VINCENT family.

This notable clerical family, connected by birth and marriage with numerous landed and clerical families in Gwynedd, sprang from the Corbets of Ynys-y-maengwyn (says J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees, 237). VINCENT CORBET of Ynys-y-maengwyn (died 1723) had a son, THOMAS VINCENT, whom [it is said] he 'disinherited'; this Thomas (1677 - 1738) was successively vicar of Bangor and rector of Llanfachraeth (Anglesey); he married Jane Anwyl, a descendant of the Anwyl family of Parc, Llanfrothen, and they had two sons. The elder, THOMAS VINCENT (1717 - 1798), graduated from Christ Church in 1739, and was archdeacon of Brecon in 1770 - he was also rector of Yatton, Som. His younger brother, JAMES VINCENT (1718 - 1783), graduated from Jesus College, Oxford, in 1739, was master of Friars school (Bangor), vicar of Bangor, rector of Llandwrog, Caernarfonshire, and became rector of Llanfachraeth in 1763. He had several daughters, of whom one, JANE (1751 - 1812) married her cousin, an army officer named JOHN JONES, son of Owen Jones of Penychen (Aber-erch), canon of Bangor, by Catherine, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Vincent (above). Their son, JAMES JONES (1792 - 1876), who in 1820 assumed the name JAMES VINCENT VINCENT, was born 4 October 1792, graduated in 1815 from Jesus College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow, and after a curacy at Beaumaris became rector of Llanfairfechan (1834-62) and dean of Bangor (1862-76); died 22 March 1876. He had married Margaret Matilda Crawley of Gorddinog, and their second son was JAMES CRAWLEY VINCENT (1827 - 1869), born 23 April 1827, who graduated from Jesus College, Oxford, in 1849; he was perpetual curate of S. Anne's, Llandygai, 1857-9, and was then appointed vicar of Llanbeblig (Caernarvon), where he died 8 September 1869 as a result of his self-sacrifice during a cholera epidemic. His sons (by Grace Elizabeth, daughter of William Johnson, rector of Llan-faethlu) call for notice. The eldest,

JAMES EDMUND VINCENT (1857 - 1909),

whose career is fully described in D.N.B. second supplement, was born 17 November 1857, went to Winchester and Christ Church (B.A. 1880) and was called to the Bar; he became chancellor of Bangor diocese in 1890. During the controversy over land-tenure in Wales, he defended the landlords in two books, The Land Question in North Wales, 1896 (Welsh version by T. R. Roberts in 1897), and The Land Question in South Wales, 1897; he also published (1903) the Memoirs of Sir Llewellyn Turner; but outside Wales he is better known as an editor of periodicals and a writer on topography. He died 18 July 1909. [ The second, (Sir) HUGH CORBET VINCENT, born 27 April 1862, knighted in 1924, died 22 February 1931, a Bangor solicitor, contested the Caernarvon division in 1910.] The youngest,

(Sir) WILLIAM HENRY HOARE VINCENT (1866 - 1941),

born 1 April 1866, educated at Brecon and at Trinity College, Dublin, entered the Indian civil service in 1887 and had a very distinguished career in it; he became member (and vice-president) of the legislative council of India, was on the Council of India from 1923 to 1931, and represented India at the League of Nations (1926). He was knighted in 1913, and was subsequently made K.C.S.I. and G.C.I.E. After his return from India, he served as high sheriff of Anglesey in 1931, and in 1932 became treasurer of the University College of North Wales; in 1937 the University of Wales conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. He died (at Treborth Uchaf, Bangor) 17 April 1941.

Author

Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (1914), more especially 237, 337
Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford
Crockford's Clerical Directory; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (second supplement)
Who's who? [see Wynn - Pryse - Corbet family. ]

Published date: 1959

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