Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet (1553 – 1 March 1627), was a Welsh baronet, Member of Parliament and antiquary.
Sir John Wynn, 1st Baronet (1553 – 1 March 1627), was a Welsh baronet, Member of Parliament and antiquary.
He was the son of Morys Wynn ap John, whom he succeeded in 1580, inheriting Gwydir Castle in Carnarvonshire. John was educated at All Souls College, Oxford (1570, awarded BA 1578) and studied law at Furnival's Inn (1572) and the Inner Temple (1576). He claimed to be directly descended from the princes of Gwynedd through Rhodri ab Owain son of Owain Gwynedd. [1] The male line from his family died out in 1779 (see 'Legacy' section below) and the senior male line passed to the Anwyl of Tywyn family. His mother was Jane (Siân) Bulkeley, [2] daughter of Sir Richard Bulkeley and his wife Catherine Griffith, and sister of Sir Richard Bulkeley, head of the Anglesey branch of a powerful landowning family, who originally came from Cheshire.
He was Member of Parliament for this county in 1586 [3] [4] and served as Sheriff of Caernarvonshire for 1587–88 and 1602–03 and Sheriff of Merionethshire for 1588–89 and 1600–01. [4] He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Caernarvonshire in 1587, a member of the Council of the Marches of Wales c.1603 [4] and Custos Rotulorum of Caernarvonshire in 1618 (to 1627).
Wynn was regarded as quarrelsome and a bad neighbour and landlord. [5] His lawsuits often went on for many years; some were against his own relatives like Sir Richard Bulkeley [6] and the Griffiths of Penrhyn Castle. He became regarded as such a public nuisance that in 1615 the Council of the Marches of Wales, of which he was a former member, reprimanded him, fined him and briefly imprisoned him. [7]
In 1606, he was made a knight and in 1611 became the first of the Wynn baronets. [4] He was interested in several mining ventures and also found time for antiquarian studies. [3]
He married Sidney, daughter of Sir William Gerard, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and his wife Dorothy Barton, by whom he had 10 sons and 2 daughters. [4] His eldest son, John, was unhappily married to Eleanor Cave in 1606 [8] and died in Italy in 1614. [9]
Sir John's successor was his second and eldest surviving son Richard. His daughter Elizabeth married Sir John Bodvel of Caerfryn, and was the mother of John Bodvel. [4] Another daughter, Mary, married Sir Roger Mostyn. [10]
Wynn's work The History of the Gwydir Family, which had a great reputation in North Wales, [3] was intended to assert his claim to royal ancestry. In a legal challenge to these claim Thomas Prys of Plas Iolyn brought a case against him and Sir John was forced to defend himself in court. He won the case and afterwards was recognised as the most prominent male heir of the House of Gwynedd. Under Welsh succession law the head of the Price of Esgairweddan family at the time, descended through Iorwerth ab Owain Gwynedd and Dafydd II, would lead the senior line and be de jure Princes of Gwynedd, however they died out in the male line in 1702 and the royal title and headship of the House of Aberffraw would have passed then from the Price family to the Wynn Family of Gwydir at that time under the native succession law of Kings laid out in Cyfraith Hywel as descendants of one of the surviving senior lineages of the Welsh Royal Houses. [11] John Wynn's book was first published by Daines Barrington in 1770, and in 1878 an edition was published at Oswestry. It is valuable as the only work which describes the state of society in North Wales in the 15th and the earlier part of the 16th century. [3] [4]
At Llanrwst Wynn founded a hospital and endowed a school, now Ysgol Dyffryn Conwy. His estate of Gwydir came to Robert Bertie, first Duke of Ancaster, in the 17th century, by his marriage with the heiress of the Wynns. On the death of the penultimate duke in 1779, Gwydir was inherited by his sister Priscilla, Baronness Willoughby de Eresby in her own right, whose husband was created Baron Gwydyr. [3]
On the death of Alberic, Baron Willoughby de Eresby in 1870, this title (now merged in that of earl of Ancaster) fell into abeyance between his two daughters, while that of Baron Gwydir passed to his cousin and male heir. Gwydir itself was sold by the earl of Ancaster in 1895, the house and part of the estate being bought by Lord Carrington, who also claimed descent from Sir John Wynn. [3]
On 28 May 2010, Llanrwst celebrated the 400th anniversary of the almshouses there, which were built by Sir John Wynn to provide shelter for twelve poor older men of the parish. Today, those twelve rooms are used to show different periods of history. [12]
In this festival, Sir John Wynn was played by actor Sion Rickard, a student studying Performing Arts at Coleg Llandrillo, who arrived with his "wife" in the main square of Llanrwst by horse and carriage from Gwydir Castle, then answered questions from the local town crier, went inside the almshouse to check the standard of what he had built and delivered a speech to the people of Llanrwst.[ citation needed ]
Owain ap Gruffudd was King of Gwynedd, North Wales, from 1137 until his death in 1170, succeeding his father Gruffudd ap Cynan. He was called Owain the Great and the first to be styled "Prince of Wales". He is considered to be the most successful of all the North Welsh princes prior to his grandson, Llywelyn the Great. He became known as Owain Gwynedd to distinguish him from the contemporary king of Powys Wenwynwyn, Owain ap Gruffydd ap Maredudd, who became known as Owain Cyfeiliog.
The Kingdom of Gwynedd was a Welsh kingdom and a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
The Kingdom of Powys was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain. It very roughly covered the northern two-thirds of the modern county of Powys and part of today's English West Midlands. More precisely, and based on the Romano-British tribal lands of the Ordovices in the west and the Cornovii in the east, its boundaries originally extended from the Cambrian Mountains in the west to include the modern West Midlands region of England in the east. The fertile river valleys of the Severn and Tern are found here, and this region is referred to in later Welsh literature as "the Paradise of Powys".
Rhys ap Tewdwr was a king of Deheubarth in Wales and member of the Dinefwr dynasty, a branch descended from Rhodri the Great. He was born in the area which is now Carmarthenshire and died at the battle of Brecon in April 1093.
Rhodri ab Owain Gwynedd was prince of part of Gwynedd, one of the kingdoms of medieval Wales. He ruled from 1175 to 1195.
John "Wynn" ap Maredudd was a Welsh Member of Parliament.
This is a list of people who have served as Custos Rotulorum of Caernarvonshire.
Maredudd ap Cynan was the grandson of Owain Gwynedd, a king of Gwynedd and ruler of most of Wales in the 12th century. His father Cynan ab Owain Gwynedd held the title "Lord of Meirionnydd".
The House of Dinefwr was a Royal house of Wales and refers to the descendants of Cadell ap Rhodri, King of Seisyllwg, son of Rhodri the Great. Their ancestor Cunedda, born in late Roman Britain, was a Sub-Roman warlord who founded the House of Gwynedd during the 5th century.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 1201–1300 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the century 1101–1200 to Wales and its people.
The history of Gwynedd in the High Middle Ages is a period in the History of Wales spanning the 11th through the 13th centuries. Gwynedd, located in the north of Wales, eventually became the most dominant of Welsh polities during this period. Contact with continental courts allowed for Gwynedd to transition from a petty kingdom into an increasingly sophisticated principality of seasoned courtiers capable of high level deplomacy and representation; not only with the Angevine kings, but also the king of France and the Papal See. Distinctive achievements in Gwynedd include further development of Medieval Welsh literature, particularly poets known as the Beirdd y Tywysogion associated with the court of Gwynedd; the reformation of bardic schools; and the continued development of Cyfraith Hywel. All three of these further contributed to the development of a Welsh national identity in the face of Anglo-Norman encroachment of Wales.
Owain Brogyntyn ap Madog was the third and illegitimate son of king Madog ap Maredudd, the last king of a united Kingdom of Powys. He was the son of Madog by the daughter of the Maer du or "black mayor" of Rûg in Edeyrnion however some sources cite his mother as Susanna making him legitimate instead. He was the brother of Gruffydd Maelor the ancestor of Owain Glyndŵr. Presumably Owain Brogyntyn would have been raised by his mother at Rûg in Edeyrnion. He was acknowledged by his father and granted by him the lordship of Edeyrnion and also Dinmael. It is quite possible that he inherited some of these lands through his maternal grandfather, the Maer Du, which were confirmed and perhaps extended by his father the king of Powys. At some point he also came into possession of Castle Brogyntyn on the English borders at Selattyn close to Oswestry.
The Royal House of Aberffraw was a cadet branch of the Kingdom of Gwynedd originating from the sons of Rhodri the Great in the 9th century. Establishing the Royal court of the Aberffraw Commote would begin a new location from which to rule Wales. The cadet branch achieved the recognised titles of Prince of Wales, King of Wales and were sometimes named King of Aberffraw.
The Royal House of Mathrafal began as a cadet branch of the Royal House of Dinefwr, taking their name from Mathrafal Castle, their principal seat and effective capital. They effectively replaced the House of Gwertherion as rulers of the Kingdom of Powys, mainly through a politically advantageous marriage by Bleddyn's ancestor, Merfyn the Oppressor. The House was initially founded by King Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, who would later join the Anglo-Saxon resistance of King Harold Godwinson against William the Conqueror, following his conquest of England. Although their fortunes rose and fell over the generations, they would primarily be remembered as Kings of Powys in Central Wales.
Anwyl of Tywyn are a Welsh family who claim a patrilinear descent from Owain Gwynedd, King of Gwynedd from 1137 to 1170 and a scion of the royal House of Aberffraw. The family motto is: Eryr eryrod Eryri, which translates as "The Eagle of the Eagles of Snowdonia. The family lives in Gwynedd and speak Welsh.
Iorwerth Goch ap Maredudd, a minor prince and nobleman of the Kingdom of Powys, was the illegitimate son of Maredudd ap Bleddyn and Cristin ferch Bledrus. The appellation "Goch", meaning red, probably referred to the colour of his hair.
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