Welsh Journals

THE FAMILIES OF WYNTER AND BOLD By DAVID VEREY, M.A., A.R.I.B.A., F.S.A. Author of Shell Guide to Mid Wales (the Counties of Brecon, Radnor and Montgomery), 196o. IN the Dictionary of National Biography, Sir William Wynter, Queen Elizabeth I's Admiral, is said to be descended from an old Brecknock family. He belonged to a branch of the family who had settled at Lydney in the Forest of Dean, and another member of this family was Sir John Wynter, secretary to Queen Henrietta Maria. A more distant branch (Roman Catholic) lived at Huddington and produced the brothers Thomas and Robert Wintour who were prime movers in the Gunpowder Plot. The Brecon family, however, continued presumably undisturbed by these events, playing a quiet but distinguished part in the life of their home county and borough, up till the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the list of Brecon men (exhibited in the Brecknock Museum) who fought at the Battle of Agincourt, there is a Wynter, one of the few to have a distinct surname, and although Theophilus Jones does not consider the family to have lived in Brecon before the reign of Henry VIII, the name of Benedict Wynter appears as a burgess during the lordship of the Duke of Buckingham in 1448. In the Appendix to the Vol. III of Theophilus Jones's History (Glanusk Edition, 1911) it is stated that 'this family formerly possessed a considerable amount of property in the parishes of Cantref, Aberyskir,1 Llanfihangel-Talyllyn and elsewhere'. The historian Poole says, 'From a three page pedigree in Jones's Brecknockshire we are inclined to think this family, which is the same as the Wynters of Penderin, was one of great consequence in our town in past days'. No representa- tive of this family now exists in Brecon nor that of the Bolds with whom they were connected by marriage. The last farm to be sold was Ty'n-y- llwyn at Llanigon. In 1553 Andrew Wynter was High Sheriff of Brecknockshire.2 His brother Lewis Wynter was a physician. 1 Aberysgir was purchased early in the seventeenth century by one of the Boulcotts. When this family failed in the male line, it came to The Rev. William Wynter and Mrs. Hughes of Tregunter (daughter of Joseph Harris) both of whom were descended from the Boulcotts. Other farms in this parish were bought by a Daniel Wynter in 1663 and held by the Wynters till the nineteenth century. Gwenygof was not sold by the family till after 1867. 2 In 1695 William Wynter of Brecon was High Sheriff. In 1729 another William Wynter was High Sheriff. In 1 5 5 8 Andrew Wynter was Bailiff of the Borough; In 1589 John Wynter 1602 William Wynter; 1614 William Wynter; 1635 Daniel Wynter; 1693 William Wynter; 1701 Daniel Wynter; 1716 Daniel Wynter; 1719 Daniel Wynter; 1773 Hugh Bold; 1783 Hugh Bold; 1795 Hugh Bold (junior) 1798 William Wynter; 1804 Hugh Bold 1805 Hugh Bold (junior); 1812 Hugh Bold; 1814 Hugh Bold; 1815 Thomas Bold; 1818 Thomas Bold 1832 Thomas Bold.