THE 5 DAFYDD LLWYDS OF LLANWRIN PARISH
By Darrell Wolcott
Llanwrin Parish in Cyfeiliog
was the location of the present town of Machynlleth. All the lands which Einion ap Seisyll had held in Meirionydd, and
which he transferred to Cyfeiliog during the reign of south Powys king, Owain Cyfeiliog [1], were located in this parish.
At his death in the last quarter of the 12th century, Einion's lands were divided between his sons, Gronwy and Seisyll.
We do not know when the
home which Gronwy built was first called "Mathafarn", but his residence was located at the confluence of the Dyfy and
Ceirig Rivers. [2] Across the Ceirig, and a bit upstream, Seisyll erected his manor house which, at some unknown time,
was named "Aberffrydlan" meaning "up from the mouth of the stream". That these two families remained close over the
next 3 centuries can be seen in the child-naming pattern which began the moment their father, Einion, gave a son his own father's
name. Before the tradition ended with the adoption of surnames early in the 16th century, they produced a string of
12 same-named men, each 2 generations apart, as the younger branch duplicated the sequence of male birth names first used
by the senior branch. A chart of the two families looks like this:
1080 Seisyll ap Ednowain
l
1110 Einion
_________________l__________________
l
l
1145 Gronwy (a)
1145 Seisyll
l l
1175 Tudor (b) 1175 Einion
l
l
1210 Llewelyn (c) 1210
Gronwy
l
l
1240 Ieuan Llwyd
1240 Tudor (d)
l
l
1275 Gruffudd (e) 1270
Llewelyn (f)
l
l
1305 Llewelyn (g)
1305 Ieuan Llwyd (h)
l
l
1335 Dafydd Llwyd (j) 1340
Gruffudd (k)
l
l
1370 Ieuan
1370 Llewelyn (m)
l
l
1400 Huw
1405 Dafydd Llwyd (n)
l
l
1430 Dafydd Llwyd, the bard (p)
1440 Ieuan (q)
l
l
1460 Ieuan (r)
1470 Huw (s)
l
l
1490 Huw 1505
Dafydd Llwyd
l
1525 Dafydd Llwyd
MATHAFARN FAMILY
ABERFFRYDLAN FAMILY
The
notes in our chart refer to evidence for our dating estimates; the actual notes are relegated to APPENDIX
I so not to interrupt our discussion of the families
In the Mathafarn family on the left in our chart, there were 3 men named Dafydd Llwyd, the earliest being Dafydd Llwyd ap
Llewelyn ap Gruffudd, and two more named Dafydd Llwyd ap Huw ap Ieuan, each of the latter being the great-grandson of the
previous Dafydd Llwyd. In the Aberffrydlan family, there was a Dafydd Llwyd ap Llewelyn ap Gruffudd and his great-grandson, Dafydd
Llwyd ap Huw ap Ieuan. As one could easily predict, the two families were conflated in all the pedigrees drawn
up by the 16th century antiquarians, and this conflation was continued by Peter Bartrum when he published his family charts
in the 20th century [3].
Bartrum's charts actually depict
the Aberffrydlan family (and his dating is of that family), which is then given a sprinkling of wives and children which belong
to the Mathafarn family. One can see the problem Bartrum was having when he correctly dated his c. 1400 Dafydd Llwyd,
but then identified him as the Bard of Mathafarn who, according to his estimate [4] lived from c. 1420-1500. Our own
dating analysis of his wife and daughter yields a birthdate for him closer to 1430.
Without question, the biggest
misinformation which resulted from the pedigree conflation, with respect to the bard, is calling him a son of Llewelyn ap
Gruffudd. There WAS a Dafydd Llwyd ap Llewelyn ap Gruffudd in the ancestry of the bard, but he was the bard's great-grandfather. The
bard himself was the son of Huw ap Ieuan ap Dafydd Llwyd ap Llewelyn ap Gruffudd.
Early in the 1500's, some members
of both families adopted the surname "Pugh", an elided "ap Huw". It was, however, not the same Huw from whom the families
took that surname. Nor was the final Dafydd Llwyd in either family the progenitor of the subsequent Pugh families.
In the Aberffrydlan family, it appears that a brother named Humphrey was the first (and perhaps only) sibling to call himself
Pugh. The eldest of his siblings was John, who was styled simply John ap Huw in early pedigrees:
1470 Huw ap Ieuan of Aberffrydlan
_______________l__________________________
l
l l
l l
John Maredudd
Richard Humphrey Dafydd Llwyd
Pugh
(These siblings were born c. 1500/1510)
In the Mathafarn family,
Rowland was the first (and perhaps only) sibling to call himself Pugh. We are unsure which of these siblings was the eldest:
1490 Huw ap Ieuan of Mathafarn
______________l___________________
l l
l
l
John Rowland Pugh Richard Dafydd Llwyd
(These siblings were born 1520/1530. We believe they had a base half-brother
named Lewys, who became a Vicar [5])
Virtually all modern sources
claim that the above Rowland Pugh was a son of the John ap Huw in the Aberffrydlan family, who many pedigrees incorrectly
label "of Mathafarn", a man born c. 1500. We think there WAS a Rowland, son of the the Mathafarn John ap Huw, born
c. 1555, but that it was his uncle Rowland with whom the Pugh of Mathafarn pedigree continues:
1520 Rowland Pugh,
married Elen dau, of Nicholas Pursel; MP 1572, 1588
l
1550
Richard Pugh, married Gaynor f. Rhys ap Thomas
l
1580 Rowland Pugh,
married Elisabeth dau. Sir Richard Price; obit 1644
l
1615
John Pugh, married Anna Mostyn; lv 1644
l
1645 William Pugh, married
Margaret dau. John Lloyd; lv 1711
l
1675 John Pugh,
barrister, MP 1711
It is possible that a misreading of a citation found in Peniarth Ms 128, page 832a led to the belief that the first Rowland
Pugh was a son of John ap Huw. At the bottom of that page are 3 statements, one beneath the other, which say:
"graig John ap Huw,
Catryn dau Richard Herbert"
"graig Roland ap Huw, dau
Pursel"
"graig Richard ap
Roland, Gaynor Rhys Tomas"
"Graig" is Welsh for "wife
of". If you choose to read these as father, son and grandson, you would justify that reading by claiming the citation
had simply omitted "ap John" from the second line. We believe the subsequent family timeline requires the citation to
be read as written. The last two names ARE father and son, but the first name is not even a member of the Mathafarn
family. Catryn was born c. 1500, a generation too early to have married the John ap Huw of the Mathafarn family.
We match her with the c. 1500 John ap Huw of the Aberffrydlan family.
Of the 5 men named Dafydd Llwyd
which we have identified in this paper, there is only one about whom we know anything of his life. Called by historians
"the Bard of Mathafarn", he was born c. 1430 in the senior line descended from the first Einion ap Seisyll. He was a
major landowner and had considerable wealth. In today's money, his net worth would be measured in the tens
of millions of U.S. dollars. [6] He wrote poetry, usually of the "heroic" type, as a hobby and was never a "bard" by profession.
Lewys Dwnn called him "Esquire to the Body of King Henry VII". [7] If such a title was ever used in his lifetime,
it was merely honorary in nature. Dafydd Llwyd was well past middle-aged when he met the future king, and probably was
in or near his final decade of life.
If any readers of this paper
are not familiar with the only known instance when Dafydd Llwyd met Henry Tudor, it occurred in 1485 shortly before the Battle
of Bosworth. The future king was en route to England to challenge King Richard III for the crown of England. That
king, and his army, were even then marching west to confront the challenger. From his place in exile in Brittany, Henry
Tudor had recently sailed to Wales, landing in Mill Bay at Milford Haven, a natural port on the southeast coast of Dyfed.
As his entourage made its way across Wales toward England, Henry rested for the night at Mathafarn as the guest of Dafydd
Llwyd, one of his many wealthy supporters.
According to oral tradition,
Henry Tudor asked Dafydd Llwyd to forecast his chances of success and to make that forecast the subject of an heroic poem
of the type for which he was noted. As the host retired for the night, he expressed his alarm to his wife about what
might happen if his forecast turned out to be wrong. His wife wisely counselled him to go ahead and predict Henry's
glorious victory over Richard III, saying "if you are right, the new king will honor you greatly. If you are wrong, Henry
will not be alive to express any disfavor with you." He took his wife's advice and the resulting poem is one of his
most-cited works.
NOTES:
[1] See the paper "The Floruit of Einion ap Seisyll" at the link below:
[2] Montgomeryshire Collections, vol 87. page 55
[3] Peter Bartrum "Welsh Genealogies AD300-1400", Charts Seisyll 1, 2 and
3
[4] He took this estimate from "The Dictionary of Welsh Biography" page
102
[5] The base son is cited in Dwnn i, 296 and 318, both of which conflate
the two families. Pen. 138. 832a, in its opening pedigree, names the sons and daughters of Huw ap Ieuan of Aberffrydlan
but does not include a "Lewys". We suggest he was probably a base son of Huw ap Ieuan of Mathafarn
[6] The manor house at Mathafarn alone was sold in 1752 for 33,400 pounds
sterling, an era when 1,000 pounds sterling was about $235,000 in today's US dollars
[7] Dwnn i. 296
APPENDIX I - Dating Notes for Family Chart
Following are the notes to the first chart
presented in the text of this paper:
(a) Gronwy (1145): Dwnn i, 299 cites his marriage to Meddefys (1160)
ferch Owain Cyfeiliog (1125) ap Gruffudd (1095) ap Maredudd (1065) ap Bleddyn (1025) ap Cynfyn
(b) Tudor (1175): Dwnn i, 306 cites his marriage to Gwerfyl (1185) ferch
Maredudd (1150) ap Uchdryd (1120). This was Uchdryd, son of Madog Penllyn (1085) ap Uchdryd (1055) ap Edwin of Tegeingl
(c) Llewelyn (1210): He had a sister, Morfydd (1210), who is cited by Harl
1977, 67 as married to Llywarch (1210) ap Heilyn Gloff (1180) ap Tyfid (1145) ap Tangno (1115) ap Ystrwyth (1080) ap Marchwystl
(1050) ap Marchweithian (1015) of Rhufoniog
(d) Tudor (1240): He had a sister, Elen (1245), who is cited by Dwnn i, 39 as
married to Llewelyn (1230) ap Tudor (1195) ap Ednowain (1155), but Pen 135, 377 says Llewelyn (1230) ap Tudor (1195) was a
son of Gwyn (1160) ap Bradwen (1125). That Gwyn was a brother of Ednowain (1155) ap Bradwen
(e) Gruffudd (1275): He had a daughter, Sioned (1310), who is cited by
Dwnn i, 309 as married to Ieuan (1300)
ap Madog (1270) ap Owain (1240) which Owain was a son of Meurig (1210) ap Pasgen III (1180) ap Gwyn III (1150) of the First
Powys Royal Dynasty
(f) Llewelyn (1270): Dwnn i, 295 cites his marriage to Gwenllian (1275)
ferch Llewelyn (1245) ap Hywel (1210) ap Madog (1180) ap Gruffudd (1145) ap Gronwy (1115) ap Gwrgeneu (1085) ap Hoedliw (1055)
ap Cadwgan (1020) ap Elystan Glodrydd
(g) Llewelyn (1305): He had a daughter, Lleuci (1340), who Dwnn i, 31 cites
as married to Llewelyn Fychan (1335) ap Llewelyn Goch (1305) ap Llewelyn Caplan (1275) of Anhuniog in Ceredigion
(h) Ieuan Llwyd (1305): Dwnn i, 296 cites his marriage to Mabli (1320)
ferch Philip Fongam (1290) ap Maredudd Benwen (1260) descended from Matthew Hen ap Brochwel III of the First Powys Royal Dynasty
(j) Dafydd Llwyd (1335): He was the great-grandfather of his namesake,
Dafydd Llwyd the bard, and was the only Mathafarn Dafydd Llwyd whose father was named Llewelyn ap Gruffudd
(k) Gruffudd (1340): Dwnn i, 296 cites his marriage to Arddun (1355) ferch
Ieuan (1320) ap Madog (1285) ap Gwenwys (1250) ap Gruffudd IV (1215) ap Beli IV (1180)
of the First Powys Royal Dynasty
(m) Llewelyn (1370): Dwnn i, 296 cites his marriage to Goleubryd (1370) ferch
Madog (1335) ap Gwilym (1300) ap Iorwerth Llwyd (1265) ap Rhiwallon Fychan (1235) ap Rhiwallon Llwyd (1205) descended from
Morgan Hir of Gwent
(n) Dafydd Llwyd (1405): He had an unnamed daughter (1440) cited by Cardiff
2.36, 149/150 as married to Dafydd (1425) ap Hywel (1390) ap Owain (1350) ap Gruffudd (1315) ap Ieuan (1280) ap Meilyr (1245)
descended from Hoedliw ap Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd
(p) Dafydd Llwyd (1430): He was the noted bard of Mathafarn; Dwnn i, 296
cites his marriage to Marged (1445) ferch Gwilym (1410) ap Llewelyn Fychan (1375) ap Llewelyn (1345) ap Ieuan Fychan (1310)
ap Ieuan (1280) ap Rhys (1250) ap Llowdden (1215) descended from Tudwal Gloff
(q) Ieuan (1440): Pen 128, 832a cites one of his wives as Elisabeth (1450)
ferch Jenkin (1420) ap Iorwerth (1385) ap Einion (1355) ap Gruffudd (1325) ap Llewelyn (1295) ap Cynwrig (1265) ap Osbwrn
Wyddel (1237)
(r) Ieuan (1460): He had a sister, Marged (1465), who is cited by Dwnn
i, 111 as married to Roger Walcot (1455) son of John Walcot (1425) son of Sir Philip Walcot (1390) descended from Cynddelw
Gam
(s) Huw (1470): Dwnn i, 319 cites his marriage to Mary (1485) ferch Hywel
Fychan (1455) ap Hywel (1425) ap Gruffudd (1390) ap Jenkin (1360) ap Llewelyn (1330) ap Einion (1300) ap Celynin of Llwydiarth
APPENDIX II - Pedigree of the Pugh Family of Aberffrydlan
1440
Ieuan of Aberffrydlan
l
1470
Huw
l
1st wife(a) ==========Humphrey===========2nd
wife
_________l____________ Pugh 1505 l
l
l
l
1535 Humphrey (b) 1533 Thomas Pugh (c) 1545
John (d)
l
1565 Humphrey Pugh
l
1600 Thomas Pugh (e)
l
1630 Humphrey Pugh (f)
l
1662 Elisabeth Pugh (g)
(source:
Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol VIII, pp 49/50, with revisions)
(a) The pedigree conflates her husband and her
son, and mentions only the name of the wife of the younger Hunphrey
(b) He married Jane ferch Ieuan ap Morys ap Dafydd of unknown ancestry.
Their marriage covenants were dated 1553, but the date of the actual marriage is unknown
(c) He married Catryn, daughter of Oliver Herbert of Machynlleth
(d) He married Catryn, daughter of Edward Price of Meirionydd
(e) He married, first, in 1626, Jane daughter of Ellis Vaughan of Meirionydd;
and secondly, in 1633, Elisabeth ferch Maredudd ap Rhys of Darowen
(f) He married, in 1660, Lowri daughter of Derwas Griffithes of Cemmaes.
Humphrey died in 1669 and his widow was yet alive in 1698
(g) She was the heiress of Aberffrydlan, the eldest of 4 daughters.
She married Richard Owen of Peniarth and died in 1738. Her only son, Lewis Owen, inherited Aberffrydlan
APPENDIX III - Some Marriages Between the Two Families:
ABERFFRYDLAN
FAMILY MATHAFARN
FAMILY
1470 Huw ap Ieuan
1460 Ieuan
___________l___________
l
l
l l
1505 Dafydd Llwyd
1505 Humphrey 1490 Huw
l
l _______l______
l
l l
l 1525
1535 John
l Richard 1525 John
l
l l
l
1565 Owain
1545 John=====Elen 1555 Francis 1555
l
l
1600 Elisabeth==============================John 1590
The marriage between Elisabeth ferch
Owain and John ap Francis is cited in Dwnn i, 296; the marriage between John ap Humphrey and Elen ferch Richard
is cited in Montgomeryshire Collections, Vol VIII, page 49
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