Welsh Journals

RICHARD PARRY OF CWRT GILBERT RICHARD PARRY of Cwrt Gilbert, in the parish of Llansbyddyd, Brecknockshire, is likely to be a familiar name to few if any readers. He is noticed here as the writer, and author or compiler, of three manuscripts, all written in the period 1614-19. Richard Parry does not explicitly identify himself as scribe or author of any of these manuscripts. He does however refer to himself by his initials in one, and in each of the others provides a fairly conclusive amount of genealogical data centred on himself and his wife. I have seen no document or letter to confirm the identity of the handwriting of the manuscripts. That it is Richard Parry's must therefore remain short of proof, if beyond dispute. Richard Parry's governing interest, to judge by these three manuscripts, was genealogy, an interest he carried to such lengths as somewhat maybe to inhibit curiosity about him and his work. He writes occasionally in Welsh, mostly in English. Richard Parry was the fourth son of James Parry of Poston. The Parrys of Poston, in the parish of Vowchurch, Herefordshire, formed the trunk of what was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a prominent and many-branched family.1 James Parry's estate fell into the hands of a moneylender about 1581 and from 1585 until 1600 if not till his death he seems to have been a prisoner in the Fleet, given to brawling with warders.2 His wife Joan, an heiress, was in the mean- while by a decree of the Privy Council given possession of the Brecknock- shire estates she had brought to the marriage (which included Cwrt Gilbert).3 James Parry probably died in 1602,4 Joan in 1618.5 James's brother John, 'yet living' in 1614, was Comptroller of the King's House- hold.6 Richard Parry married Cecil, daughter of Jenkin Turberville of Castell Pen-llin. They had eight children. Richard Parry died in 1620 and was buried in the chapel of Christ's College, Brecon. 7* I have failed to trace a will. Theophilus Jones says that Games Parry, the heir, 'spent the property in a few years and was imprisoned in Brecon gaol in 1632'.8 I have not discovered whether or not Games Parry had a genealogist son. Manuscripts B.M. Harl. 5058 Apart from a few later additions this manuscript is wholly in the hand of Richard Parry. It is a quarto volume of pedigrees, mainly of Brecknockshire, Glamorgan and Monmouthshire families. Its contents are listed by Edward Owen.9 The one authority repeatedly referred to is Lewys Dwnn (whose Brecknockshire collections are now lost).10 The many pedigrees ending with persons said to be 'now living' in 1614