Welsh Journals

So much for the connection between Nathaniel Phillips and Sir Alan Cameron. I shall now proceed to explain how it was that the silhouette of the latter came to Slebech in Pembrokeshire. II. Phillips and De Rutzen Nathaniel Phillips had taken a house in London shortly before 1779. After he had retired from personal direction of his Jamaican concerns, he entertained the idea of acquiring an estate in Wales where he would settle down as a country gentleman. He came in contact with William Knox, a similar 'nabob', who some years previously, had bought the Llanstinan and Slebech estates in Pembrokeshire. In 1792 he entered into negotiation for the sale of the Slebech estate, and by 1795 had bought it and was resident there. An estate was not the only acquisition he made in Pembrokeshire. About this time he decided on a second matrimonial venture. He was 66 years of age and had been a widower for 30 years. His choice fell on the attractive daughter of a Pembrokeshire parson, Mary Dorothea Philipps, then a minor, about 19 years old. They were married, by Licence, at St. Mary Islington, in February 1796. The great difference in their ages proved in no way prejudicial to what turned out to be a happy and successful union. The marriage allied him to the older landed families in West Wales and no doubt contributed to the ease with which Nathaniel Phillips fitted into local society. In the same year as his marriage he was pricked High Sheriff and placed in the Commission of the Peace for the county. An amiable and kindly man, 'Nat' Phillips, as he was generally known, settled down as to the manner born and became a popular and useful member of the community. Richard Fenton describes a fete and a ball he attended at Slebech, his most vivid memory being of the sewin landed from the river Cleddy below the house and carried straight to the frying pan. Mary Dorothea's father, the Revd Edward Philipps, was a younger son of Thomas and Dorothy Philipps of Lampeter Velfrey, whose family was a cadet of the ancient and influential house of Philipps of Picton Castle, whose head at this time was Lord Milford, Lord Lieutenant of the county. He matriculated at Pembroke College, Oxford, on 14 December 1754 at the age of 17, and graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1758. He took Holy Orders and was rector of Begelly from 1767 to 1778 and of Lampeter Velfrey from 1778 until his death on 2 April 1793, aged 56. He married Catherine Harries (marriage bond dated 5 December 1774) and she died on 6 May 1803, aged 55. Both were buried at Lampeter Velfrey where a memorial to them was erected by their daughter Mrs. Mary Dorothea Phillips of Slebech. The Revd. Edward Philipps was also a magistrate, and owner of a considerable property. He had seven children-Thomas Philipps of Neeston Hall,