same year as his marriage he was pricked High Sheriff and placed in the Commission of the Peace for the county. An amiable and kindly man, 'Nat' Phillips, as he was generally known, settled down as to the manner born and became a popular and useful member of the community.
Richard Fenton describes a fete and a ball he attended at Slebech, his most vivid memory being of the sewin landed from the river Cleddy below the house and carried straight to the frying pan.
Mary Dorothea's father, the Revd Edward Philipps, was a younger son of Thomas and Dorothy Philipps of Lampeter Velfrey, whose family was a cadet of the ancient and influential house of Philipps of Picton Castle, whose head at this time was Lord Milford, Lord Lieutenant of the county. He matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, on 14 December 1754 at the age of 17, and graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1758. He took Holy Orders and was rector of Begelly from 1767 to 1778 and of Lampeter Velfrey from 1778 until his death on 2 April 1793, aged 56. He married Catherine Harries (marriage bond dated 5 December 1774) and she died on 6 May 1803, aged 55. Both were buried at Lampeter Velfrey where a memorial to them was erected by their daughter Mrs. Mary Dorothea Phillips of Slebech. The Revd. Edward Philipps was also a magistrate, and owner of a considerable property. He had seven children -
- Thomas Philipps of Neeston Hall, Pembrokeshire;
- John Philipps of London;
- Mary Dorothea wife of Nathaniel Phillips;
- Cecilia wife of William Charles Allen of St. Brides who adopted the additional name of Philipps;
- Elizabeth, who had a passion for genealogical researches, married firstly, in 1808 Aldborough Richardson of Upper Wimpole Street, London, and secondly in 1832, Lieut. Gen. Sir Henry King, fourth son of the second Earl of Kingston;
and two little girls who died in infancy.
After having been heir apparent for many long years Mrs. Anne Cameron of Erracht found herself dethroned from that pleasant and enviable position. For Nathaniel and Mary Dorothea had four children-
- Mary Dorothea, born on 15 January 1797, whose christening on 20 August, was attended by the Duke of Rutland, who noted in his journal, 'Mr Phillips is a West Indian, and has amassed an immense fortune';
- Nathaniel, born in 1798, educated at Eton, and graduated at Christ Church College, Oxford on 16 October 1817, High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire in 1820, died unmarried on 20 July 1824 at the Hotel of the Arms, Amsterdam, from concussion and bruises occasioned by a severe fall;
- Louisa Catherine born in 1801, married on 11 February 1819, Thomas William, Viscount Anson, created Earl of Lichfield in 1831, and had issue;
- Edward Augustus, born in 1802, died unmarried on 15 February 1830, and was buried at St. Marylebone, London.
Nathaniel Phillips, the father, died on 30 December 1813, at the age of 83. He was buried in the churchyard of the old parish church, hard by the mansion, but in 1860 his remains were removed to the vault in the new church of Slebech which stands on the side of the main road to Haverfordwest. His will, dated 9 November 1813, was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 18 April in the following year.
The main part of his fortune passed to the children of the second venture, his estate being charged with legacies totalling £ 37,000, of which £ 7,000 was for the Camerons. After the death of the sons, Nathaniel and Edward Augustus, reported above, the whole estate passed to Mary Dorothea and her sister the Countess of Lichfield, as coheiresses.
After the loss of her husband, Mrs. Phillips settled down to the cares of her young family. After Waterloo they spent much time in France and Italy, particularly in Rome where the widow rented a villa and entertained English visitors and the Roman society among whom she moved freely. In 1819, her younger daughter, married Lord Anson, and as her sons were still receiving their education, she was left with Mary Dorothea as her constant companion. They spent much time in Rome in 1821-22, and it was then that another nobleman appeared on the scene, one more romantic and colourful than the British peer [Baron Charles Frederick de Rutzen] who had already become Mrs. Philipps' son-in-law - [having married Miss Mary Dorothea Phillips].
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Nathaniel Phillips of Slebech's Timeline
| 1730 |
June 10, 1730
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Wales, UK
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| 1762 |
February 17, 1762
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Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies
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| 1765 |
November 2, 1765
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| 1766 |
1766
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Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies
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| 1797 |
January 15, 1797
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| 1798 |
August 4, 1798
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Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies
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| 1800 |
1800
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Slebech Hall, Slebech ,Pembrokeshire, Wales
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| 1813 |
December 30, 1813
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