Gruffudd ap Nicolas

• Preferred Name: Gruffudd ap Nicolas^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]}
  
• Alternate Name: Gruffydd ap Nicholas
  
• Gender: M
  
• FSID: LY19-JG7
  
• Death: 1 FEB 1461 in Mortimers Cross, Herefordshire, England at LATI: N2.2685 LONG: E2.8446
  
• Birth: 1393 in Llandeilo Fawr, Maernordeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales at LATI: N1.8822 LONG: E3.9952
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  Gruffydd ap Nicolas Fitz Hryan
  Also Known As: "Griffith Ap Nicholas ", "Griffith Ap Nicholas", "Graffudd Ap Nicholas", "Griffith Ap Nikolas", "Gruffudd Ap Nicholas", "Gruffydd Ap Nicholas", "Gruffydd Ap Nicolas"
  
  Birth 1393 Sheffield, Rotherdam, England
  Death: February 1, 1461 in England at the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross.
  
  Immediate Family:
  Son of Nicholas ap Phylip and Jonet verch Gruffydd
  Husband of jane Jones; Mabli verch Maredudd Dwnn and ? Perrott
  
  Father of Mabel ap Gruffyd; Pembroke ap Gruffyd; LLEUCU VERCH GRUFFUDD; Margred Verch GRUFFUDD; Owain Ap Gruffudd and 4 others
  
  Military and death research
  In 1461, a Lancastrian army raised in Wales under Jasper Tudor, the Earl of Pembroke, moved into England but was defeated at the Battle of Mortimer's Cross by Edward, Earl of March (the eldest son of
  
  Casualty of the War of the Roses
  Battle of Mortimer's Cross
  From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
  
  Date2 February 1461
  LocationWigmore in Herefordshire, England
  
  The Battle of Mortimer's Cross was fought on 2 February 1461
  
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  === Leigh.org ===
  He was called the "most powerful of the Welsh gentry of his day" (J. Davies pp. 208-9), and his life and activities are given in the HISTORICAL NARRATIVE. His pedigree shows three wives (Einion ap Llywarch 7), and twelve daughters and four sons who reached adulthood, and many have historical confirmation.
  
  === !#4569-v4-p530; had issue [M 369, RV 504 ===
  !#4569-v4-p530; had issue [M 369, RV 504, FL 160];
  
  === 1385 ===
  1385
  
  === Gruffudd ap Nicolas (fl 1425-56), an esq ===
  Gruffudd ap Nicolas (fl 1425-56), an esquire and a leading figure in the local administration of the principality of South Wales in the middle of the 15th cent. Nothing is known of his early years, but it is said that he was the posthumous son of Nicolas ap Phylip ap Syr Elidir Ddu (one of the knights of the Sepulchre) by his wife Jennett, daughter of Gruffydd ap Llewelyn Foethus. The first authentic record of him is as holder of the office of king's approver for the lordship and new town of Dynevor in 1425. He was sheriff of Carmarthenshire in 1436. With Edmund Beaufort, parts of the lands of Phillip Clement were demised to him in 1437. He was a power to be feared in West Wales in 1438, according to the evidence of Margaret Malefant in a petition to Parliament. He was farmer of the lordship of Dynevor in 1439, and his son John shared the office with him. In that same year we find his son Thomas escheator for Cardiganshire. In 1442-3, he again came to the notice of the authorities in London, when he and the abbot of Whitland were summoned to the metorpolis and the Privy Council ordered the arrest of his son Owen. Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, was his patron, and he received, 24 July 1443, the custody of the lordship of Caron and the commote of Pennarth during the minority of Maud, heiress of William Clement. He held session on behalf of duke Humphrey in the counties of Carmarthen and Cardigan. When the English inhabitants of North Wales towns petitioned Parliament in 1444, against the denization of more Welshmen, he and William Bulkeley were excepted by name. He was placed on a commission to enquire into the felonies committed by David ap Meredith in Aberystwyth 2 July 1445. The fall of his patron in 1447 brought him into trouble, and he was imprisoned with other members of duke Humphrey's retinue. He was soon released and managed to retain the confidence of the court, continuing to act for the Justice of South Wales and, occasionally, for the chamberlain. John Delabere, bishop of S Davids, 1447-c. 1460, committed his bishopric to his care, and the duke of York obtained licence, 13 May 1449, to grant him and the bishop the castle, manor, and town of Narberth. He and his son Thomas were placed on a commission for the defence of the ports of south-west Wales, to muster forces, and erect beacons, 7 Oct 1450. About this time, when he was at the zenith of his power, the Carmarthen eisteddfod was held. The date and details are uncertain - reports vary between 1451 and 1453. Some maintain that it lasted three months at his cost at Dynevor and others state that it lasted a fortnight and that it was held at Carmarthen. It is agreed that Gruffudd ap Nicolas was judge over the poets, and that the chair was awarded to Dafydd ab Edmwnd. It is pretty certain also that the eisteddfod revised the bardic metres and regulated the bardic fraternity. In 1454-5, the castle of Carregcennen was repaired and garrisoned upon his command. On the verge of the Wars of the Roses, he was on good terms with the court of Henry VI, and after the Yorkist victory at S Albans, 1455, he lost some of his offices. Yet, he appears to have taken offence at the coming of Edmund, earl of Richmond, to Pembroke, in 1456 if he was the 'Gruffith Suoh' who, with the earl of Richmond, was reported, 7 June 1456, by John Bocking, in a letter to John Paston, to be at war greatly in Wales. HOwever, he and his sons, Thomas and Owen, were granted general pardons on 26 Oct 1456. His name then disappears from the records. Had he been alive on 1 March 1459 it is difficult to imagine that his name would have been left out of a commission entrusted to his two sons, Thomas and Owen, with Jasper and Owen Tudor. It is, therefore, impossible to accept the reports that he was mortally wounded either at the battle of Wakefield, 1460, or at Mortimer's Cross, 1461. His praises were sung by Dafydd ab Edmwnd, Hywel ap Dafydd ap Ieuan ap Rhys, Rhys Llwyd ap Rhys ap Rhicert, Gwilym ap Ieuan He, and Lewis Glyn Cothi. It is probable that the englynion attributed to him and Owen Dwnn and Griffith Benrhaw had their origin in the humour of bardic festivities. It is said that he was thrice m: (1) to Mabel, daughter of Meredith ap Henry Dwnn, (2) to a daughter of Sir Thomas Perrot, and (3) to Jane, daughter of Jenkin ap Rhys ap Dafydd of Gilfach-wen. Three of his sons have been named, John who disappears early from the records, Owen, heir of Bryn y Beirdd, and Lewis Glyn Cothi's companion in hiding, and Thomas, who was slain in a skirmish at Pennal, probably during lord Herbert's expedition into North Wles in 1468. He was the father of Sir Rhys ap Thomas (1449-1525). [Dictionary of Welsh Biography p313]
  
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  (children known)
  
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  === BIRTH-MARRIAGE:"WELSH GENEALOGIES AD300- ===
  BIRTH-MARRIAGE:"WELSH GENEALOGIES AD300-1400," by Peter Clement Bartrum, published by The University of Wales Press, 1980.
  
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  === Leigh.org ===
  GRUFFUDD ap NICHOLAS was named after his maternal grandfather GRUFFUDD ap LLYWELYN FOETHUS. The family then lived at Crug (mound) near Llandeilo and within a short distance of Newton and Dinefwr, where later GRUFFUDD and his descendants became established. GRUFFUDD surpassed his ancestors by becoming the most powerful of the king’s subjects in west Wales, and Griffiths describes his career in “Gruffudd ap Nicholas and the Rise of the House of Dinefwr,” (NLWJ, pp.256-268.) GRUFFUDD began by being appointed in 1415 to collect money from the sale of escheated lands in Iscennen, i.e. lands that had reverted to the king on the death of a landholder without heirs, and from 1416 an increasing number of offices and leases of land and profits came his way. From 1433 he acted as deputy to Edmund Beaufort as steward of Kidwelly, and it was probably due to Beaufort’s influence that he received English denizenship. His connection with Dinefwr castle had begun in 1425, when he became approver of the royal demesnes there. In 1429 he was acting as joint Constable, and in 1440 he secured a lease on favorable terms of the lordship of Dinefwr and the town of Newton, which he held until 1456. John Davies calls him “the most powerful of the Welsh gentry of his day” (p.209). Evans calls him “a remarkable character who dominated West Wales in the middle of the fifteenth century,” and says he “was intensely national, and in his generous patronage of the bards he faithfully mirrors the Welsh aristocracy of his day” (p.15).
  To rise to power he made himself indispensable to successive holders of high office (primarily Englishmen) who had little time to devote to their Welsh duties during the troubled reign of Henry VI. He deputized much of the time between 1443 and 1456 in the major role of Justiciar of south Wales, the political and judicial head of royal government, responsible to the king. During this period he built up vast landholdings in Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire, and many Welshmen complained to the king’s Council of his abuse of power, but Henry VI was too weak to take effective action. Though GRUFFUDD used his offices to build his own estate, and his example was followed by his sons and grandsons, others among his contemporaries were equally acquisitive (J.Davies p.209).
  GRUFFUDD was also eulogized by the poets, Lewis Glyn Cothi describing him as the ”Constantine of great Carmarthen.” He is credited with having summoned and presided over an eisteddfod at Carmarthen in 1453 at which the Twenty-four Metres of Welsh prosody were agreed upon. He considered Carmarthen Castle as his own home (J.Davies p.210).
  His power was curbed after the Yorkist victory at St Albans in 1455, but he was still the main supporter of the Lancastrians in south Wales when Queen Margaret sent her husband’s step-brother Edmund Tudor there in 1456 to re-establish the power of the crown. GRUFFUDD may have seen Edmund as a rival, and they were reported in letters of the Paston family as personal enemies (Evans p.55; Griffiths, Welsh History Review, Vol. II, p.225). But if he committed any offenses, he and his sons OWAIN and Thomas received a full pardon from the new government of the Queen by 1456, according to Griffiths (p.226).
  GRUFFUDD’s last known act was to make over to his son OWAIN the castle and lordship of Narberth in February 1460/1, and he is likely to have died soon afterwards (Griffiths, Sir Rhys p.24). GRUFFUDD’S wife, MABLI DWNN, will be taken up later with her own important family.

1. Owain ap Gruffudd ap Nicholas, b. ABT 1425 in Bryn-y-beirdd, Llandeilo Fawr, Carmarthenshire, Wales    
2. Thomas Hunaf Ap Gruffydd Fitz Uryn, b. 1425 in Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales, United Kingdom     d. 1474 in Wales

• m. 1418 in Carmarthenshire, Wales
• m. 1411 in Glamorgan, Wales

1. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Gruffudd Ap Nicolas -
   Author: A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. London, England: Hurst and Blac, Page number: 628
   Note: Source Media Type: Book
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736742602
   
2. Title: Web: Netherlands, GenealogieOnline Trees Index, 1000-2015
   Publication: Name: https://search.ancestry.com/collections/9289/records/11401703;
   
3. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Thomas Gruffudd - Individual or family possessions: birth-name: Thomas Gruffudd
   Note: Individual or family possessions: birth-name: Thomas Gruffudd Individual or family possessions: male Individual or family possessions: birth: 1393; St Peter Carmarthen, Carmarthenshire, Wales Individual or family possessions: death: 1 February 1461; Mortimers Cross, Herefordshire, England
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:3244503081
   
4. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Gruffudd Ap Nicolas -
   Author: Ancestry Family Trees, Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members., Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, Page number: Ancestry Family Trees
   Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:3246907528
   
5. Title: Gruffudd Ap Nicolas in the Millennium File
   Author: "Gruffudd Ap Nicolas in the Millennium File." Gruffudd Ap Nicolas in the Millennium File. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May. 2018. .
   Publication: Name: https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&h=10063327&dbid=7249;
   Note: Source created by http://RecordSeek.com
   Page: Created by http://RecordSeek.com
   
6. Title: Pembrokeshire Names In Its History Records by Basil H J Hughes
   Author: Internet Archive Google search
   Publication: Name: https://archive.org/details/PembrokeshireNamesInItsHistoryRecords/page/n2753/mode/2up?q=Wyriott;
   Note: Page n2753 Paragraph of Thomas Perrot talks of his marriage to the Picton family and gives names and the date of 1422, showing how he was responsible for rent on the picton estate. gives reltionship to parents and spouse and then goes on with sisters and their spouses.
   Page: Page n2753 Paragraph of Thomas Perrot talks of his marriage to the Picton family and gives names and the date of 1422, showing how he was responsible for rent on the picton estate. gives reltionship to parents and spouse and then goes on with sisters and their spouses.
   
7. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Gruffudd Ap Nicolas -
   Author: History of Maunselll, or Mansel; Robert George Maunselll [1903], Page number: 19
   Note: Source Media Type: Book
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736742990
   
8. Title: GRUFFUDD ap NICOLAS ( fl. 1425-1456 ), an esquire and a leading figure in the local administration of the principality of South Wales in the middle of the 15th cent
   Author: "GRUFFUDD ap NICOLAS ( fl. 1425-1456 ), an esquire and a leading figure in the local administration of the principality of South Wales in the middle of the 15th cent.." GRUFFUDD ap NICOLAS ( fl. 1425-1456 ), an esquire and a leading figure in the local administration of the principality of South Wales in the middle of the 15th cent.. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 May. 2018. .
   Publication: Name: http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-GRUF-APN-1425.html;
   Note: Source created by http://RecordSeek.com
   Page: Created by http://RecordSeek.com
   
9. Title: Wales, Dictionary of Welsh Biography: GRUFFUDD ap NICOLAS
   Publication: Name: http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-GRUF-APN-1425.html;
   Page: Credible online source, associated with LGCNLW, The Honorable Society of Cymmrodorion, University of Wales, has compiled notes and information from multiple sources to one online page containing the life of Gruffud ap Nicolas, father of Mary, married to Phillip Mansel.
   
10. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Gruffudd Ap Nicolas -
    Author: History of the Family of Maunselll (Mansell, Mansel); Edward Phillips Statham {1917-1920}, Page number: I:245
    Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736742989
    
11. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Griffith Ap Fitz Uryan -
    Author: Ancestry Family Trees, Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members., Ancestry.com, http://www.Ancestry.com, Page number: Ancestry Family Trees
    Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.
    Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:3246200662
    
12. Title: Legacy NFS Source: Gruffudd Ap Nicolas -
    Author: Dictionary of Welsh Biography down to 1940; John Edward Lloyd & R T Jenkins, Ed. {1957}, Page number: 313, 611
    Note: Source Media Type: Book
    Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2736742404
    
13. Title: Web: Netherlands, GenealogieOnline Trees Index, 1000-2015
    Publication: Name: https://search.ancestry.com/collections/9289/records/11401703;
    
14. Title: Wales Names, Personal - Patronymic Names - FamilySearch Wiki
    Author: FamilySearch Wiki Wales Names, Personal Bibliographic details for Wales Names, Personal Page name: Wales Names, Personal Author: FamilySearch Wiki contributors Publisher: FamilySearch Wiki, . Date of last revision: 20 June 2019 20:19 UTC Date retrieved: 30 March 2020 05:04 UTC Permanent URL: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Wales_Names,_Personal&oldid=3626033 Page Version ID: 3626033
    Publication: Name: https://www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Wales_Names,_Personal&oldid=3626033;
    Note: Patronymic Names Before record keeping began, most people only had a first name. As the population increased, people began adding descriptive information, such as John "the smith," to a person’s name to distinguish him or her from others with the same name. At first, a surname applied only to one person and not to the whole family. Patronymic surnames are based on the father’s given name. Generally, ap or ab was added between the child’s name and the father’s name. For example, David ab Owen is David "son of" Owen. For a woman’s name, the word ferch or verch (often abbreviated to vch), meaning "daughter of", was used. There were many exceptions to this: The family could drop the 'ab' or 'ap'. In this case, his name would have been simply David Owen. The family could drop the 'a' and attach the remaining 'p' or 'b' to the father’s name. For example, 'David ab Owen' could have been 'David Bowen'. In dealing with patronymic names, remember: The absence of 'ap' or 'ab' does not mean the family adopted a permanent surname. In south Wales particularly, patronymic surnames appeared without the 'ap' or 'ab'. Different naming patterns were often used in the same family. For example, Harry John’s six sons were named Griffith ap Harry, John Parry, Harry Griffith, Richard Parry, Miles ap Harry, and Thomas Parry. They might equally have used the surname John(s) or Jones. An illegitimate child may have used the given or surname of the reputed father, the surname of the mother, or the given or surname of the family who raised the child. Some families used patronymics after adopting a permanent surname. Never assume that a surname is a permanent surname. The father’s given name may be spelled differently as a surname even though it is pronounced the same (for example, Davies from David). The name may have been anglicized. Patronymic surnames changed with each generation. A widow may have reverted to using her maiden surname.
    
15. Title: Archaeologia Cambrensis A record of the Antiquities of Wales and its Marches and the Journal of the Cambrian Archaeological Association Tucker Perrot family
    Author: Google search for Tucker family and Perrot relationship
    Publication: Name: https://journals.library.wales/view/2919943/2996217/28#?xywh=118%2C89%2C1628%2C1570;
    Note: shows relationships and names gives history
    Page: page 21 shows relationship to second spouse margaret perrot