Sir John Edwards, 1st Baronet (15 January 1770 – 15 April 1850),[1] was a Whig politician who served as Member of Parliament for Montgomery from 8 April 1833 to 23 June 1841. The Edwards Baronetcy, of Garth in the County of Montgomery, was created for him in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom on 23 July 1838. Since he had no male heirs, the estate passed to his daughter Mary Cornelia Edwards (c.1829-1906) and the title became extinct on his death.
In 1808 he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the Western Montgomeryshire Local Militia.[2]
On 3 August 1846 Mary Cornelia Edwards married George Vane-Tempest, Viscount Seaham, later to become Earl Vane and the 5th Marquess of Londonderry. After her father's death, they used Plas Machynlleth as their family seat.
Sir John Edwards' father was John Edwards (d.1789), a solicitor of Plas Machynlleth (also known as 'Greenfields'), Montgomeryshire. The senior Edwards acquired the Garth estate by his marriage to his third wife, Cornelia Owen, only child and heiress of Richard Owen and his wife. The estate included the profitable Van lead mines. Sir John Edwards added to the mansion, and expanded the estate by purchase of parts of the Peniarth Estate along the Dyfi Valley.