Welsh Journals

THE SOCIAL ORDER IN TUDOR WALES* (The Cecil-Williams Memorial Lecture, 1967) by Professor W. OGWEN WILLIAMS, M.A., D.A.A. SIR JOHN WYNN of Gwydir in his history of his own family tells a story concerning his great grandfather, Maredudd ap Ieuan ap Robert, who lived in the reign of Henry VII.1 Maredudd was entertaining at Gwydir a certain Robin Iachwr (that is, Robin the Genealogist or, perhaps, Robin the Pedigrees as he might be called in English), the greatest antiquarie of our countrey', says Sir John of him. Robin Iachwr on this occasion accompanied the squire of Gwydir to a chwirwiva gampe' (a hurling match, pre- sumably) held at Llanrwst nearby, where the countrey was assembled Before setting out Robin asked his host whither he woulde comande him any service thither'. 'Nothing', replied the squire, 'but', he added, having by chance a nosegay in his hand, deliver this nosegaie to the best gent thow seest in the company upon the creditte of thy skill'. No doubt the squire expected the nosegay to be returned to him. But Robin Iachwr was a better genealogist than he was a courtier. He delivered the nosegay, in the presence of all the company, to one Llywelyn ap David, a poor freeholder of Mathebrwyd, one of the townships near Llanrwst. This incident was evidently long remembered and the story had clearly made a considerable impression on Sir John Wynn. He had known the freeholder's son, Rhys Llywelyn ap David, and had tried to obtain a record of his pedigree, but had drawn a blank. 'The reason is,' he observes, that povertie soone forgett whence it be discended, for it is an auncient receaved sayinge that there is noe povertie but is discended of nobilitie nor noe nobilitie but is discended of beggerie.' It is hard to believe that Sir John Wynn really believed this to be true. Indeed, a few lines further on he proudly proclaims with reference to his own ancestry, yet a great Delivered before the Society in London on 7 June 1967. Chairman Sir David Evans, o.B.E., D.LITT. (Member of the Council). 1 John Wynn, The History of the Gwydir Family, ed. John Ballinger (Cardiff, 1927), p. 36.