By Darrell Wolcott
Of
all the same-named men in early Wales, perhaps none have been so hopelessly confused as the man called "Cadwgan ap Bleddyn,
Lord of Nannau". That he was NOT the more familiar Cadwgan ap Bleddyn ap Cynfyn can be seen by the chronology.
That man was born c. 1055, one of the older sons of Bleddyn and who first occurs in the Brut in 1088. But the Cadwgan
who stands atop the Maesmawr and Nannau pedigrees
must have been born near 1015, and our conclusion after years of research is that he was neither "ap Bleddyn" nor "of
Nannau". But he probably did have a great-grandson whose name was Cadwgan ap Bleddyn and who did live in Nannau.
The beginnings of this family can best be seen by its Maesmawr branch[1]:
Elystan 990
l
1015 Cadwgan Cadwgan 1020
l ____l_____
l 1050
l l
1045 Madog* Idnerth Ieuaf 1055
l l
l
1075 Rhiwallon===Annes 1090 Hywel 1085
l
l
1110 Dolphyn=======Sian 1120
l
1140 Cynfelyn
l
1170 Einion
*According to the
Cae Cyriog Ms, his daughter, Marged, married Heilyn ap Eunydd of Dyffryn Clwyd a man who was born c. 1075
The Cynfelyn in
this chart witnessed the foundation charter of Strata Marcella Abbey in 1170 as "Chenvellin filio Dolfinin". If the
Cadwgan from whom he descended were a son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, this Cynfelyn would not have been born until 1175/80, while
the marriage matches cited for his father and grandfather confirm our date estimates. Contrast this branch of the family
with that in the "Nannau" pedigrees[2]:
1170
Cadwgan
l
1200
Madog
l
1230 Meurig
l
1255 Ynyr
l
1285
Ynyr Fychan
The Ynyr in this chart
sent a petition to King Edward I in 1295 asking to be named Raglot of Tal y Bont, the commote in which Nannau is located.
It was not granted, but clearly dates him to c. 1250/60. His son, Ynyr Fychan, was charged in 1322 with attacking the
castle at Ruthin and killing two men...consistent with him being born c. 1285/95. Furthermore, the cited wives of Meurig,
Ynyr and Ynyr Fychan are wholly consistent with our estimated dating.[3] The great-grandsons of Ynyr Fychan were Hywel
Sele[4] and Gruffudd Derwas, men clearly born c. 1375/1380. The Cadwgan at the top of this chart must have occurred c. 1170;
while the pedigrees would make Meurig ap Madog a brother of the Rhiwallon ap Madog from the first chart, that is
chronologically impossible.
The pedigrees
cite three different wives for Madog ap Cadwgan, ladies who could not possibly have been contemporaries:
1. Sian
ferch Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon of Maelor[5]. There were at least two men of that name in the Maelor family, the first a
grandson of Dyngad ap Tudor Trevor and the later Cynwrig who fathered Nynnio, Hoedliw and Ednyfed. A daughter of
the first Cynwrig would occur c. 1030 while a daughter of the later Cynwrig would occur about 1100. Neither lady could
have married the Madog ap Cadwgan in either of the two charts presented above.
2. Efa
ferch Einion ap Seisyllt of Mathafern[6]. This lady would occur c. 1145/50 and she also could not have married the
Madog ap Cadwgan of either chart.
3. Efa
ferch Madog ap Philip ap Uchdryd[7]. Our work shows this Uchdryd is likely the son of Madog Penllyn
ap Uchdryd ap Edwin. Such a lady would occur c. 1210 and probably married the Madog of c. 1200 who had the son,
Meurig.
We do
think each of the ladies cited married a Madog ap Cadwgan, but three different men of that name. The generations which
are missing from the second chart, we believe, include another occurrence of "Madog ap Cadwgan" plus a third man to whom we
trace the genealogical confusion: Bleddyn ap Madog, the brother of Rhiwallon. Our revised family chart looks like this:
1015 Cadwgan
l
1045 Madog
____________________l________________
l
l
1075 Rhiwallon
Bleddyn 1075
l
l
1110 Dolphyn
Cadwgan 1110
l
(same as first chart)
Madog 1140
l
Cadwgan 1170
l
Madog 1200
l
Meurig 1230
l
Ynyr 1255
l
Ynyr Fychan 1285
The Madog of c. 1140 is probably the one
who married Efa ferch Einion ap Seisyllt, she born c. 1150. And whatever Madog ap Cadwgan married a daughter of either
Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon of Maelor, it was probably not a man of this family. There may have even been a third such lady,
a daughter of Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon ap Gwyn (the first cousin of Trahaearn ap Caradog who shared rule in Gwynedd briefly but
was slain in 1075). Such a lady would occur c. 1060 and while not of Maelor, may have married the Madog ap
Cadwgan of 1045[8].
More importantly, however, is
the possible existence of a Cadwgan ap Bleddyn in this family whom both
historians and genealogists have confused with the same-named son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn. We believe the earliest Madog
ap Cadwgan, born c. 1045, served in the warbands of both Rhiwallon and Bleddyn ap Cynfyn and likely was present at Mechain
when Rhiwallon fell in battle in 1069. It is known that Eunydd ap Morien of Dyffryn Clwyd was among Bleddyn's men and
is likely where he first became acquainted with Madog ap Cadwgan. Later, the son of Eunydd married the daughter of Madog.
We conjecture that whoever Madog married (probably Sian ferch Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon of Arwystli), he named two of his sons
Rhiwallon and Bleddyn in honor of his former leaders.
We would note here that the Cadwgan ap Bleddyn
born c. 1110 could possibly have been the man of that name who married a daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan ap Iago. Our
present belief, however, is that Gwenllian ferch Gruffudd ap Cynan nephew of Iago[9] married Cadwgan ap Bleddyn ap
Cynfyn. She would have been born in Ireland and probably out of wedlock about 1070.
Our next conclusion is that
it was Cadwgan ap Bleddyn ap Madog of this family that first lived at Nannau (and whom we would identify as "Cadwgan of Nannau"),
probably lands granted to him for service to King Gruffudd ap Cynan (or to Owain Gwynedd) sometime in the first half of the
12th century.[10] So where did the earlier members of this family reside and who was father to the Cadwgan of 1015 with
whom the pedigrees begin?
Some might guess our c. 1015 Cadwgan was Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd, a man
born about the same time; the early marriages cited might have been between cousins. We would not care to defend that guess,
however. It seems unlikely any member of the Fferlys family would have served the kings of Powys and Gwynedd nor
be given lands in Meirionydd. We would look further north for his roots. If born c. 1015 somewhere in north
Wales, the first Cadwgan of this family would likely have served under King Gruffudd ap Llewelyn and would have been sent
at age 14 to be trained at the household of interim king Cynfyn ap Gwerystan. If so, he was only 4/5 years younger than
Gruffudd ap Llewelyn (who also lived at Cynfyn's court) and may have held an important place in that man's household
after 1039. Unless our future studies point us in a different direction, we tend to identify Cadwgan as a brother of
Llywarch Hwlbwrch who was Gruffudd's treasurer. His family's lands would have been in Rhos where we think his descendants
resided until they obtained the lands in Nannau and Arwystli by royal grant or by favorable marriages.
Our identification of
Cadwgan is based on the single pedigree[11] which does not mistake him for Cadwgan ap Bleddyn ap Cynfyn. In it, he is
made a descendant of Gwgan Gleddyfrudd of Tegeingl although the pedigree is deficient by several generations. In chart
form, it consists of the data in the first column; our construction is shown in the second column:
King of Man (Mon) 780 Hywel ap Caradog
l
l
King of Tegeingl 815 Caradog Freich Fras
l
l
Gwgan Gleddyfrudd 850 Gwgan Gleddyfrudd
l
l
xx 885 Gwaethfoed
l
l
xx
915 Glannog
l
l
xx
950 Heilig
l
l
xx 980
Gwrydr Goch
l
l
xx 1015
Cadwgan
l
l
xx 1045
Madog
l
l
xx 1075
Rhiwallon
l
l
xx 1110 Dolphyn
l
l
Cynfelyn 1140 Cynfelyn
l
l
Einion 1170 Einion
990 Elystan Glodrydd
l
1020 Cadwgan
________________l___________
l
l
1050 Ieuaf
1050 Idnerth
l
l
1080 Hywel
1080 Madog
l
l
1115 Gwrgeneu
1113 Cadwallon
l
l
1150 Alison====Rhiwallon 1145 Cadwallon*
l 1135
l
1165 Dolphyn===========-==Alison 1180
*Generation
omitted from the Jones family pedigree, probably by a copyist who thought it was a duplication
Thus,
it appears a same-named cousin line begins with a son of Rhiwallon named Madog. Since the Jones pedigree otherwise traces
its descent from Cynfelyn ap Dolphyn born c. 1140, it erred by citing the marriage matches for the later father/son
pair in this chart:
1015
Cadwgan
l
1045
Madog
l
1075
Rhiwallon
_______________l_____________
l
l
1105 Madog
Dolphyn 1110
l l
1135 Rhiwallon
Cynfelyn 1140
l
l
1165 Dolphyn Einion
1170
l
1200 Cynfelyn
l
1230 Einion
"COPY-CAT" LINE
MAESMAWR LINE
In Appendix 1, we present
Peter Bartrum's pedigree of the Maesmawr and Nannau families together with our reasons for believing them flawed.
APPENDIX 1 - Bartrum pedigree
In his "Welsh Genealogies -
AD 300-1400, Peter Bartrum derives this family from Cadwgan ap Bleddyn ap Cynfyn...even though his portrayal of the Maesmawr
branch clearly does not fit. He does not assign estimated birthdates in his charts, opting instead to guess within a
30/40 year window. Under "Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, 46" we find:
1051/1085 Cadwgan (1015)
l
1086/1115 Madog (1045)
_______________l____________
l
l
1086/1115 Rhiwallon (1075)
1116/50 Cadwgan (1170)
l
l
1116/50 Dolffyn (1110) 1151/85
Madog (1200)
l
l
1151/85 Cynfelyn (1140) 1186/1215
Meurig (1230)
l
(Maesmawr) 1216/50
Ynyr (1255)
l
1251/85 Ynyr Fychan (1285)
(Nannau)
The
date ranges to the left of each name are those supplied by Bartrum's "generation number" dating system, while our estimate
of birthdates appears in parentheses at the right.
It can be
seen in this construction of the Maesmawr branch, even by making Rhiwallon born in the same generation as his father, we still
end up with a Cynfelyn born during the same generation in which he witnessed the Strata Marcella charter,
and a full generation after our own dating. (Which also avoids the spectacle of men born in the same generation
as their father) Also in the Maesmawr branch, Bartrum identifies one wife of Dolffyn as "Jane ferch Hywel ap Ieuaf ap
Owain ap Trahaearn ap Caradog" while we believe she was "ferch Hywel ap Ieuaf ap Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd. The relevant
pedigree stops with "ferch Hywel ap Ieuaf", but the two ladies would appear thusly:
1035
Trahaearn 1020 Cadwgan
l
l
1065 Owain 1055
Ieuaf
l
l
1095 Ieuaf
1085 Hywel
l
l
1130
Hywel 1120
Jane
l
1165 Jane
We matched our c. 1120
lady with Dolphyn of c. 1110, producing Cynfelyn in c. 1140. Bartrum's construction matches a c. 1170 Jane with a c.
1130 Dolffyn to produce a Cynfelyn born some years after the date he witnessed a charter.
In the Nannau line, Bartrum
admits the extant pedigrees jump directly from Madog ap Cadwgan ap Bleddyn to Meurig the father of Ynyr. He inserts
another pair of "Madog ap Cadwgan" (exactly as we do) but still fails to place the men he portrays as brothers (Rhiwallon
and Cadwgan) in the same generation. We believe he is correct in making Meurig "ap Madog ap Cadwgan ap Madog ap Cadwgan
ap Bleddyn", but the Bleddyn in this list would occur c. 1075 whereas Bleddyn ap Cynfyn was born c. 1025....which is also
Bartrum's dating of him in National Library of Wales Journal, vol xii, pp 205.
The only indication that
Bartrum recognized the absurdity of the pedigree was his insertion of "?" between Cadwgan of Nannau (the one we date to c.
1170) and Madog ap Cadwgan ap Bleddyn. He was able to gloss over the one-generation-too-late dating of Rhiwallon by
pairing him with the wife we assign to Rhiwallon ap Madog ap Rhiwallon ap Madog, and wholly omits Annes ferch Idnerth
ap Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd from his work.
Nothing in Bartrum's
charts convinces us that these families descended from Cadwgan ap Bleddyn ap Cynfyn; to the contrary, we think they show why
that is NOT true.