BARHAM (formerly NOEL, née MIDDLETON), DIANA (1763-1823), peeress [in her own right, 1813], benefactress of the evangelical movement;
only daughter of Charles Middleton, lord Barham, and Margaret his wife, of Barham Court, Kent. She m. Sir Gerard Noel in 1780. In 1813 she settled in Gower, and, being of an evangelical disposition, began with the help of the Methodists to establish religious congregations and to build chapels for them in the English-speaking parts of the peninsula. Her association with the Methodists was not always happy, but she was also able to enlist the support of the Independents. She d. 12 April 1823 at Fairy Hill, Gower. Some years after her death her son Charles, lord Barham — afterwards lord Gainsborough — made over the chapels to trustees. Of the six chapels built by her, two still belong to the Calvinistic Methodists and four to the Independents.
Bibliography:
- D.N.B. (under ‘Middleton’);
- Burke's…Peerage, 1949, 803;
- The Cambrian, 19 April 1823;
- W. Williams, Memoir of William Griffiths, passim;
- H.E.A.C., ii, 435-9.
Author:
Rev. Gomer Morgan Roberts, M.A., (1904-93), Pont-rhyd-y-fen / St Dogmael's / Llandybïe
