Diana Noel

Diana Noel, 2nd Baroness Barham (18 September 1762 – 12 April 1823) was a peer, philanthropist and an abolitionist who established schools and churches on the Gower Peninsula.

Early life Born on 18 September 1762 at Barham Court, Teston in Kent, her parents were Margaret (née Gambier) and Charles Middleton, an admiral who was created Baron Barham, of Barham Court and Teston in the County of Kent in May 1805. They were Calvinist Methodists, whose friends included religious writer and philanthropist Hannah More, cleric George Whitefield, and politician and abolitionist William Wilberforce.

Marriage She was married on 21 December 1780 to Gerard Edwardes, who was a Cambridge-educated banker and member of Parliament. In 1798, he inherited the estates of his uncle, Henry Noel, 6th Earl of Gainsborough, and changed his surname to Noel. That year, having found her husband to be a "profligate and eccentric husband", she moved to Fairy Hill, Gower, and began funding the construction of free schools as well as four Independent and two Calvinist Methodist churches. She was also an abolitionist and was friends with Samuel Johnson. and photographs related to her life are held at the Chipping Campden History Society.