Welsh Journals

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" Old Brecknock Chips." FEIDAY, MAY 11th, 1888. 48 NOTES. JOHN KEMBLE.—" Coriolantts :" His Ma¬ jesty was going to Drury Lane! It was a performance "by command" (George III). The curtain rose, displaying a remarkably fine view of Roman architecture, a vista of temples and palaces. The fame of the admirable actor who played the leading character was then at its height; and John Kemble shared with his splendid sister the honour of being the twin leaders of the theatrical galaxy. But I speak to a generation which have never seen either Siddons or Kemble, and will, probably, never see their equals. Kemble was, at that time, in the prime of his powers; his features strongly resembling of those Siddons, and his form the perfection of heroic grace and kingly grand eur. His voice was his failing point; it was hollow and interrupted, yet its tone was naturally sweet, and it could, at times, swell to the highest storm of passion. In later days he seemed to take a strange pride in feebleness, and in his voice and his person, affected old age. But when I saw him first, he was all force, one of the handsomest of human beings, and, beyond all comparison, the most accomplished " classic " actor that ever realized the form and feelings of the classic age. [Extract from Rev. George Croly, LL.D. (Marston)]. THE WYNTERS OF BRECKNOCK.—In continuation of my notes on the Priory families, I have drawn up a somewhat rough sketch of another old family—a family, indeed, of the first considera¬ tion in the county and town of Brecknock in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—the "Wynters of Brecknock. It is a somewhat remarkable fact that, although this family do not appear to have settled in our county till the reign of Henry VIII., in the Charter given to the borough of Brecon by the first Stafford, Duke of Buckingham (a.d 1448), among the burgesses named therein is the name of Benedict Wynter. The family originally possessed con¬ siderable property in the county, and one of the first families mentioned in our earliest municipal records are the "Wynters. Under the Borough Charter granted by King Philip and Queen Mary (a.d. 1556) the first alderman elected was "Andrew "Wynter," and the same individual was the third bailiff elected under the Charter (a.d. 1558) ; there are also several inscriptions to the Wynter family in the Priory Church. The same Andrew "Wynter was H.S. of the county even at an earlier period (a.d. 1553). The Wynters are descended from Walter Wynter, who came into Dyfed with Arnulph de Belesmo, 4 William II., and who married Gwenllian, daughter of Gwilymap Aeddan, Lord of Castell Gwyn. The above-named Andrew Wynter was of the eleventh generation, and was the son of Lewis Wynter, of the Forest of Dean, Gloucester¬ shire. Besides Andrew, this Lewis Wynter had had other sons—Lewis Wynter, of Cantreff, M.D., who married a daughter of one of the Boulcotts of Brecon (a Roger Boulcott having made a large fortune in Brecon as an apothecary, and several later Boulcotts figured as sheriffs) ; and Sir William Wynter, Lord High Admiral of England to Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. Andrew Wynter had a son Walter, a barrister, who married Margaret, daughter and heiress of John Walwyn, of Brecon (another of the early Normans that settled in Breconshire), and Walter had issue William Wynter, of Llanfihangel-talyllyn, who married an Hereford¬ shire lady; William had a son Edward, who found a wife at Chirk, in North Wales (Jane Edwards) ; Edward Wynter's grandson and namesake was of Talyllyn, and died 1669 ; his son William Wynter married Eleanor, daughter of W. Jones, of Treivor, Monmouth, and he died 1696, leaving six children (two sons and four daughters), the eldest of whom was Edward Wynter, of Tredustan, who married Anne, daughter of Thomas Williams, of Talgarth, by Anne Delahay (the Delahays, also, were of some consequence 150 years back), and the last of the Breconshire High Sheriff 1 ranch was Edward Wynter, of Tredustan's son, Robert, who, however, died without issue. It is, therefore, clear that the later Wynters of Brecon were not descended of the eldest son, but of the second son, Dr. Wynter, of Cantreff. Dr. Wynter had a son John, who married a daughter of Howel David Prosser, of Gaer. John Wynter, of Cantreff's son was William Wynter, apothecary, of Brecon (there was a William Wynter, of Brecknock, H.S. of the county in 1695, and bailiff of Brecon, September 1693). The apothecary of Brecon had a son Daniel, who died in 1668, leaving two sons and a daughter, (i) William Wynter, of Brecon, apothecary, who married a Shropshire lady ; (ii), Daniel Wynter, of Cefn y fedw; (iii), and Anne, who married Lewis Jones, of Brecon. William Wynter, of Brecon (apothecary) had a son Dr. Wynter, who married Anne, daughter of Richard James, of Llwynbered, in Llanigon. Dr. Wynter died in 1725, having filled the office of bailiff of Brecon in 1720. Dr. Wynter's son was William Wynter, Esq , H.S. of Brecknock in 1729, and this is the last time we find a Wynter filling this public position or the chief magistracy of the borough. William Wynter married Mary, daughter of Thomas Jones, of Tredustan, and he died in 1758, leaving several children, the two eldest, Thomas and John, dying young, the family estates descending upon the Rev. William Wynter, Rector of Penderyn, Breconshire. The Wynters of Brecon appear to have become possessed of the living of Penderyn in the seventeenth century, and it was held by them until the year 1806, when the next presentation and the living was sold. The Rev. William Wynter, who married Jane Wheeler, died in 1792, and had issue (i) William Wynter, who married Elizabeth