Welsh Journals

Search over 450 titles and 1.2 million pages

Gwernllwynchwyth R.C.A.M. The history of Gwernllwynchwyth is not very well-documented, apart from the history of the house in the Tudor period given by Mr. W. C. Rogers in his account of Kilvey in this Journal (Gower IV, 1951, pp. 35-41). The recently demolished house is difficult to date precisely. Mr. Rogers mentions the celebrated Dafydd ap Sion Fychan of Gwernllwynchwyth, who died in 1574, the so-called "Hector of Kilvey", who feuded fiercely with his ambitious Swansea neighbours, the Herberts, despite the fact that his own niece, Jenet of Cilybebyll, was married to the son of the great Sir George Herbert of Swansea. Clark, in the Limbus Patrum, gives Dafydd a pedigree which goes back to the late medieval Dafydd ap Gwilym Gam of Kilvey. Dafydd's son, John, had three daughters, one of whom was married to Richard Herbert, and the second to Hopkin Popkin of Danygraig. Herbert, not needing a second Swansea home, sold Gwernllwynchwyth (which he held through his wife) to his brother-in-law, Hopkin Popkin. Popkin, in turn, had no sons, but only two heiresses. Catherine, who had Danygraig, married Walter Thomas of Swansea (who was so prominent as a Royalist in the Civil War at Swansea). The other, Mary, had Gwern- llwynchwyth, and married William, son of Lleisian Evans (of the great family of the Gnoll). In default of a male heir, Walter Thomas's property went to Bussy Mansel, and thus Llansamlet came to be held by the Mansel, Vernon, Villiers and Jersey estates. Gwernllwynchwyth went to the Evans line however.