Welsh Journals

1 Cgmmrodor. VOL. XXVII. "CARED DOETH YR ENCILION." 1917. Bendictine Abbep of §(. marp at §bt Dogmaels By HERBERT M. VAUGHAN, F.S.A., Member of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion. History.-No doubt there existed at or near the present St. Dogmaels, or Llandudoch, in pre-Norman times, a small Celtic monastic foundation which derived its name from Dogfael, the great-grandson of Cunedda Wledig, who flourished in the fifth century/ This former Celtic house, however, did not occupy the site of the later Bene- dictine Abbey of Robert Fitz Martin, son and heir of Martin, commonly named Martin de Tours, the original conqueror and grantee of the lordship of Cemaes, or Kemeys. Of this Martin the Elder we have it on the authority of Mr. Horace Round, our leading mediaeval historian, that "nothing is really known about him" beyond the circumstance of this conquest and grant of land in Dyfed. Nevertheless, Mr. Round suggests that he may be identical with the "Martinus de Wales" whose name appears first in the foundation charter of Totnes priory in Devon, which shire was the home of this powerful family. In any case, it was the son and heir of this knight, Robert Fitz Martin, second lord of Cemaes, 1 See Arch. Camb. Journal, October 1864, p. 302. Article by the Rev. Henry Vincent. Also West Wales Hist. Records, vol. iii, p. 280.