St Donat's Castle - Ownership

Ownership

The earliest surviving parts of the castle (the keep and what is now the inner curtain wall) were built in the late 12th century by the de Hawey family. Ownership passed to the Stradling family in 1298 through the marriage of Sir Peter Stradling to Joan de Hawey. The Stradlings built the outer gatehouse and curtain wall around 1300; they enlarged the keep and inner gatehouse and modified the inner curtain wall at the same time, and built the inner court around 200 years later.

The Stradling family (which included a notable recusant, a well-known antiquary and a Latin poet) owned St Donat's Castle until the death of Sir Thomas Stradling in 1738, when ownership of the castle passed to Sir John Tyrwhitt. Archbishop James Ussher resided there for a time during the Civil War.

Thereafter, the castle fell into a state of disrepair. Partial restoration was started by Dr John Whitlock Nicholl Carne, who claimed to be descended from the Stradlings, and had bought the castle from the Tyrwhitt-Drake family in 1862. Morgan Williams, the owner from 1901 to 1909, carried out extensive and careful restoration. Godfrey Williams, Morgan's son, sold the castle to Richard Pennoyer, an American, in 1922.

After seeing photographs of the castle in Country Life magazine, the newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst bought it in 1925. Hearst spent a fortune renovating and revitalising the castle, bringing electricity not only to his residence but also to the surrounding area. The locals enjoyed having Hearst in residence at the castle; he paid his employees very well, and his arrivals always created a big stir in a community not used to American excesses. Hearst spent much of his time entertaining influential people at his estates. He is renowned for holding lavish parties at St Donat's; guests included Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and a young John F. Kennedy. Upon visiting St Donat's, George Bernard Shaw was quoted as saying: "This is what God would have built if he had had the money."

Hearst's newspaper empire fell on hard times in the later 1930s; the castle was put up for sale but requisitioned for use by British and American troops during the war. Hearst died in 1951 and the castle was bought in 1962 by Monsieur Antonin Besse II (1927 - ), son of the late Sir Antonin Besse (1877–1951), and given to the Governing Body of Atlantic College. Monsieur Antonin Besse II is a Patron and Honorary Vice President of the United World Colleges.