John Philipps ca.1666-1737
Sir John PHILIPPS 4th Bart. ca.1666-1737
Biographical Note
John Philipps was the son and heir of Sir Erasmus Philipps, 3rd Baronet of Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire, and Catherine Darcy. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, and entered Lincoln's Inn in 1684. Rejecting a legal career, he became a Member of Parliament for Pembroke from 1695 – 1702 and for Haverfordwest from 1718 – 1722. In 1697, on the death of his father, he became 4th Baronet and, in the same year, married Mary, daughter of Anthony Smith, and they had six children.
Sir John had strong religious convictions, and became a generous philanthropist in his own county as a founder of 22 charity schools. The thrust of his mission was to provide a strict Anglican education to children and adults alike, partly achieved through the distribution of published doctrinal material. He was a founder member of The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and remained an active correspondent and agent throughout his life. He was also a member of the Society for Reformation of Manners through which he advocated many moralistic reforms. As an MP he supported the Blasphemy Act of 1698, as well as attempting to legislate against playhouses and duelling. His will demonstrates huge wealth from his estates in Pembrokeshire, and includes many generous bequests to charitable causes. He was a friend and patron of Griffiths Jones himself an educational and religious reformer who founded the successful Welsh circulating schools.
Books
Sir John Philipps believed that the printed word was the key to religious reform. His extensive correspondence in the National Library of Wales archive indicates his relentless activities in publishing and distributing a wide variety of religious works and supporting the founding of the Cowbridge Diocesan Library. In his will, he specified "no sermon at my funeral but that a good number of small partiall goode books that will be found in my closett or elsewhere in the house be distributed to and amongst such persons as shall be present thereat …". Not surprisingly, he amassed a large library at Picton Castle. There is an extant list of titles drawn up as part of the inventory following the death of his son Erasmus Philipps, 5th Baronet, who died in an accident in 1743, only 6 years after his father's death. The 34-page list, arranged by size as was conventional at this time, comprises around 740 volumes, with the assessor's values totalling £139.18.02. Weighted on the side of religious material, the titles nevertheless reflect the contents of a typical gentry library, including many foreign works. There are also a significant number of titles of very low value (less than 6d), many unbound. Picton Castle remained in family ownership until the twentieth century, and there is still a library there which may contain some of these volumes.
Sources
- National Library of Wales, Picton Castle Estate Records 1740-43. Catalogues and valuation of books prints and maps belonging to Sir Erasmus Philipps, bart, 1744.
- Clement, M. ed. Correspondence and minutes of the S.P.C.K. relating to Wales 1699 – 1740. Cardiff: University of Wales Press,1952.
- Ellis, Mary Gwendoline "PHILIPPS, Sir JOHN (1666? - 1737), of Picton Castle, Pembrokeshire, religious, educational, and social reformer." Dictionary of Welsh Biography.
- Hayton, D. W. "Philipps, Sir John, fourth baronet (c. 1666–1737), politician and evangelical patron." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.