Gwydir Family

THE HISTORY OF THE GWYDIR FAMILY, WRITTEN BY SIR JOHN WYNNE, KNT. AND BART., UT CREDITUR, & PATET. OSWESTRY: \VOODJ\LL i\KD VENABLES, OS\VALD ROAD. 1878. WOODALL AND VENABLES, PRINTERS, BAILEY-HEAD AND OSWALD-ROAD. OSWESTRY. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CLEMENTINA ELIZABETH, {!N HER OWN lHGHT) BARONESS WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY, THE REPRESENTATIVE OF 'l'HE OLD GWYDIR STOCK AND THE OWNER OF THE ESTATE; THE FOURTEENTH WHO HAS BORNE THAT ANCIENT BARONY: THIS EDITION OF THE HISTORY OF THE GWYDIR FAMILY IS, BY PERMISSION, RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THE PUBLISHERS. OSWALD ROAD, OSWESTRY, 1878. PREFACE F all the works which have been written relating to the general or family history O of North Wales, none have been for centuries more esteemed than the History of the Gwydir Family. The Hon. Daines Barrington, in his preface to his first edition of the work, published in 1770, has well said, "The MS. hath, for above.a cent~ry, been so prized in North Wales, that many in those parts have thought it worth while to make fair and complete transcripts of it." Of these transcripts the earliest known to exist is one in the Library at Brogyntyn. It was probably written within 45 years of the death of the author; but besides that, it contains a great number of notes and additions of nearly the same date, which have never yet appeared in print. The History of the Gwydir Family has been thrice published. The first editiun, edited by the Hon. Daines Barrington, issued from the press in 1770. The second was published in Mr. Barrington's Miscellanies in 1781; the third, edited by Miss Angharad Llwyd, made its appearance in 1827. The History of the Gwydir Family is the only one that gives any account of the state of society in North Wales in the 15th, and in the earlier part of the 16th centuries, but unfortunately, it is lamentably deficient in dates. The present edition owes its existence to the long and painstaking labour of of W; W. E. Wynne, Esq., of Peniarth, who has collated his copy of Miss 1,lwyd's edition with the Brogyntyn, Wynnstay, and Peniarth MSS., adding a very large collection of dates, from contemporary records, including the Ministers' Accounts in the Public Record Office, in London. Mr. Wynne having very kindly placed his copy at my disposal, it has been my pleasant task during the last three or four months to superintend the issue of the present edition through the press, and I have most heartily to thank the Rev. Canon Williams, of Rhydycroesau, for his advice and assistance, without which several errors would have passed uncorrected. The text followed in the present edition is that of Barrington's Miscellanies, published in 1781, and this has been carefully compared with the other editions, the variations being pointed out in the notes. The Memoirs from page go to the end are taken from Miss Llwyd's book. VJ PREFACE. In one of the copies of the Gwydir MS. at Mostyn, there is, at the head of it, in a later handwriting than the MS. itself, " A true coppy of a manuscript written by Sr Jon Wynne of Gwydir Knt and Barrt ut Creditur & patet. 1607." It also contains the Latin MS. of Bishop Robinson, mentioned in note 3, page 12 of this book. The same Mostyn MS. also ends the list of the children of Meredith ap J evan with those by his concubine, which appears as a note on page 87, taken from the Gwydir MS. at Wynnstay; A second written copy preserved at Mostyn has at its commencement the following :-" This book was transcribed from a coppy belonging to sr Morris Parry1 of Lian Elian Clerk in the year 1674, And afterwards compar'd with & corrected by two coppys, the one belonging to the Reverend. l)r. Hl!mph!'eys Dean of Ba!!gori the other found among the Evidences att Gweder, which last was in many places corrected & interlind, & much of it writt with the hand of sr John Wynn himself the Author. 1683. THOMAS MosTYN, of Gloddeath.'' The references to other editions, in the notes to the present one, are indicated on page II, The letter "W." is only affixed to a few of the more personal notes by Mr. Wynne; the bulk of those with no initial attached being also from his pen. The portrait of Sir John is reproduced by photo-lithography from an old engraving, the plate of which Miss Llwyd used for her edition of 1827. The portrait of Sir Richard, by Janson, is also copied by the same process from an engraving by Bartolozzi which has appeared in Pennant's Tours and else where. The view of Dolwyddelan Castle is reduced from an engraving published by Buck in 1742. The somewhat rude sketch of Gwydir House, with the arms of the family, is a copy of the one mentioned on page 6 as being on the border of a county map published about 1720. There is one of the original issues of this map at Wynnstay, but unfortunately the portion containing Gwydir is damaged, and the illustration given in this book has been very faithfully copied on stone by Miss M. W. Minshall from a photograph kindly lent me by W. Wynne Ffoulkes, Esq., of Chester. The still older picture on the title page, which represents Upper Gwydir as it was in 1684, when the Duke of Beaufort in his progress through Wales lodged there, is copied from the Beaufort Progress, and I am indebted for the use of it to Dr. Nicholas in whose Annals of County Families it appeared. The copy of the monument in Dolwyddelan cJrnrch illustrates a pleasant paper on that attractive district in the Archceologia Cambrensis, by the Rev. D. R. Thomas, to whom my thanks are due for the use of the engraving. ASKEW ROBERTS. Croeswylan, Oswestry. t He was rector of Llanelian from 1660 to 1683. 2 I suspect this to be the Wynnstay MS.-W. GWYDIR MEMORIALS. HE life of Sir John Wynn, the historian of the Gwydir Family, was so uneventful T.A. th:i.t bnt few records remain to form materials for a memoir. The chief incidents in his career may almost be summed up in a paragraph:-" His character has been held up as all that was worthy, and decried as everything that was crafty. He was Member of Parliament for the county of Carn.arvon in 1596, one of the Council of the Marches of Wales, and created a baronet in 16u. Being 'shrewd and successful in his dealings,' people were led to believe he oppressed them, and, says Yorke in his Royal Tribes of Wales, 'it is the superstition of Llanrwst to this day, that the spirit of the old gentleman lies under the great waterfall Rhaiadr y W ennol, there to be punished, purged, spouted upon, and purified from the foul deeds done in his days of nature.' It is recorded that in 1615, Sir John having incurred the displeasure of the Council of the Marches, Lord Ellesmere, the Chancellor, was appealed to, but, the 'shrewd' baronet made his peace in the surest manner, by paying a bribe of £350. He was a man, evidently, who tried to make the best of both worlds, for after squaring the court with his bribe,1 and managing to keep his name on the Commission for Carnarvonshire, he made his peace with heaven by founding a hospital, endowing a school at Llanrwst, and giving up sundry tithes to support these chari ties. Sir John bore one of the great standards at the funeral of Henry, Prince of Wales. He died in 1626-7, at the age of seventy-three." Mr. Barrington, in his introduction to the History of the Gwydir Family (see page 7) inserts the Jetter of Sir John to his kinsman, Sir Hugh Myddleton, respe::ting the reclamation of land, where Tremadoc now stands,2 and Mr. Halliwell, some years back, published "An Ancient Survey of Pen Maen Mawr," which is supposed to be from the pen of Sir John Wynn, and to which Bishop Gibson had access when 1 The following is the "bargain" struck between t11ral Survey of North Wales: - Honorable the parties :-M'cl. Yf Mr. Bernard Lyndesey Sir.-I have received your kind letter. Few are Esquier Groom to his Maties, Bedchamber pro the thinges done by me, for which I give God cure a pardon for Sir John Wynn Knight and the glory. It may please you to understand, Baronet and some of his servants of their fynes and my first undertaking of publick workes was in offences inflicted upon them by the Counsell of the my owne countrey, within less than a rnyle of Marches, upon the sealing of the said pardon he the place where I hadd my first beinge, 24 or is to receave from Richard Wynn Esquier sonne 25 years since, in seeking of coals for the towne and heire to the said Sir Jo: Wynn the somme of of Denbigh. Touching the drowned lands near three hundred and fiftye pounds. In witness of your lyvinge, there are rnanye things considerable this agreement between us we have both sette our therein. Iff to be gayned, which will hardlie be hands the sixteenth of January 1615. performed without great stones, which was Signed in the presence B. LYNDESEY, plentiful at the ·weight, as well as wood; and of me RICH. WYNN. greate sums of monye to be spent, not hundreds AMB, THELWALL, but thousandes-and first of all His Majesty's intereste must be got.

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