OWEN, Sir Hugh, 6th Bt. (1782-1809), of Orielton, Pemb.

Owen, ‘the last in the direct line of the ancient and honourable house of Orielton’, succeeded to the estate before he was four and the family interest was maintained by his guardians, his mother and his uncles John Colby and Hugh Barlow. In 1806 he tentatively addressed the county, which his father had represented, but withdrew. In 1807 he again came forward, as a protestant champion, but was defeated at the poll. His friends believed his opponent Lord Milford should have retired in Owen’s favour. He fell back instead, after the death of his uncle Barlow in January 1809, on the safe family seat for Pembroke Boroughs. He had failed to persuade Lord Cawdor to support him for the county at the next vacancy in exchange for the boroughs seat. He was then too ill to make a personal canvass.1J. R. Phillips, Mems. Owen of Orielton, 72; R. D. Rees, ‘Parl. Rep. S. Wales 1790-1830’ (Reading Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1962), ii. 419; Carm. RO, 1 Cawdor 130, Kensington to Cawdor, 25 Oct. 1806, Philipps to Milford, 4 May 1807; Cambrian, 1 Nov. 1806, 9 May 1807; NLW mss 6108, address 23 Jan. 1809. He died 8 Aug. 1809, without often attending or making any mark in Parliament. By a will dated 2 Aug., alleged by its critics to be forged, he disinherited his next of kin and left his estates to a more distant kinsman, John Lord, afterwards John Owen.2NLW mss 1073, ff. 1, 14, 23; 1075, f. 52.