THE DYNEVOR TITLE: HOW TO MARRY WELL AND BECOME A LORD

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In the past we’ve seen how the ancestors of today’s Lord Dynevor were once major military and political players in Tudor Wales. When Henry VII awarded Llandeilo landowner Rhys ap Thomas a knighthood for his support during the battle of Bosworth in 1485 he didn’t, however, award him a title. To the English Rhys ap Thomas was only a minor landowner in obscure west Wales and the lack of any aristocratic connections in his family tree just wasn’t sufficient to impress the status-conscious English aristocracy.

But three hundred years after Bosworth his direct descendants would take that prestigious step into the ranks of the English nobility. All that was necessary by 1780 was a shrewd marriage to the daughter of an Earl, and killing a king in battle, as Sir Rhys ap Thomas is supposed to have done in 1485, was no longer seen as a requirement for your CV. Learning to marry well was a much more useful skill to have and it was something that the Rice family of Llandeilo learned particularly well.

George Rice of Newton House, Llandeilo (1724-1779) had married the daughter of William Talbot, the 1st Earl Talbot, a rich and powerful politician in the government. Talbot was an MP, Privy Councillor and Minister of War who acted as Lord High Steward of England at the coronation of George III, even carrying the crown during the ceremony, a sure sign that he moved in the highest possible echelons of society.

In addition George Rice was related through his mother to the prime minister of the day, Lord Newcastle. In 1761 Newcastle appointed George Rice Lord-Commissioner of the Board of Trade and Foreign Plantations at a salary of £1,000 a year (worth over £1 million a year today), showing that Rice knew exactly how to use his family connecti...

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...0th Baron Dynevor of Dynevor. For the aristocratically inclined here is a complete list of the ten Lords Dynevor:
BARONS DYNEVOR
William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, 2nd Baron Talbot, 1st Baron Dynevor (1710–1782)
• Cecil de Cardonnel, 2nd Baroness Dynevor (1735–1793)
• George Talbot Rice, 3rd Baron Dynevor (1765–1852)
• George Rice-Trevor, 4th Baron Dynevor (1795–1869)
• Francis William Rice, 5th Baron Dynevor (1804–1878)
• Arthur de Cardonnel FitzUryan Rice, 6th Baron Dynevor (1836–1911)
• Walter FitzUryan Rice (and Rhys after 1916), 7th Baron Dynevor (1873–1956)
• Charles Arthur Uryan Rhys, 8th Baron Dynevor (1899–1962)
• Richard Charles Uryan Rhys, 9th Baron Dynevor (1935–2008)
• Hugo Griffith Uryan Rhys, 10th Baron Dynevor (born 1966)
The heir presumptive (ie, the next in line to the title) is the present holder's second cousin Robert David Arthur Rhys.

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