Ffeil NLW MS 1564C - Extracts and letters

The Salusbury family were established at Lleweni in the Vale of Clwyd before 1334. Thomas Salusbury killed at the battle of Barnet in 1471 was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Thomas Salusbury (d. 1505) who fought at the battle of Blackheath in 1497 and was knighted by Henry VII, the first of many honours and officers which the family earned by their loyalty to the Tudor dynasty.

Sir John Salusbury's eldest son and heir, another John Salusbury (d. 1566), predeceased him by twelve years. He was the first husband of Catherine, only daughter and heiress of Tudur ap Robert of Berain in the parish of Llanefydd, Denbighshire. John's eldest son, Thomas Salusbury was executed for treason in 1586. John's heir was therefore his second son, John Salusbury (1567-1612). John left Lleweni to his son, Henry (1589-1632 who was created a baronet in 1619. The estate then descended in the male line until John Salusbury (d. 1684), the 4th and last baronet, who died without issue.

The estate passed to his sister, Hester (d. 1710), wife of Sir Robert Cotton of Combermere. Their great-great-grandson, Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton sold Lleweni to Thomas Fitzmaurice, brother of the 1st Marquess of Landsdowne in 1748.

Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Bertie (1812-1895) was born at Uffington House, Lincolnshire, on 19 May 1812, the daughter of Albermarle Bertie, 9th earl of Lindsey, and his wife Charlotte Susanna Elizabeth. In 1833 she married the Dowlais ironmaster Josiah John Guest (1785-1852), MP for Merthyr Tydfil. They had ten children. In 1846 the Guests purchased Canford Manor in Dorset.
Already an accomplished linguist, at Dowlais she studied Welsh and went on to translate into English the eleven Middle Welsh tales from the Red Book of Hergest collectively known (by her) as the Mabinogion. These were published in seven parts from 1838 to 1849 and collected as The Mabinogion, from the Llyfr Coch o Hergest, and other ancient Welsh Manuscripts…, 3 vols (London and Llandovery, 1849).
Following her husband's death in 1852 Lady Charlotte took on the running of the Dowlais ironworks, until April 1855 when she married her eldest son's tutor Charles Schreiber (1826-1884), a classicist and later a Tory MP. They spent much of their time travelling and collecting English and European china. She also collected fans and playing cards; in her last years, following Charles's death, she published five volumes describing and reproducing these collections.
Lady Charlotte Schreiber died 15 January 1895 at Canford Manor and was buried at Canford Church.