Mackworth, Herbert, 1737-1791

Sir Herbert Mackworth, 1st Baronet (1 January 1737-25 October 1791) was a British landowner and politician. He was born the only son of Herbert Mackworth of the Gnoll, Glamorgan and educated at Westminster School and Magdalen College, Oxford. He then studied law at Lincoln's Inn, was called to the bar in 1759 and practiced as a barrister. He inherited the Gnoll estate on the death of his father in 1765 and continued to develop the estates industrial assets such as the Gnoll copper works at Neath. [1]

He was first elected Member of Parliament for Cardiff in 1766 and represented the borough in five consecutive parliaments until 1790. He was created a baronet in 1776. [1]

He was Major and then Lieutenant-colonel of the Glamorgan Militia between 1761 and 1791 and was a vice-president of the Marine Society. In 1777 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society as a "gentleman well versed in Natural history and every branch of Mathematical and Philosophical learning" [2]

He died at his seat at Gnoll Castle in 1791. "His death was occasioned by a thorn breaking in his finger, which brought on a violent inflammation and swelling in the hand and arm, no medical assistance being called in till a month after the accident happened". He had married Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert Cotton Trefusis of Trefusis, Cornwall and with her had two sons and a daughter. [William Betham, The Baronetage of England, Or the History of the English Baronets, volume 4 (Ipswich: Printed by Burrell and Bransby, for William Miller, 1804), p. 12.]

From the guide to the Sir Herbert Mackworth Collection of Opera Scores, 1600-1899, (Cardiff University Library Archives)