COWRYD AP CADFAN OF DYFFRYN CLWYD
By Darrell Wolcott
Identified
as the patriarch of the Lloyds of Bryn Lluarth[1] in Ceinmeirch and the Parrys of Tref Rhuddin[2], the pedigrees point to
a birthdate near 1175 for Cowryd ap Cadfan. His ancestry, however, is unclear and Peter Bartrum simply begins a
family with him in his epic work Welsh Genealogies 300-1400. In the earliest manuscript which names him[3] he is cited
as "Kowryd ap Kadvan ap Alaoc wr ap Idic ap Kadell deyrnlluc" under the title "Gwehelyth Dyffryn Clwyd".
Bartrum dates
that family to the 6th century by assuming the "Alaoc wr" is identical to the "Alauc" mentioned in Vita Sancte Wenefrede[4]
where a "Karadauc filius Alauc" is said to have beheaded St Wenefred, a man described as "sprung of royal stock". (The
lady was saved by a miracle performed by St Beuno; obviously she was not killed but perhaps assaulted.) We would reject
that identification since a "Karadauc ap Alauc" who was a great-grandson of Cadell Ddeyrnllwg would occur near 480 and be
too old to harass St Wenefrede even if he were still alive when she was young.[5] We would, however, delete the "ap
Cadell deyrnlluc" from the citation on the grounds its author likely tried to make the same connection as Bartrum did.
Most of the later family pedigrees repeat the claim that Cowryd ap Cadfan was descended from Cadell even though they cite
his arms as "argent 3 boar's heads couped sable" while descendants of Cadell bear "sable 3 nag's heads erased argent".
Actually, the arms of Cowryd appear in some sources with a chevron between the boar's heads with the added description "armed
and langued gules" or "cut flesh and armed gules". At least one source omits the added description but retains the "gules",
making it the second color rather than sable.[6]
If those arms
seem familiar, compare them to that assigned to Ednowain Bendew of Tegeingl: "argent a chevron between 3 boar's heads couped
sable". Variation of his arms sometimes include both "armed gules" and "cut flesh gules".[7] Could Cowryd ap Cadfan
actually be a direct descendant of Ednowain Bendew?
As we are
wont to do when a man's ancestry is unclear, let us examine the lands held by his family together with the likely ways they
were acquired. In the mid-eleventh century, we are told that Gwenllian ferch Rhys ap Marchen was the heiress of 7
townships in "Ruthin Land" and carried her father's lands to her son, Eunydd ap Morien. This Eunydd also apparently inherited
certain tracts of land in Tegeingl from his father. His son, Heilyn, appears to have left two sons: Eunydd and
Iorwerth. Eunydd ap Heilyn[8] obtained additional lands in
Trefalun and Gresford and divided both those and the tracts in Tegeingl with his sons, Ithel and Heilyn. Iorwerth
ap Heilyn apparently received some of the Ruthin land formerly owned by his great-grandmother. The only known child
of that Iorwerth was Iorwerth Saethmarchog who occurs as a witness to several land grants between 1176 and 1198.[9]
The latter man may have died without issue as none are recorded for him[10]. If we posit a sister for him, a daughter
of Iorwerth ap Heilyn, she would occur at the right time to have married Cadfan whose son Cowryd is found holding land in the
lower Clwyd valley and the commote of Ceinmeirch in the early 13th century. A chart will illustrate the timeline
for our suggestion:
1025 Gwenllian, heiress of "Ruthin lands"
l
1045 Eunydd
l
1075 Heilyn
_______________l________
l
l
1105 Eunydd
1110 Iorwerth
(Trefalun & Gresford _________l_______
l
l
1145 Iorwerth 1150 Daughter==Cadfan
Saithmarchog*
l 1140
d.s.p.
1175 Cowryd
l
1205 Heilyn
l
1235 Iorwerth
l
1265 Iorwerth
Saithmarchog**
*Cited in Peniarth
Ms 276, pp 181 and Harleian Ms 1972, pp 78
**Cited in Peniarth Ms 176, pp 100
and Peniarth Ms 139, pp 155. The family which descended from him is incorrectly appended to the family of Eunydd in
Bartrum's Welsh Genealogies. These same sources say his son Ieuan (born c. 1295) married a granddaughter of
Madog Hyddgam ap Madog ap Cadwgan ap Madog ap Cadwgan of Nannau; that lady, Dyddgu ferch Madog ap Madog Hyddgam
was born c. 1305.
With this possible
explanation of how Cowryd acquired his lands in the lower Clwyd valley, we now turn to the question of why he was assigned
arms which appear exceedingly similar, perhaps identical, to those of Ednowain Bendew. Another look at his earliest
pedigree, when the incorrect attachment to Cadell Ddyrnllwg is removed, says his father was "Cadfan ap Aluog ap Iddig".
A number of later family pedigrees replace "Aluog" with "Gwaelawg", on what authority is unknown, but the two names are phonetically
similiar and are clearly variant spellings of a single name. The earliest name in the list, that of Iddig, would occur
c. 1080 or exactly when we would expect a grandson of Ednowain Bendew to be born.
The earliest
pedigrees of Ednowain Bendew[11] cite only two sons, Robert and Bleddri, and both appear to be mentioned not for their own
sake but to show important marriages made by daughters of each man. Either of those men might have been the father of
Iddig[12] but judging from the husbands cited for their daughters, Bleddri may have been born c. 1050 and Robert c. 1055.
Opting for the elder of them, we propose the following chart in which a rather obscure resident of Tegeingl might have married
a nearby heiress and produced Cowryd ap Cadfan of Dyffryn Clwyd and Ceinmeirch:
1020 Ednowain Bendew
l
1050 Bleddri
Eunydd 1045
l
l
1080 Iddig Heilyn
1075
l
l
1110 Aluog Iorwerth
1110
l
l
1140 Cadfan======daughter 1150
l
1175 Cowryd
