DAFYDD AP MAREDUDD GLAIS (fl. 1427-1468), murderer, civic official, scribe and translator

A member of one of Aberystwyth's leading 15th century families, Dafydd was the son of Maredudd Glais. He acted as attorney for his father in 1432-3 and was committed to Cardigan castle for arrears that had accumulated. Like his father, he appears to have been an archer and in 1438 was given a letter of protection to go abroad in Edmund Beaufort's retinue. In 1439 he stood pledge, with John Roubury and Gruffydd Prouth, for Thomas Kirkham, abbot of the monastery of Vale Royal in Cheshire, in respect of a fine.

By 1440-41 he had murdered Gruffydd Prouth and Gruffydd's son Dafydd Fychan. His father, Maredudd, Thomas Glais and John Roubury were all accused of being associated with him. Dafydd was pardoned in return for a £40 fine, but the murder led to a feud with the Prouth family, as a result of which Sir William ap Thomas and Gruffydd ap Nicolas were accepted by both sides as arbiters. On 12 September 1441 the parties concluded a tripartite agreement whereby Dafydd and his kinsmen agreed to pay 304s for the use of the dead men's relatives; Dafydd was also required not to come into the town of Aberystwyth or the town or church of Llanbadarn Fawr for a time. On 2 July 1445, the king ordered Gruffydd ap Nicolas and others to make inquisition in the county of Cardigan 'touching all treasons, felonies and trespasses done there by David ap Mereth Gleyse of Haberustoth'.

In 1444, he wrote Peniarth MS 22 . This contains a copy of a Welsh translation (the Dingestow version) of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae and his own translation from Latin into Welsh of a short and incomplete chronicle of the kings of England. He demonstrates a competent scribal hand.

He subsequently became reeve of Aberystwyth in 1457-9, 1460-63 and 1467-8.

Author

• Katherine Himsworth

Sources

• Peniarth MS 22 in the National Library of Wales
• Ralph A. Griffiths, The Principality of Wales in the later Middle Ages: The Structure and Personnel of Government I. South Wales, 1277-1536 (Cardiff 1972), p.433, citing TNA SC6/1161/5 m.9
• Calendar of the French Rolls: Henry VI, 5 May, 1438, in the Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records (London 1887) Appendix p.323
• David Jenkins, 'The Pryse family of Gogerddan, I, The National Library of Wales Journal, 8 (1953-4) p.87
• Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1441-1446, p.369
• Katherine Himsworth, 'Dafydd Maredudd Glais: A fifteenth-century Aberystwyth felon and scribe', Welsh History Review, 28/2 (2016), pp.269-82
• Katherine Himsworth, 'A fifteenth-century Brenhinedd y Saesson, written by the Aberystwyth scribe, Dafydd ap Maredudd Glais', Studia Celtica, 51 (2017), pp.129-49

Further reading

• Wikipedia Article: Dafydd ap Maredudd Glais

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20732733

Published date: 2019-08-29

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