By Simon Hancock
Royal visits to Pembrokeshire in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century were not conspicuous by their abundance. There was the celebrated, if rather reluctant entrée by King George IV who landed at Milford Haven in September 1821.1 Twenty six years later, in August 1847, the royal yacht Victoria and Albert conveyed Queen Victoria and Prince Albert into the Haven en route to their beloved Scotland. The incorrigibly curious prince paid a visit to Pembroke Dockyard where the soldiers of the garrison drew up in open order and the elite of the neighbourhood turned out in force.2
Much less well remembered are two royal visits made to Pembrokeshire in 1785 and 1827 by William Henry (1765-1830) third son of George III who later reigned as King William IV (1830-37), first as a prince and later as a royal duke. The young prince was destined for a career in the navy where his royal father instructed Admirals Hood and Digby to show him no special marks of distinction.3 Further, the boy sailor should be obliged to perform most rigidly every duty whilst he was on board the admiral’s ship.4 The midshipman was present at the Battle of Cape St Vincent (1780) and later stationed at New York during the later part of the Revolutionary War where a putative plot to kidnap him was hatched.
Prince William Henry was granted a commission and appointed Third Lieutenant on the Hebe, a frigate of 38 guns commanded by Captain Edward Thornborough which was engaged against smugglers in British coastal waters.5 The vessel circumnavigated the coast taking soundings and the voyage was not without incident. While ashore, near Beverley, the prince was thrown from his horse and received a concussion which necessitated an overnight stay at the home of Dr Johnson, an eminent local surgeon.6
The Hebe sailed to the Orkneys and down the west coast of Ireland and into the Irish Sea, arriving at Milford Haven for more survey work on 5 August 1785. During the frigate’s two week stay there was ample opportunity for leisure and recreation beyond the predictable, and occasionally irksome, naval duties. On 11 August one correspondent wrote how news of the Prince’s arrival diffused throughout the county where the presence of a royal personage was indeed a considerable rarity. No reigning monarch had set foot in the county since Richard II in the 1390s. Prince William Henry, doubtless in naval officer’s uniform, visited Picton Castle, the elegant seat of Lord Milford (1744-1823).7 While passing through Haverfordwest he was greeted with the joyous acclamation of the people.
A great ball, probably held in his honour, celebrated at the Assembly Rooms in Haverfordwest, attended by officers of the Hebe, was the social event of the decade. The prince delighted the gathering by his polite and engaging manners which left a most pleasing impression when he entered the ballroom, surrounded by ‘such a crowd of beauties as set the Pembrokeshire assemblies on a footing with the first in the kingdom.’8 His fresh and wholesome appearance must have been a stark juxtaposition to the tales and caricatures of bloated excess and debauchery which lampooned the Hanoverian princes some years later.
Until they were sold by Sir Charles Philipps to the parochial authorities of St Mary’s in 1924, the Assembly Rooms were the location for glittering social gatherings by the county elite. The annual round was punctuated by balls for the Hunt Week and the races at Portfield, as well as national events reflected locally. On one such occasion a remarkable ‘Black Ball’ was held here in December 1817, with a display of sable hangings, black wax candles and three transparent urns carrying the name of the late Princess of Wales, Princess Charlotte, daughter of the then Prince Regent, who died in childbirth on 6 November 1817. Despite the solemnity of the occasion, the ball, with Lord Milford as steward, was enjoyed nevertheless as the audience ‘danced on the light fantastic toe.’9
The persistence of folk memory and the oral recounting of memorable events were demonstrated by the retelling of an incident connected with the Prince’s visit to the Assembly Rooms that sultry evening in the summer of 1785. The ‘rascalliest, sweetest, young prince,’ aged 21, found himself in need of new footwear for the ball. A shoemaker named Evans was summoned to attend to him at the Castle Hotel to take a measurement for a new pair of shoes. Kneeling at the foot of royalty, the Prendergast shoemaker displayed courtly manners as he asked his distinguished patron to ‘hold out your princely toe and I will take your measure.’ The order sealed his local fame and earned him the soubriquet ‘The Prince’ ever afterwards. For good measure Evans displayed a sign above his modest abode ‘Shoemaker to His Royal Highness.’10
Prince William’s later career was distinguished by his creation as Duke of Clarence in on 16 May 1789, while the office of Lord High Admiral, which gave him nominal command of the Royal Navy, was revived for him in 1827. It was three months or so later that the Duke of Clarence, along with Duchess Adelaide (the couple had married on 11 July 1818) visited Pembrokeshire for a second time, ostensibly on a tour of inspection of the naval arsenal at Pembroke. After a visit to Plymouth, the royal couple made their separate ways to Milford Haven. On 23 July 1827 the duchess arrived in harbour in the government steam vessel Comet where she was greeted by Lord Cawdor, and on landing, by Sir John Owen MP, dressed in the uniform of a general officer.11 At Pembroke the horses were removed from her carriage and it was drawn through the principal streets by the populace. When horses and carriage were later reunited the Duchess was conveyed to Stackpole Court escorted by a detachment of Yeomanry Cavalry.
The Duke of Clarence arrived some hours later in the yacht Royal Sovereign towed by the steamer Lightning.12 After an inspection of the dockyard, the Duke and Duchess were present to witness the launch of the 84-gun, 2,288 ton Canopus class Ship of the Line Goliath which was renamed the Clarence in honour of the royal couple on 25 July 1827. The visit by the heir apparent ensured vast crowds greeted him throughout Pembroke and nearby Pater. On Thursday 26 July the Lord High Admiral was greeted at Pembroke Town Hall by the Lord Lieutenant, aldermen and councillors in full regalia to present a laudatory address which was read by the town clerk. The council expressed the hope that the dockyard recently established within their borough would meet with His Royal Highness’s approval and under his patronage long continue to flourish. In a gracious acceptance speech the Duke assured them of his high estimation of the dockyard from conviction of its real benefits to the empire at large ‘which I hope will flourish to the great advantage of the British navy.’13
The royal visit was an unqualified success and a significant endorsement of the yard which had been established in 1814. Even so, an accident, the threatened overturning of the royal coach, was only narrowly averted. A cart loaded with some poles incontinently shed some of its load onto the road, several of which were tangled in the wheels of the Duke’s conveyance. The fore wheels rose several feet off the ground before the swift action of the coachman and workmen reconnected the wheels to terra firma. Neither horses, carriage nor the Duke sustained injury or distress. 14
During the visit to Pembroke the yacht Royal Sovereign was thrown open to the public. Thereby assuaging the curiosity of thousands of onlookers. The duke received addresses of congratulation on his new post of Lord High Admiral from the Pembroke Corporation, Loyal Welsh Lodge of Freemasons and the gentlemen of Pembroke and district. On two occasions the town was specially illuminated, adding further to the carnival atmosphere which prevailed. The Duke of Clarence departed in the royal yacht on 28 July, his vessel greeted with salutes from a sloop and the cutter Swallow. The duchess returned to London over land.15
The Duke of Clarence ascended the throne as King William IV upon the death of his brother George IV on 26 June 1830. Despite his brief reign of around seven years, momentous social and political legislation was enacted, including the First Reform Act (1832), the abolition of colonial slavery throughout the British Empire (1833) and the Poor Law Amendment Act (1834). Matters of state precluded any opportunity to return to the far western part of his dominions although the royal name was perpetuated, when, on 2 April 1833, a 120-gun first rate Ship of the Line, the Royal William was launched from Pembroke dockyard. The 2,694 ton vessel was named by Lady Owen, wife of the Lord Lieutenant. It was estimated that between 15 and 20,000 people gathered to watch the launch.16 Thanks to Captain Bullen CB, Captain Superintendent of the dockyard, the launch passed off very smoothly.17
Ship launches from the dockyard were among the best remembered events for generations of Pembrokeshire elderly residents. On 2 September 1909 the doyen of Haverfordwest physicians, Dr Edward Picton Phillips, passed away at the ripe old age of 87. He had vividly recalled being taken as a boy aged five by his father to Neyland, then a few scattered dwellings in its pre-railway days. Standing on the beach he witnessed the launch of the Clarence in the presence of the eponymous Duke and Duchess.18 The doctor’s reminiscences were a faint echo of the second visit by the Prince William, significant moments in the social and maritime annals of Pembrokeshire which are often overlooked.
Notes
1. A commemorative tablet at Milford Haven records his setting foot on Welsh soil. Later the King rode in a carriage over the Old Bridge at Haverfordwest.
2. Pembrokeshire Herald, 20 August 1847.
3. Tom Pocock, Sailor King. The Life of King William IV. (London, 1991), 12.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 70.
6. The Times, 19 July 1785.
7. Richard Philipps of Picton Castle (1744-1823) succeeded to the baronetcy in 1764. In 1776 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Milford in the peerage of Ireland. He was Lord Lieutenant of both Pembrokeshire and Haverfordwest at the time of his death.
8. London Packet or Lloyd’s Evening Post, 17 August 1785.
9. The Times, 5 January 1818.
10. J.W. Phillips and Fred J. Warren, The History of Haverfordwest with that of Some Pembrokeshire Parishes (Haverfordwest, 1914), 121.
11. Sir John Owen (1776-1861) inherited the estate of his uncle Sir Hugh Owen and was created first baronet of Orielton in 1813. He was Lord Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire from 1824 until his death.
12. The Times, 27 July 1827.
13. The Standard, 30 July 1830.
14. Ibid., 31 July 1827.
15. Ibid.
16. The Morning Chronicle, 9 April 1833.
17. The Cambrian, 6 April 1833.
18. Haverfordwest & Milford Haven Telegraph, 8 September 1909.