GWYN AP EDNOWAIN BENDEW
By Darrell Wolcott
Gwyn
is the 3rd and last man whom Peter Bartrum has attached to his "Ednowain Bendew II". [1] In previous papers, we
have argued that his "Madog ap Ednowain Bendew II" was actually a son of Owain ap Edwin of Tegeingl [2] and that "Maredudd
ap Ednowain Bendew II" was the son of the original Ednowain Bendew ap Neiniad. [3]
In order to bolster his belief that
all 3 of these men were sons of a bogus "Ednowain Bendew II" born c. 1100, he dates Gwyn to c. 1130 on evidence which, at
first glance, appears compelling. We first begin to suspect his heavy thumb on the scale when we look up this Gwyn in
Bartrum's index. There, he is listed as:
"Gwyn ap Ednowain Bendew (II) ap Cynon"
Bartrum has previously told us in his classic
work [4] that he often modifies various citations which he believes are slightly corrupt as they stand. To disclose
these modifications, he uses the following standard edit marks: Words or letters which he believes are incorrectly
omitted by a source, and thus are supplied by Bartrum, will be so indicated by enclosing his insertions in
square brackets "[ ]". Words or letters which do appear in a source, but which he believes should be omitted, will
be enclosed by round brackets "( )". He then lists only a single source for this name: Peniarth
Ms 128, page 155a.
The only place on that page where we find
Gwyn is in the statement which ends "Lleuci ferch Madog ap Ieuan ap Einion ap Madog ap Cynwrig ap Meurig ap Ieuan ap Gwyn
ap Ednowain". No "Bendew", no "II" and no "ap Cynon". And no edit marks in Bartrum's index telling us these
additions were solely made by himself. Was he hoping that we wouldn't look it up for ourselves?
As we begin the task of dating the
folks who comprise the family line descended from Gwyn, we notice that no marriage matches appear until we reach the 1300's.
Two of those marriages appear to confirm Bartrum's dating of a "Madog ap Ieuan ap Einion" to c. 1380, but the third cited
marriage should have exposed a huge problem. Let's look at the chart as published [5]:
 MARRIAGE 1:
Gwenllian (1375) ferch Gronwy
(1335) ap Iolyn (1300) ap Iorwerth (1265) ap Llewelyn (1225) ap Griffri (1192) ap Cadwgan (1160) is citedi in Pen. 128, 155a
as the wife of Madog (1375) ap Ieuan (1345) ap Einion (1315). Both Madog and Gwenllian belong to Bartrum's "Generation
11", but he put her one generation later because the original citation misidentified the "Griffri ap Cadwgan" in her ancestry
as the family of Cadwgan ap Meilyr Eyton. Actually she descended from a different Griffri ap Cadwgan. [6] For
the purposes of dating the descendants of Gwyn ap Ednowain, this error is not material. A "Madog ap Ieuan ap Einion"
remains at c. 1375.
MARRIAGE 2:
Lleuci (1410) ferch Madog (1375) ap Ieuan
(1345) ap Einion (1315) is also cited in Pen. 128, 155a, as the wife of Edward (1410) ap Dafydd (1375) ap Madog (1345) ap
Llewelyn (1315) descended from Dyngad ap Tudor Trefor. Bartrum has assigned both to his "Generation 12" or about 1400.
We agree both were born c. 1410.
MARRIAGE 3:
Ieuan ap Madog has been charted as a sister
of Lleuci, and his birth date assigned to c. 1400 just as Lleuci's was. But Pen. 128, 156b tells us a "Ieuan ap
Madog ap Ieuan " was the husband of "Angharad ferch Hwfa ap Dafydd ap Cynwrig". In another paper [7], we dated
a Hwfa ap Dafydd ap Cynwrig to c. 1285, which suggests this Angharad was born near 1315. That family appears on Bartrum's
chart "Blaen Ial", where he does date a Hwfa ap Dafydd ap Cynwrig" to c. 1270.
However, Bartrum decided that could not
be Angharad's family because he dated her to c. 1400. By using the same sources, we date Angharad to 1315 and conclude
she was a daughter of the same Hwfa ap Dafydd ap Cynwrig from chart "Blaen Ial". Her husband, however, was NOT a brother
of Lleuci as Bartrum charted her. While both Lleuci and Ieuan had a father named Madog ap Ieuan ap Einion, it was not
the same man. Lleuci was born 100 years later than Ieuan.
Our pedigree of Gwyn ap Ednowain uses
exactly the same sources as Bartrum used, but places them into a chart which accommodates all 3 cited marriages:
** This name is conflated with the c. 1215 Einion in the citation
All the names in black type in our chart are cited
in Pen. 128, 155a
The key citations from Pen. 128, 156b are
shown in red on our chart, and they read:
"Dafydd Llwyd ap Ieuan Fychan
ap Ieuan ap Madog ap Ieuan"
"The mother of Ieuan Fychan
was Angharad ferch Hwfa ap Dafydd ap Cynwrig"
When the statements of Pen. 128, 156b are correctly
aligned with those from Pen. 128, 155a, all 3 marriages cited in the family descended from Gwyn ap Ednowain will establish
a timeline which dates Gwyn to c. 1055. There are no other men named Ednowain found in the body of Welsh pedigree manuscripts,
who could have had a son born c. 1055. We therefore conclude that he is a son of Ednowain Bendew ap Neiniad, and a brother
of Maredudd ap Ednowain Bendew. Those two men also had siblings named Bledrus, Robert, Gruffudd, Morwyl and Ceinfryd, most
of which were named in much more ancient manuscripts. [8] In the
attached APPENDIX, we discuss another lady who belongs in the pedigree of Gwyn ap Ednowain Bendew.
NOTES:
[1] Refer to our paper "The Ednowain Bendew II of Medieval Pedigrees" at
the link below:
[2] See our paper about Owain ap Edwin at the link below:
[3] See our paper on Maredudd ap Ednowain Bendew at the link below:
[4] Peter C. Bartrum "Early
Wel;sh Genealogical Tracts", 1966, page ix
[5] From Bartrum's We;sh Genealogies AD300-1400", 1974, Vol 2
[6] Refer to our paper on "The Unknown Cadwgan" at the link below:
[7] See the paper on dating and identifying unknown Welsh families
at the link below:
[8] Bledrus: ABT 8h; Robert: HLG 2i; Ceinfryd: HLG 1b; Morwyl: ABT 2d.
Gruffudd ap Ednowain Bendew is from Pen. 176, 307
APPENDIX:
On his chart "Iestyn 1", Bartrum mentions
a "Nest ferch Gwyn ap Ednowain" as a second wife of Gwrgan ap Ithel in the Glamorgan family of King Iestyn ap Gwrgan.
He does not cross-reference this lady to any chart of her birth family, but simply leaves her as "ancestry unknown".
The lady is cited by name in Harleian
Ms 2414, 36, and as an unnamed daughter of Gwyn ap Ednowain in Peniarth Ms 128, 144a, Peniarth Ms 138, 453 and Peniarth Ms
177, 215. In each case, she appears as the wife/consort of a "Gwrgan ap Ithel".
Since Bartrum only knew of a single
man called Gwrgan ap Ithel, and since that man was born near 1010 and fathered King Iestyn near 1045, he did not know a single
Ednowain born early enough to have a granddaughter born before 1025 and thus be married to Gwrgan. Actually, we don't
either, but we do know that there were multiple men named Gwrgan ap Ithel in that Glamorgan family. See our chart in
the Appendix of the paper "The Conquest of Glamorgan - Further Notes" at the link below:
A Gwrgan ap Ithel born c. 1075 was
father of two sons, including Nicholas ap Gwrgan who was Bishop of Llandaff from 1148 until his death in 1183.
We date that Nicholas at c. 1110, so a wife of his father (and possibly his mother) should be a lady born c. 1080/90.
This seems to be a perfect fit for a Nest (1085) ferch Gwyn (1055) ap Ednowain Bendew (1020).
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