Welsh Journals

3. THE WYNNSTAY MANUSCRIPTS AND DOCUMENTS. Between 1934 and 1940 Sir Herbert Lloyd Watkin Williams Wynn, 7th bart., of Wynnstay, with the public spirit and patronage of learning which have been a character- istic of his family since the days of Gruffydd ap Cynan in the eleventh century, deposited in the National Library of Wales all the literary, legal, and historical manuscripts in the library at Wynnstay and nearly four thousand documents from his estate muniment room. A schedule of the entire collection has been compiled and is now available for readers at the Library. A glance through this schedule provides a fairly continuous view of the history of two illustrious families and of the growth of a great estate. There is an adequate reason for such gaps as do appear in this record. To those who recall the disaster which befell the house of Wynnstay on the boisterous night of the fifth-sixth of March, 1858, the wealth and variety of historical material de- scribed in this schedule will give an agreeable surprise. Of the, roughly, two hundred manuscripts, eight volumes bear sad traces of their ordeal by fire and water the majority, being probably housed with the estate muniments, as they were prior to their removal to Aberystwyth, entirely escaped the fate of the library, and a few were acquired later as a nucleus for a new collection. That which was lost in 1858 is outside the scope of this note, but it is not out of place to re-echo the universal regret which was manifest in Wales when news of the calamity was received. Though it is now known that all the manu- scripts of William Maurice, Cefnybraich, did not perish, the loss of rarer texts still remains a painful fact. The name of Sir Watkin Williams Wynn is a memorial of two Welsh families who, during the seventeenth century, rose to the dignity of a baronetcy. The earlier was the family of Wynn of Gwydir whose ancestry is among the most distinguished in the annals of Gwynedd; the other, which became closely linked with it, was an old-established Anglesey family which suddenly attained a commanding position through the talent and forensic ability of its first knight and baronet, Sir William Williams. These two clans and some of the more important families with which they became associated in their judicious matrimonial alliances are well represented by manuscripts in the Wynnstay Collection. Sir John Wynn of Gwydir (d. 1627), the early historian of his family and the principal architect of its fortunes, is represented by a few interesting autograph letters and by a copy of his History of the Gwydir Family (120) with annotations by Humphrey Humphreys, bishop of Bangor and afterwards of Hereford. A companion manuscript (121) contains an account of the Gwydir family taken from the books of Sir Thomas ap William, the physician of Trevriw, and signed by H[umphrey Humphreys, bishop of] Bangor, 1700. The autograph letters illustrate Sir John Wynn's flair for marriage alliances and, more particularly, his efforts to force matches upon his second son Richard, who, at the court of Prince Charles, was less eager to settle down than his father would have wished. These letters supplement the collections of Wynn (of Gwydir) Papers of which a Calendar was issued by the National Library in 1926. In letter C. 2. (1615) Sir John sought to pro- mote a match between his son and a Mrs. Lyttelton's daughter who had a portion of ^3,500, but, as we know from the Wynn Papers (684), Richard Wynn aimed as much at a gentlewoman's condition as at her portion, and moreover did not at that time feel inclined towards marriage. The result of the marriage of his eldest brother John was not an induce- 1 The article on William Maurice in the D.N.B. requires correction and amplification. Only a remnant of his collection is preserved. The article on Sir William Williams referr- ing to the same collection errs on the other side. Maurice died 27 March 1680. See N.L.W. MS. 732.