United Grand Lodge
of Antient, Free and Accepted Masons
of England


 
Province of
South Wales Eastern Division

Feature

A worthy Mason of yesteryear Benjamin Hall, M.P.  Provincial Grand Master of South Wales (1814-17) by Peter Davies, Glamorgan Lodge, No. 36 First published in the Spring 2003 edition of the Province's magazine "Guildford Gazette" Copy of an engraving by S.Say after N Edridge of Benjamin Hall by kind permission of the  National Library of Wales Benjamin Hall, the elder son of Rev. Benjamin Hall D.D. Chancellor of Llandaff was born on 29th September 1778. He was educated at Westminster School London and Christ Church Oxford obtaining his B.A. in 1798 and M.A. in 1801. He joined Lincoln's Inn and was called to the Bar in 1801. In the same year on 16th December he married Charlotte, the younger daughter of Richard Crawshay of Cyfarthfa, who brought him a dowry of £40,000!  His father-in-law made him a partner in the Rhymney Iron Works which he purchased in 1803, and Benjamin, now a Barrister, carried out most of the legal transactions. Richard Crawshay also presented him with the Abercarn estate in 1808, and made him residuary legatee and executor of his will. Crawshay died in 1810, and by his will, tanks to the supposed incapacity for business of his brother-in-law William Crawshay, Benjamin received three-eighths share in the Rhymney works, with the Union works covering 1,112 acres of mines, quarries, houses and land. In 1816 however, he sold out to William Crawshay for £90,000. The previous year he had acquired Hensol Castle for £45,500, which was reported in 'The Cambrian' (A weekly newspaper published in Swansea) on Saturday January 7th 1815:  "We are glad to hear that Benjamin Hall Esq. (the Representative of this county) has purchased the Hensol House Estate, formerly the magnificent seat and favourite residence of the last William Earl Talbot, who it is said, expended £60,000 in improving and beautifying this much-admired place."  Benjamin Hall was M.P. for Totnes 1806-12, and Westbury 1812-14. He was elected member for Glamorgan on 28th November 1814, and remained as such until his early death in 1817. His importance in the history of Wales lies in the fact that he was the first great industrialist to enter the political field in Wales in opposition to the interests of the landed gentry. His Masonic career began at exactly the same time as his appointment as M.P. for Glamorgan. The Articles of Union between the Modern or Premier Grand Lodge and the Antient or Atholl Grand Lodge had been signed at Kensington Palace, 25th November 1813. The celebration of the reunion of the Ancient Freemasons of England took place with great solemnity at Freemasons' Hall on St. John's Day (St. John the Evangelist), 27th December 1813. The Glamorgan Lodge (Atholl Lodge No. 33) Minutes for the 6th January 1814 record:  "The resolutions of the Especial Grand Lodge of free and accepted Masons of England of the 8th November last were read and highly approved of. The articles of Union between the two Grand Lodges of England were also read and approved of unanimously. " On the 8th February 1814, Glamorgan Lodge met for the first time as Lodge No. 50 under the United Grand Lodge of England, and it was during this first year in the history of the United Grand Lodge of England that Benjamin Hall was appointed Provincial Grand Master in succession to Thomas Wyndham of Dunraven Castle, M.P. for Glamorgan, who had died on 8th November 1814. It would seem that at the time of his appointment he was hardly a Freemason! The minutes of a Lodge of Emergency of the Indefatigable Lodge, (Now No. 237, Swansea) held on the 8th December 1814 record:  "Bro. D. Long proposed Benjamin Hall, of Abercarn, in the County of Monmouth, Esq., MP for the County of Glamorgan, to become a Mason if found worthy. Duly seconded, balloted for and approved and initiated and passed the same evening, and a proposal was approved that he should be raised on the 10th inst."  This was done and Bro. Hall, in accordance with the custom of the Lodge, paid the tavern bill for the Lodge of Emergency, which amounted to £7 12s. Od. (£7 60p). On the 16th December (six days after his raising, the Lodge met again and it was then minuted that Bro. B. Hall already Provincial Grand Master, became a member of the Indefatigable Lodge. It appears that the manner in which he applied himself to the concerns of the Province did not meet with the approval of the Brethren of the Indefatigable Lodge, for appended to their minutes of St. John's Day (St. John the Baptist) 24th June 1817, there is the record:  "At a numerous and respectable Meeting of the members of this Lodge it was resolved unanimously that the Rt.W. Provincial G.M. has neglected his duties as a P.G.M, and this Lodge in particular and that a copy of this resolution be sent him forthwith by this Lodge accordingly. By order of the WM, Officers and Brethren of the Lodge. Geo. Hazell, Secretarv Pro Temp." Whether or not Benjamin Hall received the resolution is not known, for on 31st July 1817 he died, his death being reported in 'The Cambrian' of Saturday 9th August. "We record with extreme regret the death of our justly respected County Member, Benjamin Hall, Esq. Hensol Castle: the fatal event which has deprived Glamorganshire of his valuable service, took place at his home in London yesterday se'n-night and has excited the most poignant grief in the breasts of his amiable family and all his numerous friends." The following Saturday 16th August, 'The Cambrian' referred to his funeral: "The remains of our much-regretted Member B. Hall Esq. were interred on Wednesday at Llandaff, attended by nearly all the gentlemen residing within a circuit of 20 miles, and a great concourse of other persons, whose unaffected expressions of sorrow for his loss, afforded the best tribute to his worth." Subsequently a memorial was erected at Llandaff Cathedral, which was in the form of a classical marble bier on a large pedestal and bearing the following inscription: "In a vault near this place are deposited the remains of Benjamin Hall Esq. of Hensol Castle, Member of Parliament for the County, who died xxxi July MDCCCXVII aged xxxix. To record the high sense they entertained of his industry talents an integrity and as a tribute due to the man whose life, was sacrificed to the zealous discharge of his public duties, this monument was erected by a considerable body of the nobility, clergy, gentry and freeholders of the Countv of Glamorgan." On 8th November 1802, Benjamin Hall's son, also named Benjamin, had been born. He too became an M.P., initially for the Monmouth Boroughs (1831-37) and subsequently Marylebone. He was created baronet in 1838 and in July 1855 became Commissioner for Works. The great clock tower of the Houses of Parliament, which was erected during his period of office was on that account, called Big Ben. He was raised to the peerage on 29th June 1859, taking the title of 'Baron Llanover of Llanover and Aber-carn'. His importance in the history of Wales is entirely overshadowed by his wife, Augusta Waddington, Lady Llanover. Her many involvements in Welsh life included the endowment of two Calvinistic Methodist churches Capel Rhyd-y-meirch and Abercarn where services were to be conducted in Welsh (but with liturgy based on the Book of Common Prayer). She was patron of the Welsh Manuscripts Society and of Llandovery College. She acquired the manuscripts of Edward Williams (lolo Morganwg), which her grandson, Sir Ivor Caradoc Herbert, Baron Treowen (1917) presented to the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. Lady Llanover survived her husband by over twenty-eight years and died on 17th January 1896. © 2003 - Peter M Davies, Glamorgan Lodge No. 36 References:   'History of Parliament, The House of Commons' 1754-1790 Volume II - Members Secker & Warburg for H.M.S.O., 1986;  'The Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940', Published under the auspices of the Honourable Society of Cyimmodorion, London 1959;  'History of the Indefatigable Lodge No. 237' William Henry Jones, 1923.