YORKE
,
PHILIP
(
1743
-
1804
), of
Erddig
(or
Erthig
),
Wrexham
,
antiquary
,
was the eldest son of
Simon
Yorke
(d.
1767
), grandson of
Simon
Yorke
of
Dover
,
wholesale grocer
, and first cousin of
lord-chancellor
Hardwicke
. He was b.
29 July 1743
, at
Erthig
, inherited by
Simon
(
1732
) from his uncle,
John
Meller
, who had bought the property in
1718
after the bankruptcy of
Josua
Edisbury
(q.v.)
. He was
Hardwicke
's godson, and after attending preparatory schools near
London
from
1758-9
, he spent three terms at
Eton
(
1759-60
), followed, after a year at home, by two years at
Benet College
(now
Corpus Christi
),
Cambridge
(from
10 April 1762
), and finishing at
Lincoln's Inn
(
1764
). He graduated
M.A.
‘per literas regias’ in
1765
, and came down with a strong taste for the classics (especially
Virgil
) and a bent for antiquities recognised by his election to the
Society of Antiquaries
in
1768
, but with little relish for the fashionable amusements of his day. On succeeding to the estate the preceding year he showed himself an enlightened landlord, using his income of £7,000 a year in
embellishment of hall and grounds
,
purchase of adjoining properties
,
mineral development
, and
scientific farming
. He played his part in social life and
local government
(especially the
militia
) and sat twice in
Parliament
for
English pocket boroughs
; but with his completely
English
antecedents, education, and first marriage, he took little interest in the land of his birth till, in
1782
, he m.
Diana
, daughter of
Piers
Wynn
of
Dyffryn Aled
, and widow of
R. O.
Meyrick
. Starting with ‘
no great respect for the mountain Welsh, great or small
’ (says
Apperley
, q.v.
), and preferring his wife ‘
when the Welshwoman is not predominant
’ (
Cust
,
Chronicles
, ii, 251, 261), he developed an
antiquarian interest
in her descent from
Marchudd
,
lord of Uwchdulas
, and by
1795
had come to ‘
think the race of Cadwallon more glorious than the breed of Gimcrack
’; in that year
Richard
Marsh
of
Wrexham
printed for him (with dedication to
Thomas
Pennant
, q.v.
)
Tracts of Powys
, based on the few printed sources available and on correspondence with
Gwallter Mechain
(
Walter
Davies
,
1761
-
1849
, q.v.)
, and other scholars, and including an account of the descendants of
Bleddyn ap Cynfyn
(q.v.)
, a refutation of
Polydore
Virgil
's strictures on the ancient
Britons
, some
notes on crown lordships
in
Powys
, and some letters of
Goronwy
Owen
(q.v.)
and
Lewis
Morris
(q.v.)
. This was expanded four years later into his classic
Royal Tribes of Wales
, printed by
John
Painter
of
Wrexham
. His
heraldic interests
found expression also in the embellishment of
his entrance hall with the arms of the chief
North Wales
families, but his project of following up the
Royal Tribes
with the work on the Fifteen Common Tribes was frustrated by his death on
19 March 1804
. He was buried at
Marchwiel
.
Apperley
describes him as ‘
the worst horseman I ever saw in a saddle
,’ and ‘
one of the worst-dressed men in the country
,’ but unequalled as companion, conversationalist, and
raconteur
; he also had some success as an
amateur actor
at the
Wynnstay theatre
. The present
Yorkes
of
Erthig
and
Wynn-Yorkes
of
Dyffryn Aled
descend from his two marriages.
Bibliography:
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
A. L. Cust
,
Chronicles of Erthig on the Dyke
,
London, 1914
;
-
A. N. Palmer
,
History of the thirteen country townships of
the old parish of Wrexham, and of the townships of Burras
Riffri, Erlas, & Erddig Being the fifth and last part
of "A history of the town and parish of Wrexham"
,
1903
, 236-42;
-
J. E. Griffith
,
Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire
Families
, 1914
, 167, 327;
-
‘Nimrod’ (
C. J. Apperley
),
My Life and Times
, 1927
;
-
T. Pennant
,
A Tour (Tours) in
[North] WalesPennant, Thomas , 1773. 1778, etc. See also Rhys's
3-volume edition, 1883
(
1883
ed.), i, 374-5;
-
Philip Yorke
,
The Royal Tribes of Wales
, London /
Wrexham, 1799
(
1887
ed.), biographical introduction by
R. Williams
.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Arthur Herbert Dodd, M.A., (1891-1975), Bangor
