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GRUFFYDD ap IEUAN ap LLYWELYN FYCHAN (c. 1485 - 1553), bard and member of a Welsh landed family

Name: Gruffydd ap Ieuan ap Llywelyn Fychan
Date of birth: c. 1485
Date of death: 1553
Spouse: Alice Owen
Spouse: Sioned ferch Rhisiart ab Hywel
Child: Catrin ferch Gruffydd ab Ieuan ap [Llywelyn?] Fychan
Child: Alis ferch Gruffudd ab Ieuan ap Llywelyn Fychan
Child: Thomas ap Griffith ap Ieuan
Child: Edward Gruffydd ab Ieuan
Parent: Ieuan ap Llywelyn Fychan
Gender: Male
Occupation: bard and member of a Welsh landed family
Area of activity: Eisteddfod; Land Ownership; Poetry; Royalty and Society
Author: William Llewelyn Davies

Son of Ieuan ap Llywelyn Fychan. He lived in Llewenni Fechan (later Llannerch), near S. Asaph. Some poems by him in British Museum manuscripts (Detholiad o waith Gruffydd ab Ieuan ab Llewelyn Vychan) were published in 1910, edited by J. C. Morrice, who gave some biographical details. Subsequently, i.e. in 1934, T. Allen Glenn gave, in The Family of Griffith of Garn and Plasnewydd in the County of Denbigh, additional particulars concerning him, both as a poet and as a country gentleman, Glenn's account being based on a study of Griffith family muniments, supplemented by study of other original records.

Gruffydd ap Ieuan is of importance for two other reasons. With the bard Tudur Aled he was called upon to assist at the first Caerwys eisteddfod (1524) in the grading of bards and musicians; the two sat with three commissioners, viz. Richard ap Howel ap Ieuan Fychan of Mostyn (father-in-law of Gruffydd ap Ieuan), Sir William Gruffydd, (father-in-law of Thomas Mostyn, son of Richard ap Howel), and Sir Roger Salusbury of Llewenni. A second reason for his importance is the fact that his nephew, or 'great-nephew,' bishop Richard Davies (1501? - 1581), says that he remembers seeing in the possession of Gruffudd ap Ieuan (it is William Salesbury who identifies the 'hen ewythr' as Gruffudd ap Ieuan) a manuscript translation in Welsh of the Pentateuch; for details see the book by D. R. Thomas which is generally referred to under the short title of Davies and Salesbury. The manuscript which D. R. Thomas prints in this work, is, however, not the 'lost' translation of the Pentateuch but the Welsh translation by Richard Davies of some of S. Paul's epistles; this latter manuscript found its way from Llannerch, the home of Gruffydd ap Ieuan and afterwards of his Davies (of Llannerch) descendants, to Gwysaney, Flintshire, the home of the Davies-Cooke family, also descendants. It is now at the National Library of Wales.

Gruffydd ap Ieuan was twice in. His first wife was Janet (Sioned), daughter of Richard ap Howel of Mostyn; by this marriage he was the father of Alice 'ferch Gruffydd ap Ieuan,' a poetess. It was by his second marriage, with Alice, daughter of John Owen of Llansantffraid, that he became the ancestor of the Griffith family of Garn and Plasnewydd. For some of the family connections see the articles in this dictionary on Davies (of Llannerch), and Davies-Cooke (of Gwysaney) and Mostyn (family) of Mostyn; see also lord Mostyn and T. Allen Glenn, History of the Family of Mostyn of Mostyn (London, 1925).

His will, dated 11 March 1553, was made at Henllan, Denbighshire, and was proved 3 May 1553.

Author

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/

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