Father Stanton and Theodore Mansel Talbot

A carte-de-visite portrait of Father Stanton and Theodore Mansel Talbot (standing in the middle). The seated man is unidentified.

Theodore Mansel Talbot (1839-1876) was heir to an immense property and without occupation when he chanced to wander into St Columba’s Church in Kingsland Road one day in 1869 when Father Arthur Stanton (the Curate of St Alban’s in Holborn) was preaching. He thus found his life’s vocation. ‘He practically disappeared from society. When he was in London, his time was spent in the slums of Holborn, instead of the drawing-rooms of Belgravia and the Clubs of Pall Mall. […] Very soon he became Stanton’s most intimate friend, and most strenuous fellow-worker in the field of social religion. The two men were exactly the same age; and alike in the spheres of religion and of politics they were of one heart and one mind’ (Arthur Stanton: A Memoir, The Rt. Hon. George W.E. Russell, 1917).

Father Stanton was one of the leading proponents of Ritualism in the Anglican Church. Under his guidance, Talbot supervised the refurbishment of Margam Abbey (1872-73), which became a centre of Anglo-Catholicism and High Church practice.

Talbot’s father, Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot of Margam Park near Swansea in South Wales, was the Liberal MP for Glamorganshire from 1830 to 1890, and from 1874 was the Father of the House of Commons. He was also an industrialist and landowner. ‘His enormous property included the whole of the Rhonda Valley and, apart from his wealth in coal mines, he was reputed to be the largest owner of Great Western stock’ (Hull Daily Mail, 21 September 1918). He was also a cousin of William Henry Fox Talbot and a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Linnean Society.

Theodore Mansel Talbot ‘died of the effects of a hunting accident in 1876, and his eldest sister became heir to the family wealth’ (Ibid.). He was buried in the Talbot chapel in Margam Abbey, in a Neo-Gothic tomb with an ornate pseudo-Medieval canopy.

‘He was a reckless rider who loved fox-hunting. […] The cause of the accident was that Talbot urged his horse to jump a wall which was fairly low on the approaching side, but which had a deep descent on the other. Theodore Mansel Talbot died peacefully after receiving ministrations from his friend, Father Stanton’ (Neath Guardian, 27 August 1970).

‘Mr Talbot died in London, at the residence of his father, 3, Cavendish-square. The deceased gentleman was born on the 7th June, 1839; he was therefore 37 years of age on the 7th of this month. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his M.A. degree, he was subsequently made a magistrate for this county. He was exceedingly popular, and held several public offices. […] Of late years he took a very lively interest in Church matters, and superintended the restoration of the fine Abbey Church at Margam. He belonged to the Ritualistic or High Church party, and was Church-warden of the parish of Margam. In political opinions he was a Liberal, and was exceedingly tolerant in all matters both political and religious. His amiable disposition endeared him to all who enjoyed the pleasure of intercourse with him, and the news of his death caused the most profound sorrow amongst old and young, rich and poor’ (South Wales Daily News, 20 June 1876).

When his father died in 1890 he left an estate valued at £1,399,172. The main beneficiary was his elder daughter Emily Charlotte Talbot, who became one of the richest women in the country. Another daughter, Olive Talbot, founded an Anglican theological college in Aberdare in South Wales.

Photographed by James Munro of Frome, Somerset.