Gwilym ap Gruffudd ap Gwilym

Steward of the commote of Menai (1390-1)

Joint-rhingyll of Dindaethwy (1394-5)

Rhingyll of Dindaethwy (1395-6)

Sheriff of Anglesey (1396-7)

Rhaglaw of Dindaethwy (1408-1433)

Rhaglaw of Arrlechwedd Uchaf (from 1414)

Joint-rhingyll of Dindaethwy (1419-20)

Rhingyll of Dindaethwy (1420-1)

Woodward of Arllechwedd Uchaf (from 1416)

Deputy Sheriff of Anglesey (1424-5)

Gwilym was of Penrhyn and Penmynydd. Davies (p. 314) describes him as “the leading north Welsh squire of the day.” Davies goes on to describe how Gwilym initially participated in Owain Glyndŵr’s revolt (he had little choice), but soon switched sides, profiting greatly by gaining estates confiscated from the rebels. After his second marriage, he effectively disinherited his children by his first, Welsh, wife, and eventually attempted to have himself declared to be legally an Englishman (and thus not subject to Henry IV’s penal statutes.) Davies describes Gwilym’s claims in his petition related to this to be based on a “thumping lie” requiring “brazenness of an extraordinary degree.”

Events

Date of Birth: unknown.

Place of Birth: unknown.

Bartrum (Marchudd 6) gives Gwilym a number of 11 in his generational dating system, implying a birth date of, very roughly, about 1370.

Date of Death: early in 1431.

Place of Death: unknown.

The date is given by Carr (1990, p. 17).

Relationships

Father: Gruffudd ap Gwilym ap Gruffudd.

This relationship is shown by Bartrum (Marchudd 6). It is given by Carr (1990, p. 2; p. 5) and by Roberts (WBO; 1969 p. 274).

Mother: Generys ferch Madog ap Gronwy Fychan.

This relationship is shown by Bartrum (Marchudd 6). It is given by Carr (1990, p. 2; p. 5) and by Roberts( WBO; 1969 p. 274).

Spouse: Morfudd ferch Gronwy ap Tudur.

This relationship is shown by Bartrum (Marchudd 6). It is given by Roberts (WBO; 1969 p. 274), by Davies (p. 314), and by Carr (1990, p. 2, p. 6; ODNB).

Spouse: Joan, daughter of Sir William Stanley of Hooton. Married in 1413.

This relationship is shown by Bartrum (Marchudd 6). It is given by Carr (1990, p. 2; p. 10), by Roberts (1969, p. 274), and by Davies (p. 314).

Children (by Morfudd):

(Complete source citations for facts about the children on this page are currently outside of the scope of this project. Most information below comes from Bartrum.)

Tudur Fychan married Annes ferch Robert Puleston.

Angharad married Dafydd ab Ieuan.

Children (by Joan):

William Fychan (died 1483), chamberlain of North Wales, married Alice, daughter of Richard Dalton of Althorp, Northamptonshire.

Elen married William Bulkeley of Hofcroft, constable of Beaumaris.

Elsbeth married (1) the brother of Lord Grey of Ruthun; married (2) Robert ab Edward.

Children (mother unclear):

Angharad married Thomas Pennant ap Dafydd ap Tudur.

Evidence

A chancery petition made by William ap Gruffyth of Penmynyth (Co. Anglesey) to the King and Lords Spiritual and Temporal (No. 1318/ Rees's no. 27) . Rees abstracts it thus:

Prays that he, his children and their heirs may purchase for themselves in fee simple and fee tail and for term of life, the lands tenements and other possessions, as well in England as in the English towns within Wales, and that they may be officers and able to do and enjoy all other things, as other Englishmen do, notwithstanding any ordinance or statute made to the contrary, considering that William and his children, as well in time of rebellion as at all times after, have been and yet are faithful and loyal subjects to the King and his progenitors, and that the suppliant is married to one of the daughters of Sir William Stanley, Knight, who is entirely English, and moreover the suppliant was born, engendered and descended for the most part wholly from the English race. (Not dated)

Rees’s estimate for the date of the petition (1439-42) obviously conflicts with Carr’s date of death given above.

References

Bartrum, Peter C., “Marchudd 6” in An Electronic Version of Welsh Genealogies AD 300-1500.

[The sources that Bartrum cites for Gwilym are: Peniarth 131 (93, 104), written by Gutun Owain about 1480; Peniarth 131 (49), written early in the reign of Henry VIII; Peniarth 129 (62), copied about 1500 from a 1497 MS by Gutun Owain; Peniarth 127 (55), written by Syr Thomas ap Ieuan ap Deicws between about 1510 and 1523.]

Carr, A.D. “Gwilym ap Gruffydd and the Rise of the Penrhyn Estate” in Welsh History Review Vol. 15, no. 1 (June 1990), pp. 1-20.

Carr, A.D. Medieval Anglesey. (Anglesey Antiquarian Society, 2011) 2nd ed.

Carr, A.D. “Tudor family, forebears of (per.c.1215-1404)”, in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004).

Davies, R.R. The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr. (Oxford U.P., 1995).

Rees, William ed. Calendar of Ancient Petitions Relating to Wales (Thirteenth to Sixteenth Century) (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1975).

Roberts, Glyn “GRIFFITH OF PENRHYN (Caerns.)” in Welsh Biography Online.

Roberts, Glyn. Aspects of Welsh History. (University of Wales Press, 1969).