LAWS
,
EDWARD
(
1837
-
1913
),
historian
of
Pembrokeshire
,
was the eldest son of
admiral
John Milligen
Laws
(b.
1799
) of
Marchfield House
,
Binfield, Berks.
, and
Mary
(
1815
-
1899
), daughter of
Charles Delamotte
Mathias
(
1777
-
1851
)
(see under
Mathias
), of
Lamphey Court
and
Llangwaran, Pembs.
His parents were married on
25 June 1836
and he was b. on
17 April 1837
and christened in
Lamphey church
on
4 July
. He was educated at
Rugby
and
Wadham College
,
Oxford
, where he matriculated on
28 May 1856
. His wife, who d.
on
8 May 1897
, was
Georgina Elizabeth
Laws
, eldest daughter of the
Rev.
W.
Nantes
of
Frome Vowchurch
,
Dorset
. For some years he held a commission in the
35th (Royal Sussex) Regiment
, before settling at
Tenby
where he was a notable
public figure
for half a century. He was a
member of the town Council
(
1897
) and
mayor
of the borough (
1900
), a
J.P.
for the county of
Pembroke
, and
chairman
for a long period of the
Tenby bench
. In
1899
he was
high sheriff of Pembrokeshire
. He devoted much of the ample leisure, which he enjoyed as a gentleman of means, to the
study of the history and archaeology of Pembrokeshire
. His chief works are the county history,
Little England beyond Wales
,
1880
;
Church Book of St. Mary the Virgin, Tenby
,
1907
; in collaboration with his adopted daughter
Emily Hewlett
Edwards
,
A Short History of the Civil War as it affected Tenby and its neighbourhood
,
1887
, and a number of articles in
Arch. Camb.
,
1882-1906
. With assistance from
Henry
Owen
(
1844
-
1919
) (q.v.)
, before the work was completed, he produced an ‘
Archaeological Survey of Pembrokeshire
,’
1908
. He d.
25 July 1913
after an
accident while driving his horse and trap
, and left one son,
Edward Lucian
Laws
.
Bibliography:
-
The Tenby Observer
,
May 1897, 31 July, 18 Sept., 1913
;
-
The Guardian
(Pembs.),
1 Aug. 1913
;
-
Church book of St. Mary the Virgin,
Tenby
and
, Denbigh, 1907
, 93;
-
Burke's Landed Gentry
,
s.n.
Mathias;
-
William R. O'Byrne
,
A Naval Biographical Dictionary. Comprising
the life and services of every living officer in Her
Majesty's Navy, from the rank of Admiral of the Fleet to
that of Lieutenant, inclusive. Compiled from authentic and
family documents
, London, 1849
,
1849
;
-
Foster
,
Alumni Oxonienses
Author:
Dr Bertie George Charles, Ph.D., (1908-2000), Aberystwyth
