Welsh Journals

278 BYE-GONES. Feb. 5, 1896. or Mr Walter Meredith — to get sum¬ monses signed. Justices were then very scarce, and the trial of prisoners was often delayed, and prisoners were kept in prison. Their Clerk had been at his post since that change, and they were very pleased to see him still in the service of the Queen. They expressed their sympathy with the family.—The Clerk (Mr J. Allington Hughes) said if they would kindly allow him to send a letter, expressing their sympathy with the family of Mr Jones, he would be only too pleased. He could say that he had been clerk during the time Mr Jones had been a magistrate, and he could en¬ dorse what they had said. Mr Jones took a very great interest in the decisions and the duties of that Court. He always attended as long as his health would permit him.—Mr Stanley D. Edis- bury said as the only member of the legal profes¬ sion present, except their Clerk, might he, on be¬ half of that profession, endorse all that had been said. There was a landmark gone from Wrexham and they should all miss him very much. The funeral took place yesterday, the remains being interred in Gresford Churchyard. FEBRUARY 5, 1S96. NOTES. JOHN PENRY THE WELSH MARTYR.— Your readers will recollect the most touching testimony which John Penry left addressed to his four daughters, dated 4th April, 1593, and many searches have been made as to their pedi¬ gree. Dr John Brown of Bedford, the well- known author of John Bunyan's Life, has re¬ cently made a most interesting discovery, of which he has given me particulars. He obtained from the register of the Marriages of the Exiles for conscience at Amsterdam the following ex¬ tract which, no doubt, gives the marriage of a daughter of John Penry :— 1611. Mei 14, Samuel Whitaker Van Somersetshire, bombazi forwerker 23 j. en Deliverance Penry van Hamptonshire 21 j. Dr Brown adds—Of course the j stands for jaar. John Penry, it will be recollected, had lived in Northamptonshire, and no doubt his young widow and family, after his martyrdom, left England for Holland with other exiles. J.P.-J. REMINISCENCES OF LLANFYLLIN IN THE EARLY THIRTIES, Continued (Jan. 15, 1896). MR. JONES, SUPERVISOR—My first recollection of Mr J ones goes back to 1828, near Westbury, and in Llanfyllin the same year, but a family intimacy had existed some eleven or twelve years earlier. Mr Jones long resided at Llanfyllin, and died there in 1843 at the age of seventy-one. He was a central and important and leading personage in the town, and most highly respected. His port and manner bore quite the character of the British gentleman, which hewas. Hisofficial dutieawerecharacfcerised by straightforward exactness and regularity, yet with cordial geniality, and I never heard of a mean or captious action being done by him to a trader, or to anyone, during his long career in a very heavy district. My last shake of the hand with him was in August, 1839. The Llan¬ fyllin excise district, for a number of years in his time, was one of the heaviest,extending in length from Westbury, beyond the Breidden, in Shrop¬ shire, to Bala, Llanuwchllyn and Drwsynant, between Bala and Dolgelley, beyond the Berwyn in Merionethshire, and across, from Llanfair Caereinion to Llansilin and Llanarmon-Dyffryn- Ceiriog. He had a fondness for a certain Anda- lusian kind of cross-bred horse suitable for hard riding, noted for safe-footedness in up and down hill carrying. The very lonely and wild Berwyn mountain was often crossed by him at night, winter or summer, fearless of highwaymen or other evil. Returning home, sometimes start¬ ing from Drwsynant about seven in the evening, or from Bala, when half the local world of human life was asleep, after parting at the Bala toll- gate with his friend, the Bala officer, he would throw the bridle over his arm or tie it short down, then fold his arms and sleep the whole road over that mountain, leaving the animal to find out the way to Llanfyllin, and take his own time. When the Llangynog (closed) toll- gate was reached both rider and gateman often had their slumbers broken by the animal's voice, which woke up also at the same time the echoes of the rocks, at four in the morning. Mr Jones was the son of Mr Isaac Jonos of Bulthy, near Alberbury, who was grandson of Edward Jones of Sandford Hall, of the old family of Joneses of Chilton Hall, near Shrewsbury, which family throughout their generations bore heraldic arms. The Joneses of Chilton, according to the genealogical records of several of the Deputy Welsh Heralds, were in lineal descent from Ednowain Bendew1 for the Inflexible), Lord of Tegeingl, founder of one of the Fifteen Patrician Tribes of W7ales. Of Richard Jonea of Chilton, who was twelfth in descent from Ednowain, it is recorded that he gave such substantial aid to Henry VII., on his way to Bos- worth, that Henry, in 1488, caused his arms to be changed from the Ednowain arms :—Ar. a chevron between 3 boars' heads vert — into Ar. 1. Bendew refers more definitely, I think, to the quali¬ ties of the mind or temper of the man.rather than to any- physical quality of the skull, as ordinarily rendered, which term, " y pendew," is to this day in common use to denote, with other meanings, one of an inflexible will or temper, which is the meaning, I think, most suitable. Ednowain lived, it is said, contemporary with Idwal ap Iago, to Gruffydd ap Cynan, Sovereigns of North Wales, and with Harold, Edward the Confessor, and William I., Kings of England. He is said to have had two residences, one in the township of Ednowain, at Llanrhydwen (White- ford), the other at Llys-Coed-y-mynydd, in the parish of Nannerch, Flintshire.