Gruffudd ap Rhys ap Gruffudd

Williams (p. 128 ff.) gives an elegy (with a translation) by Robin Ddu ap Siencin on the subject of the death of seven of Gruffudd’s children in the same week, from the plague. His daughter, Margred, was his only surviving child.

Events

Date of Birth: 1411/12.

Place of Birth: unknown.

The date is given by Bartrum (Mabon Glochydd 2).

Date of Death: 5 October 1480.

Place of Death: unknown.

The date is given by Carr (1975, p. 135; 1979, p. 157). Bartrum (Mabon Glochydd 2) gives 1448.

Place of Burial: Eglwys Rhos.

The place is given by Carr (1975, p. 135).

Relationships

Father: Rhys ap Gruffudd ap Madog Gloddaith.

This relationship is shown by Bartrum (Mabon Glochydd 2). It is given by Carr (1975, p. 133).

Mother: Catrin ferch Robin Llwyd.

This relationship is shown by Bartrum (Mabon Glochydd 2). The elegy by Robin Ddu ap Siencin and Dafydd Llwyd of Nantconwy describes Gruffudd’s children as descendants of Robin Llwyd. However, Mostyn (p. 75) gives Gruffudd’s mother as another of Rhys’s wives, Gwerful ferch Dafydd.

Spouse: Jonet ferch Dafydd.

This relationship is shown by Bartrum (Mabon Glochydd 2). It is given by Carr (1975, p. 134). The elegy by Robin Ddu ap Siencin and Dafydd Llwyd of Nantconwy mentions Sioned.

Children:

Dafydd (died 1447).

Gwilym (died 1447).

Rhys (died 1447).

Llywelyn (died 1447).

Sion (died 1447).

Catrin (died 1447).

Annes (died 1447).

Margred (died 1532) married (1) Hywel “the Dun Stag” ab Ieuan Fychan ab Ieuan; married (2) Harry Salesbury.

Evidence

Mostyn's tweaking of Williams's translation of the elegy for Gruffudd’s children:

Offended art thou, O Lord Almighty! Seven from Gloddaeth have been laid in the grave. Grievous has the world been to seven persons in one week: a family of ingenuous youths, children of a revered countryman. Of high rank were the branches from a tree proverbial for its root. The tree was Gruffydd the son of Rhys, who surpassed the luxuriance of a vineyard: and the children, a consolation deserving of all panegyric, were the branches, even to the day of Judgement. Woe is me, their justifier, that these scions have fallen. They are removed from their exalted seats, except one branch: this one is good, may the Son of God give increase to it. Heroes have been thrown, the trees have been broken, in the district of Conwy. A company of fair lords, cold from pain and grief, bore them. The country had a work of danger, and fright, in burying them, the branches of Gloddaeth. There was weeping in Creuddyn, and bitter lamentation on seeing this. The people cried out loudly, when the vine branches were covered up, the descendants of Robin Llwyd.

Creuddyn is faint and solitary: Gruffydd is downcast, wanting his branches. Piteous, by The Holy Oswald, was his cry, and salt tears. Still more piteous was the cry of Sioned; being bereaved of distinguished men, deerlike, branches which flourished on the side of a hill. Thick trees are almost all bare now, with no place unhurt. O may God distribute blossoms on the trees and produce branches new! There were once eight of them, one only now exists. The eldest was Dafydd, he went to Heaven, when his day came. Alas! tonight there is great lamentation in putting Gwylim upon the bier. And fair Rhys tarried not behind after the fair and worthy Gwylim. Deep in the grave was place Llywelyn, not less lamented. Five in number were the sons; the fifth was the beloved Sion. For the daughters there is great grief; the youthful Catrin was the eldest, whose complexion equalled the serene sky, or the summer moon; the seventh was the fair Annes. They were the beloved of one father, the offspring of one mother; the ornament of our country, one fair form, one thought, and one paradise. One series of blossoms, one mind they will be in Heaven. One form, one light, one Heavenly company and one ornament.

References

Bartrum, Peter C., “Mabon Glochydd 2” in An Electronic Version of Welsh Genealogies AD 300-1500. [The sources that Bartrum cites for Gruffudd are: “Rhandiroedd Powys”, written by 1493; Peniarth 129 (63, 102), copied from a 1497 MS by Gutun Owain; Peniarth 137 (118, 122) -- written in the early 1500s by ‘Syr’ Thomas ap Ieuan ap Deiews; and Peniarth 128 (283a), “Llyfr Edward ap Roger”, written before 1582.]

Carr, Antony David. The Mostyn Family and Estate, 1200-1643 (PhD thesis, University of Wales, 1975).

Carr, A.D. “The Making of the Mostyns: the Genesis of a Landed Family” in Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1979), pp. 137-157.

Mostyn, the Right Hon. Lord, and T. A. Glenn. History of the Family of Mostyn of Mostyn (London: Harrison and Sons, Ltd., 1925).

Williams, Robert. The History and Antiquities of the Town of Aberconwy and Its Neighbourhood (Denbigh, 1835).