b.
[in Jan.] 1747
at
S. Davids
, son of
Richard
and
Martha
Fenton
. He was educated at the
Cathedral school
,
S. Davids
, and
Magdalen College
,
Oxford
[but
Foster
has no record of his matriculation. For many years he was a
civil servant
, at the
Custom House
in
London
, but in
1774
he had joined the
Middle Temple
], and in
Jan. 1783
he was
called to the Bar
. He went on circuit in
Wales
for several years, but became increasingly interested in literary rather than in legal pursuits. His friends included
Goldsmith
and
Sir
Richard Colt
Hoare
(q.v.)
; at
Hoare
's suggestion he wrote his
Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire
(
1810
, 2nd ed.
Brecon
,
1903
). He also wrote
A Tour in Quest of Genealogy
(
1811
),
Memoirs of an Old Wig
(
1815
) — witty anecdotal works published anonymously — and two volumes of poems (
1773
and
1790
); and he left many works in manuscript. [These manuscripts were bought in
1858
by
Sir
Thomas
Phillipps
(q.v.)
, and are now in the
Cardiff City Library
; a selection was edited by
John
Fisher
(q.v.)
and published in
1917
as
Tours in Wales, 1804-1813, by Richard Fenton
. When in
London
,
Fenton
was a member of the
Cymmrodorion
and in
1778
was one of its two
librarians
; there is a kindly reference to him in a letter of
1779
from
Richard
Morris
to
Pennant
(
N. L. W. Jnl.
, vi, 193) —
‘I am endeavouring to make him a good Welshman, … he is deficient that way, but comes on bravely.’
In
1776
Fenton
had become also a member of the
Gwyneddigion Society
(
Leathart
,
Origin … of the Gwyneddigion
, 62); he was a friend of
William Owen
Pughe
's; in
1795
and
1796
(in the
Cambrian Register
) he edited
George
Owen
's ‘
Description of Pembrokeshire
.’]
Fenton
was a good
linguist
, described by a contemporary as a person
‘of indefatigable industry of a fine poetical fancy,’
and as
‘having the best information on almost every subject.’
He was, by reason of his
knowledge of Welsh affairs and dialects
, employed by government departments to
report upon matters connected with the social and political conditions of Wales
. He lived for a few years (
c.
1788
) near
Machynlleth
in order to facilitate his tours in
Wales
and
studies of Welsh records
, returning to
Pembrokeshire
in
1793
in order to be near his uncle,
Samuel
Fenton
, whose mercantile fleet he subsequently inherited, and continued to operate. In
1799
he brought grain from the
Mediterranean
, free of freight charge, and sold it at cost price to local people impoverished as a result of the failure of the fish harvest in
1799
.
He m.
Eloise
, daughter of
Colonel
(
Baron
)
Pillet de
Moudon
, of
Swiss
birth but settled in
England
. He d. at
Plas Glynamel
,
Fishguard
, early in
Nov. 1821
, and was buried at
Manor Owen
, near
Fishguard
.
