Welsh Journals

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112 WALES. Owen Glendower's " fifth and youngest daughter, Margaret, was married to Roger Monington, of Monington, in the county of Hereford. Mr. Pennant says that he had the pleasure of seeing at his house two ladies, owners of Monington, and direct descendants from the daughter of Glyndwr." On the same page 51 we read that " his second daughter, Elizabeth,—according to some, Alicia,—-was married to Sir John Scudamore, of Ewyas and Holme Lacy, and proprietor of Kentchurch Court, Hereford¬ shire." It so happens that at about six miles distant from Kentchurch Court there is, in the parish of Vowchurch, distant 1(H miles W. S. W. of Hereford, a small district called Monington and Straddle, and I have heard a resident express belief that Owen Glendower was buried there. This Monington in the Golden Valley was most probably a portion of the estate of Scudamore, proprietor of Kentchurch Court, which would support the Rev. Thomas Thomas' statement, on page 169 of "Memoirs,"that ''Kentchurch also claims the honour of being the place of his interment." We must not leave Kentchurch without allusion to the mysterious John of Kent (Sion Cent of the Welsh), of whom a portrait still hangs as a heirloom on the walls of Kentchurch Court, but the allusion is only made in order to dispel any belief that this is our hero under a feigned name, as has been suggested. This singular personage was held up as a universal benefactor, a second Doctor Faustus, by some supposed to be a worker of miracles, a Franciscan monk, a bard of Glyndwr, domesticated at Kentchurch after the defeat of his chieftain, mentioned by Leland as a man of uncommon bearing and great sanctity. He was most probably a clergyman of Herefordshire and a poet. Owen Glendower's third daughter Janet married, as we are informed on page 51 of "Memoirs," John Crofts of Croft Castle, distant 18 miles N. N. W. from Hereford. Thus we observe that three of his daughters married into families of distinction in Herefordshire, and it becomes very natural to conjecture that after his proscription he would endeavour to seek seclusion and refuge in the house of a daughter. The author of* " Memoirs " says on page 50,—" History is silent as to the number of his sons,—it seems they were grown up> and commanded under him. That they fell in battle is highly probable." The date is not given of Owen's marriage to Margaret, daughter of David Hanmer, oi Hanmer, in the county of Flint, a justice of the King's Bench. On page 39 of the manuscripts of the late Rev. J. Webb, of Tretire, Hereford' shire,—the original collector of materials incorporated in the two-volume work, " The Civil War in Herefordshire," edited and completed by his son, Rev. T. W< Webb,—which manuscripts are now in the Hereford Cathedral Library, we read,-—' " There is a record in the Tower of London, published by Mr. Rymer; in Faedera, torn- viii., pages 608 and 753: torn, ix., pages 283 and 330. Browne Willis, Esq., in 'his history of the Bishop of Bangor, says:—' Owen Glendower died, and was buried at Monington, the 20th September, 1415, etc' So far pro ; henceforth contra. Judge W. H. Cooke, recently deceased, historian of Herefordshire, informs us that at the time of Owen Glendower's rebellion, and for many years afterwards, MoningtoU on Wye was never possessed by an ownef named Monington. Reference to pages 131 et seqq, of his continuation of Duncumb'S History of Herefordshire, proves that Monington was in possession of the Audley family at the period of Owen Glendower's rebellion, and for many years afterwards, until 1525. The visitation of 1634, he adds in a footnote on page 137, " contains a pedigree of Monington commencing in 1385, yet does not include a marriage with a daughter of Owen Glendower."* Judge Cooke thus assumes that the tradition of Monington on Wye being the burial place of Owen Glendower was only founded on prominent credulity during four centuries- (p. 135). Judge Cooke reminds us of the pre clamation that Englishmen who married women of the kindred of Owen, traitor to the king, or any other Welsh woman, became disqualified from holding office in * In the visitation of lf>69, Hugh de Monington of Sarnestield is given as M.P. for Herefordshire in 1304. Tho piirish o» Sarnesfleld is situated seven miles north of Monington on Wye, and in the Church there are several monuments to the family of Monington.