Welsh Journals

teresting points. He records that he saw "in Tenbigh church" a coat blazoned as follows: azure, on a fess [ ~] a greyhound passant argent, between three men's heads couped, or, their tongues hanging out gules, (the heads facing sinister), impaling azure a chevron charged with three ermine spots, between three stags' heads caboshed or (White). The first coat has not been identified, but if the arrangement is as it should be, namely the husband's arms on the dexter side, then it would represent a man who had married one of White's daughters. As Fellows, a trained herald, was making an official visitation, we must accept that the White chevron bore three ermine spots, and, as we shall see, this chevron occurs in the heraldry of his son John. When we move on a generation we immediately come up against a snag. The pedigree recorded by Dwnn shows that Thomas White was succeeded by his son Jenkin, a succession supported by all the Tudor and later genealogies. That his name was Jenkin cannot be doubted for his I.P.M. taken on 2 December 1500 so describes him. Yet George Owen in 1598 read the inscription on the tomb as Johes (i.e. Johannes), as also did Norris in 1808. The lettering is quite undecipherable today, and Harries, about 1856, encloses the words Hicjacet Johannes White within square brackets, stating it is his own reconstruction of a wholly illegible section of the inscription. The contraction Joh certainly does appear in another part of the inscription. Was the contraction read by Owen intended to be some form for Jenkin? If that is the case, then the second altar tomb is not that of John but of Jenkin White, and furthermore the arms of the wives shown on the tomb are those of wives assigned by the genealogies to Jenkin. That there was a John White is clear. Fellows tells us that the arms of "John White of Tynbigh. sometyme mayor of the Towne, and borne in Ffraunce". were azure, a chevron, charged with three ermine spots, between three stags' heads caboshed or. He may have been the man of that name who was sheriff of Tenby in 1487, and mayor in 1482, 1486, 1490 and 1491. This John White held an appointment under Richard III, and this in- troduces another complication. The Patent Roll for 1 Richard III records that on 12 February 1484, a grant for life was made to "the King's servant John White the elder of the town of Tinebie" and his assigns, of all lands, meadows, and pastures called 'lez Demaynes', 'Fugatif Londes'. 'Water- wynshyll'. and 'Rigons Close', with two windmills called 'lez Wynde Mylles', and a water mill called 'le water wynch mylle', with all their appurtenances, by and within the town, of the yearly value of £ 10, rendering therefor to the king a red rose at the feast of St Peter ad Vincula, provided that grantee kept the premises in sufficient repair. (Calendar, Public Records relating to Pembrokeshire iii, 57). This suggests that John White the elder was the father of a John White the younger. But the important point to note is that he was the "King's servant", evidently in favour. Now, an oft-repeated tradition claims that the Whites were, not only Lancastrian supporters, but had rendered that faction a vital service for which they were subsequently rewarded. George Owen of Henllys wrote "Here was the saied Kinge Hen: beseidged in the castle of Pembrok in his greate weaknes, with his unckle Jasper, where he wanted noe reliefe but was by his people here deffended and saffeley sent to sea to save his liffe, at Tenbye Towne he was speedilye conveyed to sea, wch the good prince not