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be made one of the judges in Westminster Hall, but in this again he was disappointed, because, so it was suggested, of his refusal to bribe Clarendon, the Lord Chancellor. He soon retired to Hensol where he became a patron of Welsh bards and presided at the annual eisteddfod held at Ystradowen. It was in these quiet pursuits that he passed the remaining years of his life, for at the age of eighty one he died at Cowbridge on 6 December 1663.1 Jenkins belonged to the first generation of his family to adopt the surname: he seems also to have been the first of his immediate family to achieve more than local renown. But he was descended from proud and noble stock. On his father's side he could trace his descent from Maenarch, Prince of Bry- cheiniog; through his mother he was descended from the Blaen Baglan Williamses, who were themselves of the stock of Gwrgan, Lord of Glamorgan. On both sides, then, he was descended from old Welsh families of consequence, long settled in the county. While he could claim distant connections with prominent Brecknockshire families-the Games family of Newton and Aber-bran, the Powells of Castell Madog, and the Williamses of Carreg Fawr, Ystradfellte and Gwernyfed-his contacts with prominent and well-to-do families of the county were obviously much closer. On his father's side there were the Watkins family of Swansea, the Baynhams of Clearwell and the Howell family of Hendresgythan on his mother's side the Williamses of Blaen Baglan and of Aberpergwm, and the Thomases of Bettws and of Brigan. His marriage with Cecil, daughter of Sir William Awbrey of Llantrithyd, brought him into closer ties with the Baskervilles of Pontrilas, the Gwynns of Llansannor, the Buttons of Dyffryn and the Stradlings of St. Donats.2 He was, then, a member of an identifiable social group in Wales, related by close ties of kinship with many families within 1 For the details of his life and career, see Dictionary of National Biography, s.n. Jenkins, David. 2 For Jenkin's family connections, see G. T. Clark, Limbus Patrum Morganiae et Glamor ganiae (London, 1886), pp. 9o, 193 et seq.