EDWIN family, of Llanfihangel or 'Llanmihangel', Glamorganshire

The original owners of this estate, and the builders of its Tudor manor-house, were the THOMAS family, on whom see G. T. Clark, Limbus Patrum, 272-3; at some time before 1687 the estate was sold to HUMPHREY EDWIN (1642 - 1707), a very wealthy Londoner of whom a full account appears in the D.N.B. Sir Humphrey (knighted, and sheriff of Glamorgan, in 1687, lord mayor of London in 1697) was a Dissenter, and gave trouble by attending at his meetinghouse in full civic state (see T. Richards, Piwritaniaeth a Pholitics, 39-40, 47-8, 141). He was a Hereford man; attempts to trace his ancestry back to a 13th century ' thane ' are not convincing, still less so his assumption of the 'arms' of the Welsh dynasty of Edwin of Tegeingl (died 1073). According to Ewenny MS. 2 at N.L.W., Sir Humphrey's father was a Welsh felt-maker at Llandilo, Carmarthenshire, who removed to Hereford and became a hatter there; he apprenticed his son to a Hereford tailor, but the boy soon went up to London. He died at Llanfihangel, 14 December 1707. He had five sons and four daughters; the history of the family is fully related (by James Edwin-Cole, one of its members) in The Herald and Genealogist, vi, 1871, 54-62, but apart from mentioning the second daughter Mary, who in 1703 married Robert Jones of Fonmon (see under Philip Jones, 1618? - 1674), the present notice will deal only with the direct Llanfihangel line. The eldest son, SAMUEL EDWIN, christened 12 December 1671, died at Llanfihangel 27 September 1722, married Lady Catherine Montagu, daughter of the 2nd earl of Manchester, and had three children. Of these, CATHERINE EDWIN, born at Llanfihangel 27 November 1702, became the heiress of one of her uncles, and died unmarried at Bedford 23 July 1773 (the dates are from her tombstone); she had in 1756 become a member of the Moravian congregation at Bedford, was a considerable benefactor to it, and was buried in its graveyard. Samuel's son, CHARLES EDWIN, born 1699?, added to the estate, was sheriff of Northants., 1738, M.P. for Westminster 1742-7, and for Glamorgan from 1747 till his death, 29 June 1756. His wife, Lady Charlotte Edwin (daughter of the 4th duke of Hamilton; she died 5 February 1774), is a figure in early Methodist history, and finds a place in the biographies of Lady Huntingdon and of George Whitefield, and the journals of John Wesley. It was she who presented David Jones (1736 - 1810) to the living of Llan-gan (N.L.W. Llandaff papers, no. VIII). In a Moravian source, the presentation is attributed to her sister-in-law (above) Catherine Edwin (see Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Bedyddwyr Cymru, 1935, 19-22); there has clearly been confusion here. Charles Edwin was succeeded at Llanfihangel by his sister ANN (EDWIN), who married THOMAS WYNDHAM, of Clearwell, Gloucestershire. These Wyndham s had in 1642 acquired Dunraven castle by purchase from the VAUGHANS, successors of the Norman BUTLERS (see Nicholas, Hist. of Glamorgan); Thomas and Ann Wyndham had a son, CHARLES, who took the surname EDWIN, was M.P. for Glamorgan, 1780-9, and died 16 June 1801. His son THOMAS resumed the surname WYNDHAM, restored Dunraven castle, was M.P. for Glamorgan from 1789 till his death, 8 November 1814, and left a daughter, CAROLINE, who in 1810 married WINDHAM HENRY WINDHAM QUIN, later 2nd earl of Dunraven. The Edwin family in Llanfihangel was thus merged into the family of the earls of Dunraven.

Author

• Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, (1881 - 1969)

Sources

• To the sources mentioned above, add:
• W. R. Williams, The parliamentary history of the principality of Wales, from the earliest times to the present day, 1541-1895 (Brecknock 1895)
• Burke's … Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage
• information from Mr. W. A. H. Fisher, of Aberthyn

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20732981

Published date: 1959

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