MADOCKS
,
WILLIAM ALEXANDER
(
1773
-
1828
),
industrialist and philanthropist
;
b.
17 June 1773
(according to
N.L.W. MS. 10590
), third son of
John
Madocks
,
Fron Iw, Denbs.
(
J. E.
Griffith
,
Pedigrees
315). He went to
Jesus College
,
Oxford
(
1700
), and became
Fellow
of
All Souls
,
Oxford
,
1794
,
Radical M.P.
for
Boston
,
1802-18
, and
Chippenham
,
1820-6
. His scrapbooks display an interest in the careers of such men as
Alexander
and
Columbus
,
Plutarch
's heroes,
engineers
,
inventors
, etc. While living at
Dolmelynllyn
, near
Dolgelley
, he read in the
Tours
of
Thomas
Pennant
(q.v.)
, of the plans of
Sir
John
Wynn
of
Gwydir
(q.v.)
, to enclose
Traeth Mawr
, between
Aberglaslyn
and the sea. Having inherited much wealth from his father, he bought
Tanrallt Estate
,
Penmorfa
, in
1798
. He enclosed 1,000 acres of
Traeth Mawr
, and built
Tremadoc
; then obtained an
Act of Parliament
in
1807
to
raise an embankment across the Traeth to enclose 3,000 acres
more. He
made a road
alongside it connecting
London
and
Portinllaen
; he had obtained an Act in
1806
to
construct a harbour
at
Portinllaen
, but failed to have it adopted as mail packet station for
Dublin
. He projected a shorter road to
London
through
Dolgelley
,
Welshpool
, and
Worcester
. In
1821
he obtained an Act to
make a port at the end of the embankment
, and this was named
Portmadoc
. He
planned a railway along the embankment to carry slates
from
Ffestiniog
to
Portmadoc
, and this plan was accomplished in
1831
by
Samuel
Holland
(q.v.)
. He was a pronounced
Radical
, and
advocated Parliamentary Reform
. His affairs went wrong, and he went to
Paris
, where he d. in
Sept. 1828
. His wife,
Amelia Sophia
, was the grand-daughter of
Joseph
Harris
(
1704
-
1764
) of
Trevecka
(q.v.)
.
Bibliography:
-
Walter Davies
,
General view of the agriculture and domestic
economy of North Wales : containing the counties of Anglesey, Caernarvon, Denbigh, Flint, Meirionydd, Montgomery. Drawn up and
published by order of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement
, London, 1810
,
1813
;
-
Dictionary of National Biography
;
-
Edward Davies
,
Hanes Porthmadog
. [1913.]
,
1913
;
-
National Library of Wales Manuscript
10590;
-
Cylchgrawn Cymdeithas Hanes y Methodistiaid CalfinaiddJournal of
the Historical Society of the Presbyterian Church in Wales
, 1916 ff. Also entitled
, xxiii, 118-23 (by
D. R. Hughes
).
Author:
David Thomas, O.B.E., M.A., (1880-1967), Bangor.
