ANGHARAD, HEIRESS OF MOSTYN
By Darrell Wolcott
In 1925, Llewelyn Vaughan (the
3rd Baron of Mostyn) and T. Allen Glenn compiled a History of the Family of Mostyn of Mostyn. According to
that work, the land upon which now stands Mostyn Hall in Flintshire was acquired in the early 1400's by the marriage of Ieuan
Fychan ap Ieuan ap Adda ap Iorwerth Ddu ap Ednyfed Gam of Pengwern and Angharad, daughter of Hywel ap Tudor ap Ithel Fychan
of Mostyn. That the land was formerly owned by that Hywel ap Tudor is not in doubt; what we question is whether this
Angharad was, in fact, his daughter.
Let us begin by sketching the
chronological timeline of these families. Hywel ap Tudor married Lleuci ferch Rhys ap Robert ap Gruffudd ap Sir
Hywel ap Gruffudd ap Ednyfed Fychan[1]; this lady would occur c. 1355. His father Tudor married Erddylad ferch Madog
ap Llewelyn ap Gruffudd ap Cadwgan ap Meilyr ap Elidyr ap Rhys Sais II[2]; she would have been born c. 1330. Extant
deed records show Tudor ap Ithel Fychan acquired several tracts of land in the mid 1300's[3]; we would assign his birth near
1315 and his son, Hywel, to c. 1345. Hywel inherited the bulk of his father's land and became a supporter of Owain Glendwr in
1403. To that cause, he was joined by his son Ithel, a man yet in his 20's. That he also had a daughter named
Angharad is certain; in 1388 he deeded certain of his lands over to her[4]. The following chart shows the probably timeline:
1280 Ithel Fychan 1295 Ednyfed Gam
l
l
1315 Tudor
1320 Iorwerth Ddu
l
l
1345 Hywel
1345 Adda
__________l________
l
l l
l
1380 Ithel
1373 Angharad Ieuan 1375 ob 1448
l
Ieuan Fychan 1405
The family on the left was descended
from Edwin of Tegeingl[5] and had been landholders there for several hundred years. The family on the right, which inherited
Mostyn from an heiress of the Tegeingl family, was descended from Tudor Trevor[6] and seated in Pengwern near the present
Llangollen. To demonstrate the absurdity of the claimed marriage between Ieuan Fychan and the Angharad in this chart,
lets follow his descendants for a few generations.
The son of Ieuan Fychan was
Hywel "dun stag" who married Margaret ferch Gruffudd[7], heiress of Gloddiath and born c. 1440. Their son, Richard,
married Catherine daughter of Thomas Salusbury, Sr, of Lleweni and died in 1539[8]. Their son, Thomas ap Richard, was
the first of the line to adopt the surname Mostyn. He died in 1558. Thus:
1405 Ieuan Fychan=====Angharad of Mostyn
l
1435 Hywel====Margaret of Gloddiath 1440
l
1460 Richard*===Catherine Salusbury
l
1490 Thomas Mostyn, ob 1558
*Joined Henry Tudor at Bosworth in 1485; died 1539
Quite clearly, the heiress of
Mostyn named Angharad was NOT the daughter to whom Hywel ap Tudor granted some lands in 1388; that Angharad would have
been at least 30 years old when Ieuan Fychan was born, even assuming her father gave her the lands when she was but 15 years
old.
Several medieval pedigree
manuscripts[9] cite the marriage of "Angharad ferch Hywel ap Tudor" with Ieuan Fychan. Other manuscripts of that period[10]
also say a lady of that name married Edmund, son of William Stanley. Only a single manuscript[11], written later than
the others, says it was the same lady who made both marriages. In his History of Powys Fadog, J.Y.W. Lloyd[12]
claims Angharad ferch Hywel married Ieuan Fychan as her first husband and left Mostyn to her son by that marriage, Hywel ap
Ieuan Fychan. Her second marriage, according to Lloyd, was to Edward Stanley by whom she had a single son William.
That son received Llaneurgain and Llys from his mother.
Dr R. Rees Davies, in a 1969 paper
presented to the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion in London (published in the 1968 Transactions of that society as
"Owain Glyn Dwr and the Welsh Squirearchy") describes the 1388 grant from Hywel ap Tudor to his daughter Angharad in these
words: Y Hen Hall in Mostyn was "mentioned in a list of his property with which he invested his daughter, Angharad, in 1388
thereby effectively disinheriting his (? illigitimate) son Ithel". We have not seen this document and suspect
Dr Davies actually is speaking of two different things: a 1388 grant of some lands to his daughter Angharad, and a later
list of lands inherited by an Angharad which included Mostyn...the assumption they were the same lady being his. The
idea that his son Ithel was disinherited is, we think, no more than a by-product of the first incorrect assumption.
We think the only marriage of
Angharad ferch Hywel was to Edmund Stanley when she was about 15 years old. Her father provided a dower for her consisting
of the Llaneurgain and Llys manors which later went to her son, William Stanley. The bulk of his lands, including
Mostyn, were left to his only son, Ithel. And it was Ithel who had no issue save a daughter named Angharad that was
father to the "heiress of Mostyn". This Angharad, born c. 1410, married Ieuan Fychan of Pengwern and carried Mostyn
to their son, Hywel ap Ieuan Fychan. Thus:
1315 Tudor
l
1345 Hywel
___________________l____________
l
l
1373 Angharad
1380 Ithel
=
l
Edmund Stanley
1410 Angharad==Ieuan Fychan
l
l
William
1435 Hywel
(Llaneurgain)
(Mostyn)
In his charts for this family[13],
Peter Bartrum includes a single Angharad as the daughter of Hywel ap Tudor and makes Ithel ap Hywel childless. But in
his generational dating system, he makes this lady 2 generations younger than her "father" and a full generation younger
than a sister. For whatever reasons, Bartrum did not date Ithel ap Hywel at all. While this dating of Angharad
(to c. 1400) is consistent with the marriage with Ieuan Fychan, it does not explain how she could also have been living in
1388 and old enough on that date to receive land of her own.
The Mostyn family papers now held at Bangor University show the family has
for centuries misidentified the heiress, confusing a same-named aunt with her niece. Their error has been incorporated
into the 16th century pedigree manuscripts and never questioned since genealogists of that era did not consider chronological
stability in pedigrees they cast. If you choose to believe one of the wealthiest men in Flintshire[14] gave all
his lands (at least 19 years before his death[15]) to a teenage daughter who later married a man 30 years younger
than herself (when she was past 60), then you probably also invested in some ocean-front property in Arizona. We aren't
buying either. Angharad the heiress of Mostyn was the grand-daughter of Hywel ap Tudor.
