The origins of his familial wealth resulted in the discovery of a rich businessman who had adopted his great-grandfather after his father died in an Trap (carriage) accident and his mother died of syphilis and was classed a lunatic. Their great grandfather not a Whitehalls but Thomas Jones Phillips was an anti-democratic Conservative Party members determined to squash working-class rights of the welsh. His ancestor was part of a Conservative movement that prevent the working classes leader John Frost (Chartist) from earning the right to vote and helped bring down the local hero, who spread democracy through early Victorian Wales. While he read the Riot Act from the Westgate Inn, Phillips was shot but not killed. In retaliation they fired on the crowd killing 20 plus people. Phillips helped in the arrest of John Frost and gave evidence at his subsequent trial in Monmouth resulting in him being sentenced to death but latter transportation for life to Australia.