The Douglas-Pennant connection

The Pennant family fortunes were founded on the wealth of the West Indies. Giffard Pennant migrated west and bought extensive lands in Jamaica before his death in 1677. His son, John Pennant married Bonella Hodges in 1734 which resulted in a merger of two estates raising sugar in the parish of Clarendon, Jamaica. John Pennant reaped further blessings from the will of his brother Samuel in 1749. It was John's son Richard, born around 1737, who married Ann Susannah, daughter and heiress of General Hugh Warburton, owner of Winnington Hall, Cheshire, and the Warburton moiety of the Penrhyn Estate, on 6 December 1765. On the death of his father in law in 1771, he succeeded to Winnington Hall and the Warburton moiety of the Penrhyn Estate. It was ten years after this that he succeeded his father to all of the Jamaica property. He also continued with his father's negotiations for the purchase of the Yonge moiety of Penrhyn Castle, and succeeded in completing the purchase in 1785. In the same year he started as a co-operative, the Penrhyn Slate Quarry. In 1790 at Pen-y-bryn he built Port Penrhyn, in order to export the slate to distant places. Between 1800 and 1801, he built the Penrhyn Tramway, the first private horse drawn rail-road in North Wales, and amongst the earliest in the whole of Britain, to transport the slate from the quarry to the port. In the 1790's also, he built a road down to Port Penrhyn and nine miles towards Capel Curig. At Capel Curig in 1803 he built a hotel called the Royal Hotel. Also, in 1797 he had the Penrhyn mansion at Llandygai modernised. In 1808 he died, aged 70 and with his death the male line came to an end. Richard Pennant was undoubtedly a powerful personality with great achievements to his credit.
George Hay Dawkins, cousin of Richard Pennant succeeded to the estate. Winnington went to the widow of Richard Pennant. George Hay Dawkins in the same year as he succeeded to the estate, assumed, by Royal Licence, the surname and arms of Pennant and added them to his own. On July 25 1807, he married the Honourable Sophia Mary, daughter of the Rt Hon Cornwallis Maude, 1st Viscount Hawarden. George Hay Dawkins-Pennant died without male issue in 1840 and was succeeded by his eldest daughter and co-heiress, Juliana Isabella Mary Dawkins-Pennant. In August 1833 she had married Colonel Edward Gordon Douglas. He in 1841 assumed by Royal Licence also, the surname and arms of Pennant. In 1866, after being appointed Lord Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire, he was created first baron of Penrhyn of Llandygai, by Queen Victoria. In 1867-1868, he replaced the 1800-1801 Penrhyn Tramway with the new Penrhyn Railway. He died March 31, 1886 aged 85. He was succeeded to the estate and title by his eldest son, George Sholto Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 2nd Baron Penrhyn of Llandygai. It was during his lifetime that the great strike at Penrhyn Quarry occurred from 1900-1903. He died March 10, 1907, and was succeeded by his eldest and only son from his first marriage, Edward Sholto Douglas-Pennant.
In 1952, Penrhyn Castle and a substantial portion of the Penrhyn Estate were accepted by the Treasury in lieu of death duties, and vested in the National Trust.

See also this discussion: Samuel Douglas of Windsor Castle Plantation Jamaica

and our listing of Douglases with West Indian Connections.

I have been adding some West Indies sportsmen and women to our list of biographies in the History section of the website. Help in identifying genealogy links would be very welcome.

Hello Douglas Family, I am desperately trying to Douglas relatives from Jamaica. I believe my grandfathers name was Charles Douglas.

Greetings from Accra, Ghana. Anyrelatives in Jamaica? My grandfathers name was Charles Douglas and grandmother was Agnus Jones Douglas.

Rita,

I don't know what the Douglas connections might be, but I note the following:

Portia Simpson Miller, original name Portia Lucretia Simpson (born December 12, 1945, Wood Hall, St. Catherine parish, Jamaica),
Simpson-Miller is married to Errald Miller, formerly CEO of Cable & Wireless Jamaica Ltd.

In Spaldings, Clarendon, for example, Simpson Miller told Comrades that her roots run deep there.

"I am sure you don't know that I have some strong Clarendon connections," she said during a meeting in Spaldings.

"My grandmother, Latiesha Burrell, was from Rock River in Clarendon. My grandfather, Thomas Tulloch, was from Clarendon, and my great-grandmother was from Crofts Hill in Clarendon."

She added: "My aunties and my uncles - John, Peter, Lyn - all of them are from Clarendon. My mom was born in Clarendon."

"When St Catherine boasts, and South West St Andrew, that they gave to the party the first female leader and to Jamaica the first female prime minister, you can take credit, Clarendon. My mom was a Clarendonian."

In South West Clarendon, she made the similar pitch, urging Comrades to "support my cousin, (Noel) 'Butch' Arscott".

Arscott has been returned to serve as member of parliament for the constituency and joins North Central St Catherine's Natalie Neita-Headley and the Jamaica Labour Party's South West St Catherine MP Everald Warmington as Simpson Miller's cousins in Gordon House.

Neita-Headley, who is related to Simpson Miller by way of the Tulloch branch of the family tree, said her admiration for Simpson Miller was not because she is her cousin, but because of what she stands for as a person.

Warmington, who will be sitting on the opposition benches, said his father and Simpson Miller's father are cousins.

Do any of these names connect?

William