Family and Education

b. c.1608, 3rd s. of John Owen of Orielton by Dorothy, da. of Rowland Laugharne of St. Bride’s; bro. of Sir Hugh Owen, 1st Bt. educ. Hart Hall, Oxf. ?1623, BA 1626; L. Inn 1626, called 1633. m. Mary, da. of Sir John Philipps, 1st Bt., of Picton, wid. of John Scourfield of New Moat, 1s.2

Offices Held

J.p. Pemb. by 1634-?49, 1656-d., Anglesey by 1642-?49., commr. for militia, Pemb. 1642, Mar. 1660, association, S.W. Wales 1644, assessment, Pemb. 1647-8, Jan. 1660-d., Haverfordwest 1661-3, scandalous ministers, S. Wales 1654, accounts, propagation of the Gospel 1654; dep. lt. Pemb. c. Aug. 1660-73, commr. for loyal and indigent officers 1662.3

Maj. (parliamentary) 1643, ?col. by 1646.4

Biography

Unlike his elder brother, Owen was a consistent Parliamentarian during the first Civil War and fought under his cousin Rowland Laugharne in Pembrokeshire. He was elected as a recruiter for the county, but secluded at Pride’s Purge. He retained his seat at the general election of 1660, but took no known part in the Convention. A contemporary account describes him as ‘a second Titus, the delight of the gentry of Pembrokeshire, among rigid Presbyterians a Royalist and among the unlimited Royalists a Presbyterian; firm to his principles, zealous to justice, delighting in good offices, the credit and benefit of his country’.5

Owen was re-elected in 1661, and in June he undertook responsibility for the further appearance of James Philipps when the House directed. He was inactive in the Cavalier Parliament, being named to only 16 committees, including those for the better observation of the Lord’s Day in 1664 and for receiving information about the increase in Popery in 1666. On 8 Apr. 1668 he acted as teller for an unsuccessful motion for the better union of Protestants. A member of the country party, he was marked ‘doubly worthy’ by Shaftesbury in 1677. He was buried at Steynton on 8 Sept. 1678.6

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Authors: Leonard Naylor / Geoffrey Jaggar

Notes

• 1. Secluded at Pride’s Purge, 6 Dec. 1648.
• 2. J. R. Phillips, Owens of Orielton, 34; H. Owen, Old Pemb. Families, 108.
• 3. CSP Dom. 1641-3, p. 299; LJ, v. 304.
• 4. W. R. Williams, Parl. Rep. Wales, 155.
• 5. A. L. Leach, Civil War in Pemb. 89, 220-1; Nat. Lib. Wales Jnl. xi. 143.
• 6. CJ, ix. 372; information from Capt. C. H. H. Owen.