Jeffrey de Winton
Jeffrey Parry de Winton was born on 14th October 1828 in Lambeth with the surname Wilkins. His father was a banker in Newport on the Isle of Wight and until 1838 he lived in Freshwater. On 6th July 1839 the family by royal licence reverted to the simplified Norman name (original de Wintona) of de Winton. "The reversion to the Norman name in 1839 was seen in the eyes of much of society of the time as a blatant and pretentious move towards social aggrandisement." [1]
By 1850 when he was only 21 he was working in the drawing office of Fawcett, Preston & Co. in Liverpool. He ha a long spell staying with Lord Newborough of up to 18 months. Newborough was to effectively become his unofficial patron. His first extant drawing is for a paddle steamer dated 1850.
The partnership between de Winton and Owen Thomas of Union Ironworks was the result of pressure on Thomas from Lord Newborough and he lent Jeff the £3,000 he needed to buy into the business. The partnership was formed in June 1853. Within months both Owen Thomas and Jeff were appointed trustees of the Carnarvon Harbour Trust. He was generally thought of as a benevolent employer.
His father and sister died in 1869/70 and as a result his mother and two surviving sisters moved to live with him in Caernarfon. He had fathered a daughter with his much younger housekeeper, Ellen Roberts. The daughter Mary Ellen was born in about 1870, the same year that his mother and two sisters arrived to live with him. It seems that the secret was kept from these three women until about 1886. Jeff and Ellen were eventually married in 1889 in Liverpool. Mary Ellen was born in Birkenhead and may have been brought up by relatives. By the time of Jeff's death in 1892 when she was 22 years old she was living with her parents in Liverpool. She married an Australian and went there.
He was a modest, hard working very private person. He was mayor of Caernarfon and a J.P. He was an adjudicator in the "Art section" of the Grand National Eisteddfod held in Caernarfon in 1862. He was a keen sailor and an active member of the Royal Welsh Yacht Club. He was on the Provisional Committee for the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway at the time of the November 1871 Prospectus for the Corwen Line, but did not become a Director in 1872. He was a director of the Caernarvonshire Railway.
He was a brilliant engineer but not a hard businessman and did not have much financial success.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ Fisher D, Fisher A and Jones G P (2011) De Winton of Caernarfon: Engineers of excellence, RCL Publications, Cambrian Forge, Garndollbenmaen, Gwynedd, LL51 9RX pp 16.
- ^ Fisher D, Fisher A and Jones G P (2011) De Winton of Caernarfon: Engineers of excellence, RCL Publications, Cambrian Forge, Garndollbenmaen, Gwynedd, LL51 9RX pp 65 - 68.