Sir Stephen Glynne, 9th Baronet

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Sir Stephen Richard Glynne, 9th Baronet (1807–1874), was a Welsh landowner and Conservative politician who is best remembered as a devoted student of church architecture. He inherited Hawarden Castle in Flintshire when he was seven after his father’s death, and he grew up at Hawarden. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, but preferred study to public life.

Glynne served as Member of Parliament for Flint Boroughs (1832–1837) and for Flintshire (1837–1841, 1842–1847). He was High Sheriff of Flintshire in 1831 and Lord Lieutenant of Flintshire from 1845 to 1871. Although he began as a Whig, he later sat as a Conservative and never spoke in Parliament because he was extremely shy. In 1841 he sued the Chester Chronicle for libel after it accused him of homosexuality; the paper apologized.

Through his sister Catherine’s marriage to William Ewart Gladstone, and with help from Gladstone’s father, he avoided bankruptcy after a failed business near Stourbridge. Hawarden Castle and part of the estate were kept in the family, shared for a time with Gladstone and Catherine.

Glynne’s real passion was antiquarian study, especially of church architecture. He helped lead several scholarly societies: he was a founder and long-time officer of the Ecclesiological Society, the first President of the Cambrian Archaeological Association, and chairman of the Architectural Section of the Archaeological Institute. He visited thousands of churches across Britain and Ireland, making detailed notes about their architecture and fittings. His notes, written from 1824 until his death, are highly valued by historians because they record churches before many Victorian restorations.

He died in 1874 after visiting churches near Bishopsgate, London, and was buried at St Deiniol’s Church in Hawarden. He never married, so the baronetcy ended with him. His church notes were published after his death and are kept at Gladstone’s Library and the Flintshire Record Office.