Welsh Journals

TRAILLY AND TRAVELY THE HOUSE IN LLOWES By A. D. POWELL THE house in the parish of Llowes called The Travely (Travley, Traffly, Travelly, etc.) was owned by the Powell family from a period prior to 1638 until about 1868. By the latter year, that of his death, Thomas Powell, hitherto described as "of the Travely", (except on his wife's gravestone, 1858) was designated as "of Boughrood Castle". He had inherited the Travely estate through the marriage of his great-grandfather Patrick Powell, to a daughter and coheiress of the main Powell line (descended from Llywelyn Crugeryr) to which there can be little doubt Patrick Powell also belonged, more than one of the family being called Patrick a rare christian name locally. (Rods. Soc. Trs., 1939 Burke's LO, 1952.) The earliest reference I possess to The Travely being in Powell hands (indeed, to the house at all) is in the will of William John Prosser of Brilley (PCC. dated 15 Nov., 1638-pd. May, 1639), who having referred to "Roger Powell, my brother-in-law" (brother of Jehan Powell, William John Prosser's wife), goes on to speak of "Thomas and William Powell, sones of Roger Powell of Travelley". Roger Powell "my brother in law" and Roger Powell "of Travelley" seem likely to have been the same man, since there was a Roger Powell "of Llowes" (d. 1675), who had a sister called Jehan and a son called Thomas, the latter certainly in due course owner of The Travely. When, some years ago, I talked with the late Mr. W. P. Price of The Travely, he told me he thought he had heard it said of the old part of the house that "Powell built Travely". He gave me a large stencil for marking sacks inscribed THos Powell, TRAVELY, LowEss. That was not long before Mr. Price's death. In 1960 the property, consisting then of about 160 acres, was sold, after keen bidding, for £ 12,700 to Mr. A. J. Williams of Gwernalwye in Llowes. I have collected a few notes about the family who seem to have given the house its name, and, though these are rather disconnected, it seems best that they should be put on record. The name "Travely", which at first sight certainly suggests the Celtic "tre" formation, seems on the contrary to derive from the Norman family of de Traveley, lords of Pipton in Glasbury, three miles distant. It is possible that the de Traveleys were an offshoot of another Norman family with a similar sounding name, the de Traillys, tenants in Domesday Book of the Bishop of Coutances. They took their name from Trelley, ten kilometers from Coutances. We will examine the evidence for and against this possibility. Let us first look at the de Traveleys known to have flourished on the Welsh Border. Mrs. M. L. Dawson's Notes on the History of Glasbury (Bedford Press, 1918, a reprint from the Arch. Comb, of the same year) mentions that "shortly afterwards (i.e. after 1086) the family of de Traveley was in possession of Pipton. Some of the de Traveleys were benefactors to Brecon Priory, and their charters afford proof (as to the existence of a chapel at Pipton, etc.) "Mrs. Dawson also refers to the Treaty of Pipton in 1265, when Llywelyn the Last made alliance with Simon de Montfort "in castrisjuxta Pyperlona", and, presumably on the