Welsh Journals

with confidence in the latter half of the eleventh century, which is supported by other fixed dates occurring in the lineage. As I have already treated the medieval section of the pedigreel it is not necessary to discuss it in detail here. I feel we can accept the father-son affiliations, but I am less confident about the identity of the wives, which I have discovered to be uncertain, and can sometimes be shown to be impossible. Having entered this caveat, I must say that I have discovered no suspicious feature to cast doubt on the identity of the wives in the later section of this lineage. Gwynfardd Dyfed is considered to have been a 'regulus', kinglet, in north Pembrokeshire, and it is not unlikely that he was in fact a chieftain or uchelwr of local importance, but his alleged descent from an earlier royal family of Dyfed lacks confirmation. Gwynfardd was followed by a son, Cyhylyn, about whom quite a number of interesting legends have survived.2 Whether they have basis in fact is of secondary importance. What is significant is that they should have been associated with Cyhylyn at all, which suggests that his position in the community, and the memory of it was sufficiently important to attract such legends. Cyhylyn's two sons Gwrwared and Llywelyn were powerful enough to force the Norman lord of Cemais to grant the pasturage of the commons of the Presely hills to them and their heirs, to be held to the use of the commoners of the lordship, and afterwards confirmed "to the heirs of Gwrwared and Llewelyn sons of Kyhylyn" by Nicholas Martin who succeeded as Lord of Cemais in 1243.3 Gwrwared was followed by his son Gwilym (or William) who led plundering raids on the prebend of Mathry with the result that he was excommunicated by the Church. This occurred between 1175 and 1203 and Sir John Lloyd placed the probable date as circa 1195. After the unruly Gwilym came his son Gwrwared who is said to have married Gwenllian a daughter of Ednyfed Fychan, seneschal of Gwynedd who died in 1246. Whether true or not, the chronology makes it possible for such a marriage to have taken place. Gwrwared was followed by Gwilym, also called William in contemporary records, a "king's man" who held appointments in the royal service. In 1240-1 he was constable of the lordship of Cemais, in 1252 the King's seneschal over the lands of Maelgwn, and in 1260 was constable of Cardigan. This was in keeping with the political attitudes of his kinsfolk, several of whom held public appointments of trust. Then came Gwilym's son Ievan who is said to have married Catherine daughter of Stephen Perrot of Jestynton in the parish of Rhoscrowther in south Pembrokeshire. His son was David of Cemais, who was followed by his son David Foel. After David Foel came David Ddu, the first of his family to settle at Cilciffeth in the parish of Llanychaer overlooking the valley of the Gwaun, and not far from 1. See 'Griffith of Penybenglog' Trans Hon Soc Cymmr, 1938. 2. See 'Family Tales from Dyfed', ibid, 1953, where they are discussed in detail. 3. The grant was further confirmed and enrolled in the records of the Court of Great Sessions at Pembroke on 31 May 1568.