Welsh Journals

' OLD BRECKNOCK CHIPS." A Column of Antiquarian Chit-Chat relating to the County of Brecknock. NOTES, QUERIES, AND REPLIES, on Subjects inter¬ esting to Breconshiie, mast be addressed EDITOR, Brecon County Times, Brecon. Real names and addresses must be given in confidence, and MSS. most be written legibly, on one side of the paper only. JANUARY 7th, 1887. NOTES. THE AWBEEY FAMILY. {Continuedfrom Bee. 3rd.) "To spend the day with merry cheer, To drink and revel every night; To card and dice from eve till morn, It was, I ween, his heart's delight." " My gold is gone,*my money is spent, My land now take it unto thee; Give me the gold, good John o' the Scales, And thine for aye'my land shall Jbe." " He told him the gold upon the boa'd, He was right glad his'land to win ; " The gold is thine, the land is mine, And now >'ll be the Lord of Linne." Thus hath he sold his land so broad, Both hiU and holt, and moor and fen." The Heir oe Linne. Sir Edward Awbrey, Knight, eldest son and heir of Dr. Awbrey, married Joan daughter and heiress of William Havard of Tredomen (her mother was Anne daughter of Christopher Vaughan of Tretwr). They resided at Tredomen in Llanfillo, Bucking¬ ham House being their home in Brecon, the leading families in those days coming into residence in the county town during the Assize weeks and other times, when County business or pleasure required their presence. They had six sons, Sir William, Thomas, John, Hopkin, Edward and Havard, and two daughters, Elinor married Matthew Herbert of Cilibebill, (her third son William was captain in an expedition against the Scots—Colonel of a regiment of foot, and Governor of Plymouth. He died at Swansea, 13th June, 1668, and is buried ia the Herbert Chapel there), and Wilgiford (another form of Millicent) married John Games of Aber- bran. Sir Edward Awbrey was High Sheriff of the county of Brecknock three times, in the years 1583, 1589, and 1599. On his death he was succeeded in his large estates by his eldest son Sir William Awbrey, Knight, of Tredomen, who was High Sheriff in 1607, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Johnes of Abermarlais, and had six sons and three daughters—Edward, Reginald, slain in Edgehill fight, John, Thomas, who was Chancellor of St. David's and died 1665, Harry, John, Catherine, Jane married John Bailey of Ruthyn, and Elinor marded Gregory Parry of Trostre, whose representa¬ tive was the late Mr Parry de Winton of Maesderwen. Sir William Awbrey, surnamed " the Ex¬ travagant," sold Abercynrig, and squandered the large fortune inherited from his father. His will proved in Brecon in 1631 shews the state of poverty to which he was reduced; he begins by asking that he may be buried in the College Church of St. David's in the Awbreys' Chapel there, as near as convenient to his children there interred ; and " for the avoyding of future contestation," he proceeds, " between my wife and children, I bequeath what little estale God hath left me as follows, to my allies-man and honoured kinsman Sir Henry Williams of Gwernyfed, Knight, and my beloved uncle, William Awbrey, Doctor of Laws," (he was his cousin, but according to a custom still existing in Wales, he calls him "uncle." Dr. Awbrey was Chancellor of St. David's in 1614.) " My allies-man Anthony Gwyn of Llansannor, Esquire, my Uncle William Awbrey, Eector of Cantreff, clerk, (again a cousin,) my Uncle John Maddocks of Llanfrynach, Esquire, all my lands in Llanfillo, etc. (not in settlement,) in trust to be sold to discharge a mortgage due from me to Anthony Gwyn and his servant Richard Eustance, and to apply the surplus as follows : One hundred pounds to my wife to stock the demaynes with power to dispose of that sum among such of our younger children, as she may think proper." And then after giving several legacies to his younger children, he adds, "I giye fifty pounds towards settling my son John Awbrey an apprentice, if he be capable, if not, the money to remayne in the hands of the trustees for his use, and he to be sent to service! I desire that if the House in Town can be saved and not sould, my wife may have the use of it for her life, and afterwards to descend to my son and heir apparent, but if that cannot be, then to go to the uses aforesaid, and I make constitute and appoint you five to be overseers of this my will, humbly desiring you upon ths knees of my hart, as you truly loved me in my lifetime, you will after my decesse see my will performed." It is pathetic to note his anxiety to save " the house in Town " from the wreck of his fortune, for the old house does possess a wondrous power of inspiring affection in those who have dwelt within its walls, and still in memory throws its charm over all who have gathered round its hearth. And thinking of those who in former generations