Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890) was a Welsh landowner, industrialist and Liberal politician. He developed his estate at Margam near Swansea as an extensive ironworks, served by railways and a port, which was renamed Port Talbot.
1803 Born the son of Thomas Mansel Talbot, and Lady Mary Lucy, the daughter of Henry Fox-Strangways, 2nd Earl of Ilchester
1834 As a Member of Parliament he introduced a Bill to improve the old harbour at Aberavon
1835 Married Lady Charlotte Butler, daughter of Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Glengall, at Cahir House, County Tipperary
1836 A further Bill provided for the harbour's expansion and a change of name to Port Talbot in his honour. He also encouraged the development of Swansea docks, and pioneered the introduction of railways to south Wales, being chairman and a shareholder in the South Wales Railwayy, which was acquired by the Great Western Railway in 1863, with Talbot joining the board of the GWR.
Talbot also invested in the area's extractive and metal production industries. The Port Talbot ironworks opened in early 1831, part of the industrialisation then taking place across south Wales; copper had been smelted at nearby Neath since 1584, and there were tinworks and ironworks at Pontardawe.
Talbot encouraged his relations William Fox Talbot and John Talbot Dillwyn Llewellyn in the development of photography and was himself a Fellow of the Royal Society.
1876 Death of his son Theodore
On his death the estate passed to his daughter Emily Charlotte Talbot