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RICHARD GRIFFITH AT THE SIEGE OF CHESTER DURING the first Civil War a Caernarvonshire officer while serving in the garrison at Chester received written instructions for guard duties he had to perform. His name was Captain Richard Griffith of Llanfair Isgaer which lies beside the Menai Straits to the west of the city of Bangor. Some of these orders, written during the stress of war, have survived the centuries and now rest in the National Library of Wales.1 They contribute not a little to the picture of that famous siege, showing as they do, which guards were posted at the danger points, and perpetuating the names of a number of officers. Volunteer townsmen assisted the regular troops. Strict discipline was enforced and the lieutenant, ensign, or sergeant in charge of each post was held responsible for misconduct on the part of soldiers under his command. No dates appear but from internal evidence it would seem that the papers concern the years 1643 or 1644. In one the name of Sir Thomas Hanmer is mentioned. Sir Thomas, the second baronet of Hanmer, was, for a brief while, governor of Chirk Castle after its capture in January 1642/3. Shortly afterwards (7 March), according to the Ottley Papers,2 he was transferred to Chester. He wearied of the war, and in 1644 asked the king's leave to be allowed to go overseas. By October 1645 Peter Griffith of Caerwys, who is termed 'captain', had become a lieutenant-colonel.3 There is nothing to indicate the regiment in which Richard Griffith served, but the natural assumption is that it would be Colonel Hugh Wynne's regiment of foot. Doubtless he would be regarded as an officer of experience as he had been in command of a trained band company for at least four years. Richard Griffith came of an old Caernarvonshire family which traced its descent from the renowned Ednyfed Fychan, seneschal to Llewelyn the Great. Richard's wife was Gaynor, daughter of William Griffith of Trefarthen near Caernarvon.4 This, in itself, holds more than casual interest as her eldest brother John (who was killed in London) married Jonet Vaughan of Gors-y-gedol who subsequently became the wife of Sir John Owen of Clenennau. One would, in consequence, have expected to find Richard Griffith enlisting in the volunteer regiment which John Owen led south in November 1642, but he was evidently held back with deliberate intent, and by the end of February, he was dispatched with his company to Chester. Richard Griffith first comes into the picture when he is granted a commission to command a trained band early in 1638/9. This was the time when King Charles was endeavouring to introduce the Prayer Book into Scotland, a move which was so strenuously resisted by the Convenanters that an armed clash seemed inevitable. Trained bands, accordingly, assumed a consequence they lacked in times of peace.