By Neil Westerman
Artist, author, composer, novelist, playwright, poet and philanthropist Fanny Price Gwynne was a leading member of Victorian society in the small Pembrokeshire town of Tenby. Fanny is best remembered today for her watercolour paintings and guidebooks. Research into Fanny’s life is limited by the absence of any surviving diaries or letters but by examining her family history, her published works, unpublished manuscript and the pages of the local newspapers a portrait of this Victorian gentlewoman can be constructed.
Fanny’s life falls into three distinct periods: firstly, the creative and artistic period, that produced watercolours, poetry, guidebooks, a novel, a play, and music. This period ended with the death of her father in 1867. The second part of her life was devoted to charitable activities and lasted until the death of her husband in 1880. From that time until her death in 1901 Fanny led a respectable, private life largely withdrawn from society.
Fanny’s life-span mirrors closely that of Queen Victoria. She was baptised on 15 March 1819 at St. Mary’s Church Tenby, the daughter of Thomas Gwyther and Fanny Gwyther (nee Price).1 Her parents were married in this church in Tenby on the 17 July 1817 by licence.2 Fanny’s fascination with the sea and mariners in both her work and her charitable activities owes much to her father Thomas, a master in the Royal Navy and a trustee of the Tenby Charities.3 He also served on the local management committee of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution4 and was responsible for the first tide tables to appear in the Tenby Observer newspaper, a practice that continues to this day. 5 As the Tenby correspondent of the Carmarthen Journal newspaper, her mother Fanny would have undoubtedly encouraged and helped develop her daughter’s writing skills. 6
As an only child of a well established and wealthy gentry family Fanny enjoyed a privileged upbringing and lifestyle. 7 With her many desirable qualities Fanny would no doubt have attracted many suitors. On the 17 July 1845, at St. Mary’s Church, Tenby, Fanny married John Gwynne, a practicing solicitor born in Ludchurch in 1807. He was articled to a Mr. Binns at Southampton and established his business as a solicitor and insurance agent at Tenby in 1840. In 1842 he was appointed clerk to the charity trustees and in 1865 became town clerk. He subsequently entered into a partnership with Charles William Rees Stokes, the firm being known as Messrs Gwynne and Stokes.8 The firm prospered with branches at Tenby, Narberth, Pembroke and Pembroke Dock. The marriage provided the financial stability that enabled Fanny to continue enjoying her privileged life style. John Gwynne may have helped to encourage and facilitate Fanny’s various publications as her first book, Sketches of Tenby and its Neighbourhood, was published the year following the marriage (1846).
Fanny’s three published guidebooks are well written and informative. 9 They paint a clear picture of the contemporary scene at Tenby in the mid nineteenth century and would have been very useful for contemporary visitors. The books illustrate Fanny’s knowledge of the area and its history as well as an understanding of the requirements of visitors. Full details of walks, drives and boating excursions along with public amusements in the form of race meetings, balls, concerts and theaters are included, as is information about the Lifeboat, Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society, schools and local charities. Today these guidebooks provide useful material for historians. As with most old guidebooks, however, the historical material needs to be treated with a certain amount of caution. Fanny’s second guidebook, Allen’s Guide to Tenby, is an enlarged and updated version of Sketches of Tenby and its Neighbourhood. Large sections of the text are identical in both books. Fanny’s third guidebook, A Guide to Tenby, was published in 1869 as part of Abel Heywood’s series of penny guidebooks. This sixteen page book contains a brief description of the town together with details of walks and drives but without any mention of the races, balls, concerts, clubs or lodging houses that made the earlier books so interesting and useful.
Fanny may have written her guidebooks to help promote the town of Tenby as a seaside watering place. We know she was proud of the town’s heritage and protested against the proposed demolition of the South West Gateway (known today as the Five Arches) by signing a petition stating:
‘We believe the destruction of the gateway would inflict a serious injury on the town by taking away one of its most interesting and characteristic antiquities.’10
By writing good quality guidebooks and therefore helping to attract more visitors to Tenby Fanny would also have helped the poorer sections of Tenby’s society. More visitors would result in a more prosperous town and therefore more employment opportunities for the poor.
The Tenby Souvenir, a table book in prose and verse, was Fanny’s second book, published in 1863, and aimed at the wealthy visitor, retailing at one guinea. 11 Today this would be classified as an expensive coffee-table book. The project gave Fanny the opportunity to undertake more creative writing than that offered by a factual guidebook. The contents include articles on superstitions, customs, phantom funerals, privateers, murders, shipwrecks etc. An unpublished manuscript at the National Library of Wales entitled ‘Etchings, Sketchings and Scribblings’ appears to be an early draft for The Tenby Souvenir. 12 The paper is watermarked 1856 and one article is dated 1858. However, only four of the thirty-eight articles and songs included made it to The Tenby Souvenir. The manuscript reveals Fanny’s very neat and easy to read handwriting along with a total of forty-nine beautifully drawn pen and wash illustrations. Both ‘Souvenir’ and ‘Etchings’ reveal a strong belief in God with several religious references, including for example, ‘Beauties strewn around by the Almighty’s hand’13 and ‘For all must change, save one, Thy God’.14 Fourteen songs are featured in the unpublished manuscript although no music is included. We know that Fanny composed music, as at least one of her songs was published.15
Creative writing must have appealed to Fanny as she went on to write a short illustrated novel entitled Ton at the Seaside , set in Tenby.16 A farce written for Tenby Dramatic Society, Five Pounds Reward, was set in Scandaltown, Yorkshire, featuring characters named Thomas John Fuddle, the mayo,r and Bill Twaddle, the town crier. 17 One can’t help wondering if this work reflects Fanny’s view of local government! As well as being known for her books Fanny is also remembered as a competent artist. Few of her paintings are dated but we know that in 1851, during the meeting of the Cambrian Archaeological Association at Tenby, Fanny exhibited many of her drawings.18 The Tenby publisher Richard Mason produced nineteen of Fanny’s drawings as engravings and lithographs. These were utilized to illustrate her first guidebook and were also sold separately.19 Fanny’s drawings and watercolours are today of historical importance as they record South Pembrokeshire before the advent of mass photography. The watercolour of St Catherine’s Rock Tenby, for example, depicts the rock before the building of the fort while her watercolour of the ceremonial procession of the inauguration of the Welsh Memorial to the Prince Consort in 1865 is an important record of this major national event. Fanny also painted the arms of Tenby on a nine-foot long silk flag that was actually borne in the procession. A second flag featuring the Royal Arms, the arms of the Prince of Wales, the arms of Denmark, the crest of Wales and a dragon passant on a mount vert was displayed in the banqueting room at the Gatehouse hotel.20 The list of subscribers to the memorial included both her husband and her father.21
The second phase of Fanny’s life commenced in 1867. Following the death of her father Fanny became more involved in charitable activities and her writing all but ceased. The two poems (Life’s Chain and The Welsh Harpers Lament) published in Red Dragon Magazine in 1883 are both included in the unpublished manuscript, ‘Etchings, Sketchings and Scribblings’ dated to the late 1850s. All of her energy now appears to have been given over to charitable work.
In November 1870 a public meeting took place to discuss the formation of a cottage hospital. The local paper reported that, ‘among those present we noticed Mrs. Gwynne’.22 John Gwynne was appointed to the committee and ‘Mrs. Gwynne said she would be happy to present the hospital with a kitchen range. The offer was of course accepted’.23 The following January Fanny was unanimously elected to the general committee of the cottage hospital.24 Fanny was interested in supporting any activities that improved the town. In December 1870 both Fanny and her husband John made generous donations to the building fund for the Tenby parochial schools despite having no children of their own.25 Tenby Local Museum was the recipient of the Gwynne’s generosity in February 1878.26 The Honorary Secretary Edward Laws invited both Fanny and John to the opening of the museum by Professor Rolleston on the 26 July, 1878.
Fanny’s writing reveals her great interest in maritime activities. Now the welfare of the local fishermen and mariners became an important part of her life. She served at least five years (1872 – 1878) as the Honorary Agent of the Tenby branch of the Shipwrecked Mariners Society and wrote a lengthy letter to the local newspaper detailing the work of the society and asking for subscriptions and donations.27 Fanny resigned the position in March 1878.28 For a woman to hold this position during the male dominated Victorian period helps to illustrate the respect and high regard in which Fanny was held locally. Despite resigning from the position with the Shipwrecked Mariners Society Fanny continued to work with local mariners. In January 1879 severe weather prevented local fishermen from leaving the harbour leading to distress and deprivation. John Gwynne launched an appeal for the distressed fishermen.29 Fanny undertook the task of distributing the proceeds in the form of coupons that could be exchanged for bread and groceries.30
Following her husband’s death in September 1880 Fanny appears to have largely withdrawn from society. John left Fanny financially secure leaving her a number of houses in St. Julian Street and Bridge Street.31 The Gwynne’s had resided for the whole of their married life at St. Julian House, Bridge Street, Tenby. Photographs of the drawing room taken by the Tenby photographer Charles Smith Allen give an indication of their wealth and the splendor in which they lived. Sadly towards the end of her life Fanny suffered neglect at the hands of her servant.32 Following a very public investigation, reported in detail in the local newspaper, her welfare was placed in the hands of Dr Hamilton.33 On the 14 May 1901 aged 82 Fanny Price Gwynne died.
Fanny’s legacy to Tenby are her books, drawings and paintings that gave pleasure during her lifetime and continue to do so today. Fanny Price Gwynne was a highly respected, privileged and gifted lady. She had a deep love for her native town of Tenby and worked ceaselessly to promote the town as a fashionable watering place. Her charitable work, especially for mariners and fishermen, helped alleviate the crushing poverty suffered by so many during the Victorian period. Sadly no actual drawing, painting or photograph of Fanny Price Gwynne is known to exist to complete our portrait of this remarkable woman.
Notes
1 Pembrokeshire Record Office. Register of Baptisms in the parish of St. Mary’s Tenby. HPR–78-5
2 Pembrokeshire Record Office. Register of Marriages in the parish of St. Mary’s Tenby. HPR–78-10
3 Tenby Museum and Art Gallery. Statement of the accounts of the charity called the Tenby Charities. 31 December 1858. PQ/RC/3.
4 Tenby and Pembroke Dock Observer, May 29, 1862.
5 Tenby Observer, July 30, 1858.
6 Tenby and Pembroke Dock Observer, December 10, 1863.
7 Pembrokeshire Herald, July 18, 1845.
8 Tenby Observer, September 9, 1880.
9 Fanny Price Gwynne, Sketches of Tenby and its Neighbourhood (Tenby, 1846). (2nd ed., Tenby, 1852).
Mrs. Fanny Price Gwynne (editor), Allen’s Guide to Tenby (Tenby, not dated).
Mrs. Price Gwynne, A Guide to Tenby (Manchester 1869).
10 Tenby Observer, October 29, 1868.
11 Mrs. F. P. Gwynne, The Tenby Souvenir, A Table Book in Prose and Verse (Tenby, 1863).
12 National Library of Wales. F. P. G., Etchings, Sketchings and Scribblings (Unpublished Manuscript). MS12073C.
13 National Library of Wales. F. P. G., Wild Flowers of Spring in Etchings, Sketchings and Scribblings (Unpublished Manuscript). MS12073C, 35.
14 National Library of Wales. F. P. G., Of Clouds and Storms in Etchings, Sketchings and Scribblings (Unpublished Manuscript). MS12073C, 14.
15 F. P. G., Galop The Tenby Regatta (London, not dated).
16 F. P. G., Ton at the Seaside (London, not dated).
17 F. P. G., Five Pounds Reward (Tenby, 1867).
18 Arthur L. Leach, Watercolours by Mrs. F. P. Gwynne, in Tenby and County News 8 August 1940.
19 Fanny Price Gwynne, Sketches of Tenby and its Neighbourhood (2nd ed., Tenby, 1852) 182.
20 Memorial of Wales, Inauguration of the Welsh Memorial to the Prince Consort, Albert the Good (Tenby, 1865) 10-11.
21 An Account of the Welsh Memorial erected to his Royal Highness the Prince Consort etc (Tenby, 1866).
22 Tenby Observer, November 3, 1870.
23 Idem.
24 Tenby Observer, January 19, 1871.
25 Ibid. December 8, 1870.
26 Ibid. February 28, 1878.
27 Ibid. December 12, 1872.
28 Ibid. March 7, 1878.
29 Ibid. January 30, 1879.
30 Ibid. February 13, 1879.
31 Ibid. May 16, 1901.
32 Ibid. February 3, 1898.
33 Ibid. March 17, 1898.