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1206126
GENEAL-OGY
COL.L-&CTION
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3 1833 00729 9438
/i -
OLD PEMBROKE FAMILIES.
Old Pembroke Fantilies
IN THE ANCIENT
County Palatine of Pembroke.
(tompilcb
r//V PART FROM THE FLOYD MSS.)
BY
HENRY OWEN, D.C.L. Oxon., F.S.A.
Editor of Owe7i's Pembrokeshire ;
Author of Gerald the Welshman, etc. ;
High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire.
LONDON :
PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY
CHAS. J. CLARK, 36, ESSEX STREET, STRAND.
1902.
I AM indebted to the University College of Wales for
the perusal of the MS. books of the late Mr. William
Floyd, now in the College Library at Aberystwyth,
which have been of the greatest assistance in the com-
pilation of these notes.
Mr. Flotd was a careful and laborious antiquary :
his MS. collections, the result of his researches in the
Public Record Office, contain a wealth of information
as to the families of divers other cpunties.
H. O.
Poyston.
CONTENTS.
Barri of Manorbier
Tanored
Mortimer
Cakew op Carew Castle
Cantinton
bonville
Meltn
ROBELTN
The Lords of Stackpole
Castlemartin
The Wogans
Malefant op Upton .
The Perrots
Castle
JOCE
Harold
De la Roche
De Brian
Shirbtjrn of Angle . .
De Vale
Laugharne op St. Bride's
Owen op Orielton
Baret. Vadghan. Wiseman
Page.
1- 6
6
10-19
19-21
22
33-34
35-45
46-50
51 - 61
62
62-63
63-64
65-66
67-80
81-84
85-90
91-96
97-103
104-116
117-120
(^am of (TUanorBut*
The most illustrious member of this distinguished house
says, in his Itinerary of Wales, that his family took their
name from Barry Island in Glamorganshire, which they
once owned.' The first of the race who appears in this
County was Odo de Barri, who, the records tell us, was
dead in 1181.^ He came with the conquerors of what was
to be the County Palatine of Pembroke, and received the
lands of Manorbier for his share of the spoil. His son
William, who took an active part in making local history,
and who died before 1166,' was twice married. By his
first wife he had a son, Walter, who was killed in Wales,
and by his second, Angharad, daughter of Gerald de
Windsor by the famous Nesta, daughter of the Lord
Ehys, three sons, Robert, Philip, and Gerald. This last
alliance connected the De Barris not only with the power-
ful family of the Fitz Geralds, but also with the princes of
the Welsh blood. Gerald, the youngest son, was born at
Manorbier about 1147. After his active and troublous life
he returned in his old age to his birth-place, which he has
proclaimed to be the fairest spot in all Wales.* It has of
late been proposed to set up monuments to various Welsh
Barri of Manorbier.
marauders, but it has occui-red to no one to perpetuate the
fame of the man who did more for Wales than anyone in
mediaeval times.
Gerald's brothers were soldiers. There was in those
days no alternative for the sons of noble houses, except
the mail coat or the cowl. Many Pembrokeshire families
took part in the conquest of Ireland in the reign of Henry
II, and left their traces in such names as Carew, Prender-
gast, Roche, Castlemartin, Stackpole, Stainton, Beneger,
Bosher, Meyler, Canton, Poer, Harold and Wogan. The
list could be prolonged.
Philip de Barri, the son and successor of William, for
his services in an expedition in 1177, was granted by his
uncle, Eobert Pitz Stephen (a son of Nesta by Stejjhen,
Constable of Cardigan), lands in Olethan' (County Cork)
and elsewhere, which long remained with his descendants,
who became Lords Barry, Viscounts Buttevant, and Earls
of Barrymore. Philip was a witness to Eobert Fitz
Elidor's grant of TrefduauF (St. Edi-en's) to St. David's ;
he married a daughter of Richard Fitz Tancred,* senes-
chal of Haverf ord,' and left three sons : William, his
heir ; Robert, who also warred in Ireland ; and Philip,
who succeeded his famous uncle as Ai'chdeacon of Brecon.
This William may have been the William de Barri who,
about 1219, granted certain lands in Gower to the monks
of Neath," but he was certainly the William who in 1207"
obtained a confirmation from the King of the grant from
Robert Fitz Stephen to his father, and who in 1213" was
one of his Commissioners appointed to assess the damage
done to the clergy of the diocese of St. David's during the
interdict which had lasted from 1208 until that year.
* See at the end of this article.
Barri of Manorbier.
The successor of William was David, who was a wit-
ness to Earl Walter Mai-shal's charter to Gilbert de Vale
(1243-5)." A David de Barri in 1247 held four knight's
fees at Pembroke, which, in the division of the inlieritance
of the Mareschals (or Marshalls) Earls of Pembroke,
were assigned to Joan de Munchensy, and a David de
Barri was Judiciary of Ireland in 1267;^^ these were prob-
ably father and son, and they both seem to have been lords
of Olethan as well as of Manorbier. John, the son of (the
last-named) David, in 1301 granted the advowson of
Penally to Acornbury Priory," an Austin nunnery in Here-
fordshire, and that of Manorbier to the Priory of Monk-
ton. His wife's name was Beatrice, and he had two
brothers, David and Richard, of whom the former died
before him, leaving a son also called David. The grant to
Acornbury may be accounted for by the fact that Ann
de Barri, his daughter, was prioress of that nunnery.'*
There are three charters by John de Barri in the car-
tulary of St. David's'" with reference to his grant of St.
Dogwells to Richard Simond; in two he is styled "John
son-and-heir of David de Barri," and in the third "John de
Barri of Manorbier". The first is without date, the second
is dated at Manorbier in 1273, and the third (to which a
WiUiam de Barri is a witness), is dated at Pembroke
in 1299.
He granted in 1800 the manor of St. Dogmell to
Richard Simond (who is described in the earlier charters as
Clericus and afterwards as Miles), which manor was held by
de Barri of the bishop ; John afterwards enlarged the grant
with permission to alienate. Sir Richard Simond in 1329
granted the manor to St. David's on condition that two
chaplains should say daily prayers before the altar of St.
Thomas the Martyr, for the bodily health of himself and
Barri of Manorbier.
his wife Eleanor, while they lived, and for their souls*
health cmn ab hoc seculo migraverint.^"
Eichard Siinond was a witness to the Countess Joanna's
charter to Monkton in 1299, and to Earl Aymer's charter
to the same in 1302, and to that Earl's confirmation to
Slebech in 1323.^' In the next year he held at Kingsdown
(Kingston ?) of the Earl land by a yearly rent of 6d.,^' and
tliei'e was a fine between him and William Beneger, of
I'embroke, for a messuage and sixty acres of land at
Aylwardston (AUeston)." In 1325 he was appointed
seneschal of Pembroke, removed by Eoger de Mortimer
and restored on his fall. Richard and Eleanor were still
holding the land at Alleston for life in IBS-i." Walter
Simond was a juror at Pembroke in 1327, and William
Simond in 1378, but whether they were connected with
Sir Eichard does not appear.
In 1324 John de Barri was seised of five knight's fees at
Manorbier of the value of 100 marks. It is probably of
this John that there is the effigy in Manorbier church;^'
he was a witness to the Angle charter of 1298."
Shortly before that date he by two fines passed his lands
in Ireland to his nephew David," who, upon his uncle's
death, claimed the lordship of Manorbier against Eichard,
who had married Beatrice, daughter of Nicholas de Carew.
The proceedings are extant in this the earliest recorded
instance of a Pembrokeshire law-suit. David's complaint
was that John de Barri had granted the lordship in fee to
his brother David, reserving to himself a life interest, and
upon David's death, being then only a life tenant, had re-
granted it to his brother Eichard. The contention was at
its height in 1327. Edward II had just died, leaving the
kingdom in confusion, and the Earldom of Pembroke was
in the hands of the Crown owing to the minority of the
Band of Manorbier.
heir, Lawrence Hastings. David took possession of the
lordship by force, in defiance of the injunction of Roger de
Mortimer,t Justiciary of Wales, who then, in concert with
the Queen Isabella, governed England at his pleasure, but
he was expelled by Thomas de Hampton, Seneschal of
Pembroke, who seized the lands on behalf of the Crown.
The next step was taken by Richard, who indicted two
local men of note, William Crespyng and Stephen Perrot,
for conspiring with David; the jury found them both
guilty (Perrot appeared in court and then departed in
contempt), they were imprisoned and had to give bonds in
large sums for their release." Tn 1330 Edward III took
the government into his own hands, hanged Roger de
Mortimer, and shut Queen Isabella up in prison. David
then sent a petition to the King, in which he sets forth that
he had been wrongfully accused by the deceased Roger of
having been a partizan of Edmund Earl of Kent, uncle of
the King, who had been executed for one of the many
conspiracies of the time. An inquisition in 1331 found
that the facts were as stated by David f the leaders of
Richard's party, William de Carew, Owen ap Owen, and
Thomas de Carew, were in their turn indicted for the
share they had taken in deforcing David, and the bonds
given by Crespyng and Perrot were ordered to be can-
celled.'" The triumph of David was short-lived. He was
supported by the family de la Roche, and the whole of the
county palatine was divided into two factions ; as either
got the upper hand they packed the juries with their
adherents (it has been done since) and obtained verdicts at
their desire.
The house of Carew, with which, as above stated,
Richard was connected by marriage — and there is reason
t See at tlie end of this article.
Barri of Manorbier.
to believe that Manorbier was settled upon him at the time
of his marriage''— was far and away the most powerful
family under the Earls, and in the result Richard remained
in possession of Manorbier until his death in 1335. He
was succeeded by his daughter Avice, who married Owen
ap Owen. She survived her husband, and died on the 15th
August 1358, seised of the lordships of Manorbier and
Penally (of the value of £30) held of the Earldom, and of
Begelly (of the value of £10) held of the barony of Carew.''
An inquisition in 1331 states that the two former lord-
ships were of the value of £100, and that Jameston and
Newton were members of Manorbier."' In 1247 and 1323
the number of knight's fees held by De Barri (five of
which George Owen says when held of the Earldom of
Pembroke constituted a barony and contained 3,200 acres^")
is given as five, but in 1331 as three. The heir of Avice
was David, the son of the litigant. David resided wholly
in Ireland, and about 1377 granted his Pembrokeshire
lordships to John, Lord of Carew. This grant was con-
fii'med by Henry IV in the first year of his reign, which
Penton wi-ongly supposes to be the original grant."
From 1377 the name of De Barri disappears from
Manorbier which, after many vicissitudes, passed through
the Bowens of Trefloyne to Philipps of Picton.
The arms of the De Barris were Argent, three bars
*Tanceed. — Tancred or Tankard was castellan of Haver-
ford, and was probably one of the original Flemish settlers.
The name survives in Tancredston, in Brawdy parish.
Gerald hints that it was owing to the favour of St. Caradoc
(whose body Tancred tried to detain within the lordship of
Haverford) that Richard Fitz Tancred outlived his elder
Barri of Manorbier.
brothers and succeeded to the inheritance. "'" Although he
resisted some of Gerald's high-handed measures, both
he and his son Robert were donors to Slebech. The church
of Garlandstone, given bj the former, may have been a
destroyed church in Skomar Island (which was in the lord-
ship), where the name is still preserved. Richard was
granted two fees of the episcopal barony by bishop David
Fitz Gerald. Robert, the son of Richard, does not seem
to have been the villain mentioned by Gerald," for our
Robert was the founder of Haverford Priory, and was em-
ployed in important matters by the king. In 1195 he re-
ceived from Richard I £213 6s. 8d. for the king's business;"
in 1207 he obtained a confirmation of the privileges of
himself and his ancestors in the Port of Milford, and of a
market in Haverford f in the following year he found the
Welsh mariners for the king's expedition to Ireland,^" and
was given the custody of the Castle of Cardigan." In 1204
Richard Mangonel, and Walter, son of Cadivor, claimed to
oust Richard from Haverford,'' but failed, as Robert con-
tinued at Haverford until his death in 1213, when William
Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, re-claimed the lordship as
held of his fee."
t MoETiMEE. — This would seem to be Roger de Mortimer,
the first Earl of March, afterwards Chief Justiciar of all
Wales in 1327, but his uncle, Roger de Mortimer of Chu-k,
also held that office and was involved in the same disgrace;
he died in the Tower of London in 1336. Roger of Chirk,
as Justiciar of Wales, was a witness to the grant of Llan-
rhystyd in 1309 to St. David's by Sir Gruffydd Lloyd,'" and
in 1312 he held the enquiry preliminary to the consent of
the king to the appropriation of Llanliowel and Llandeloy
to the Wogan chantry in that cathedral." A Ralph de
Barj'i of Manorbier.
Mortimer was a witness of the confirmation to Pill Priory
by Earl William Marshal, who died in 1219." Walter, the
son of Earl William, in 1240 seized the lands which Cynan
ap Howel held in the honour of Carmarthen ;" it is probable
that it was at this time that Narberth, which was held of
the prince at Carmarthen, was granted to the Mortimers,
as in 1282 we find that another Roger de Mortimer held
Narberth of the king in cajjite by military service to Car-
marthen.** This Roger was the son of Henry, the son of
Henry de Mortimer.*' The Bishop and Chapter of St.
David's granted to him lands in Lysprawst (afterwards New-
house and Red Castle in Newton North) and Isheglyn" (the
Penglyn divides Newton North from Minwere), and he was
present at the Stackpole Crespyng fine in 1268; and a
little later, by a charter, wherein he is described as Sir
Roger de Mortimer, son of Sir Henry de Mortimer, he
granted to Thomas de la Roche lands at Pill Rodal.*" He
was a witness, not then being a knight, to William de
Cantinton's grant to St. Dogmael's and to Nicholas Fitz
Martin's confirmation thereof. Ralph, the son of Gosselin,
released to him six acres of land at Llandewi in the
commot of Wilfrey (Velfrey) with the patronage of the
church. Maud de Mortimer released to Roger, son of
Henry, all her lands in West Wales which she had in
dower from her husband, Roger de Mortimer of Wigmore,
father of Roger of Chirk, and grandfather of Roger, Earl
of March. This Roger of Wigmore died in 1282 ; in 1248
he had livery of the share of his wife (who held jointly
with Eva, wife of William de Cantilupe, and Eleanor, wife
of Humfrey de Bohun) in inter alia the castle and town
of Haverford. Maud was the daughter of William de
Braose and of Eva Marshall, sister and co-heiress of the
last Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. Llewellin, the son of
Barri of Manorbier.
Roger de Mortimer (of Chirk?), granted to Roger de
Mortimer, lord of Narberth, all his lands at Nouvelle
Maison (New House) and elsewhere."
Fenton, who mixes up the various Rogers, says that
the lordship of Narberth afterwards passed to the Earls of
March.^' In the Campbell Charters there is an account of
the receipt by David Osmond, for Lord Roger de Mortimer,
lord of Narberth (apparently the younger son of Roger
fourth Earl of March), of rents at Narberth town,
Cananyston, Robertson (Robeston Wathen) , Castle Durant
(Castell Dwyran), Templeton, Morlaston (Molleston),
Lanwkuthan (Llanycefn?), Narberth Forest, Wilfrey, St.
Clears, Amgorda (?), and Nova Domus (Newhouse)."
Fenton also states that the lordship was originally granted
by Arnulf de Montgomery to Stephen Perrot, but it was at
one time held by Henry, son of Nesta and Henry I." A
William of Narberth confirmed the gift of the church of
Amroth to Slebech."
Catm of Cateio CaBtU.
Op all the families who held under the Earls of Pembroke
this is in many ways the most distinguished. Few in the
Kingdom can be traced with so much distinctness during
the whole of its long career, and the home of the race,
built by its Norman founder, has remained to the present
day (with one short interval) in the possession of his
descendants. It is also remarkable for the number of
noble families which branched off from it. From Carew
Castle came (among others) the Fitz Geralds, the foremost
among the conquerors of Irelaiad, the elder branch of
whom became Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster;
tlie Fitz Maurices, Earls of Kerry and Marquises of Lans-
downe ; the Graces, Barons of Courtstown, and the
Gerrards, Lords Gerrard. All these settled in Ireland,
and furnish an interesting example of the origin of family
names. From William, the brother of Gerald, founder of
the house of Carew, came the Lords Windsor and the
Earls of Plymouth.
The representatives of the family who remained in this
county soon adopted the territorial^ title of De Carew,
Carezv, of Carew Castle.
although thej are occasionally called in the records De
Windsor, from the earlier home. From an early date they
had held lands in the West of England, and their posses-
sions there were, later, much increased by marriages with
heiresses when they made their English home their
Ijrincipal residence. From Carew Castle came many of
the Carews and Careys who rose to fame and fortune in
Devon, Cornwall, and Somerset, and it may be noted that
the distinguished General of Pembrokeshire descent, spells
his name Vole, Carew, but pronounces it Voole Carey, or
rather did so until a regretable incident in 1879 made the
name Carey distasteful to him. Another form of the
name is Carrow, once familiar in South Pembrokeshire,
and still happily represented in the county. Eichard
Carew, the Elizabethan historian of Cornwall, says : —
•' Carew, of ancient, Carru was.
And Carru is a plough ;
Roman's the trade. Frenchmen the word,
I do the name avow." '
But however this may be as to some bearers of the name,
the historian himself drew his name from our Carew,
which is certainly Welsh and not French, and most
probably means Caerau, the camps, still presei-ved in the
local pronunciation of Carey Castle. "Another learned
Carew was also in error as to his origin ; George, Earl of
Totness, has left in his handwriting, among the Carew
MSS.,^ a pedigree tracing the family from Adam de Mont-
gomery, which is recorded at the Heralds' College, but the
charter of King John mentioned below shows that it is as
fictitious as those of the bards, or of the late Sir Bernard
Bui-ke.
There is a fable that among the numerous foreigners at
the Coiu-t of Edward the Confessor was a certain Dominus
Carezv, of Carew Castle.
Other, said to have come from Florence, who had a son,
Walter Fitz Other, who held the important post of Castellan
of Windsor, and who had two sons by a Welsh wife,
William, the progenitor of the De Windsors, as above
stated, and Gerald, who came to Pembroke with the first
Norman invaders under Arnulph de Montgomery, in the
reign of William Eufus.
Gerald was made Castellan of Pembroke by Ai-nulph,
but on the disgrace of the latter in 1102 for his rebellion
in favour of the King's brother, Robert, he was replaced
by one Saer. However, two years later he was reinstated
by Henry I.' This was doubtless owing to his having
married the mistress of that King, Nesta, the Welsh
princess, who has been styled the "Helen of Wales".
Nesta brought him as her dower Carew, and lands in
Emlyn, and Henry granted him the lordship of Moulsford,
in Berks, which long remained with the family of Carew.
Gerald built a castle at Carew, but whether that is the
same as the Castle of Little Cenarth, from which Owen
ap Cadwgan stole Nesta and her children is not certain.^
Gerald spent his life in fighting the Welsh ; the date of his
death is not known. He had three sons : William, who
took the name of De Carew ; Maurice, who called himself
Fitz Gerald, and was the forefather of the great Geraldine
race in Ireland ; and David, who became Bishop of St.
David's, and died in 1177 ; he had also a daughter,
Angharad, who, as stated above,' married William de
Barri, of Manorbier.
WiUiam de Carew married Katherine, a daughter of Sir
Adam de Kingsley, in Cheshire, and, notwithstanding his
Welsh blood, he spent most of his life in fighting the
Welsh, as his father did before him. In 1135 he was
defeated by them near Cardigan ;" in 1147 he took from
Careiv, of Carctv Castle.
them the Castle of Carmarthen, then held by Meredith ap
Griffith, and in the year following that of Wiston, which
was a place of great importance in those days, and suffered
for it by being repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. After
this it is curious to read that when the Welsh, in 1152,
captured Tenby Castle, they handed it over to William f
so perhaps the Welsh blood counted for something after
all. William confirmed the grant by Jordan de Cantinton,*
a well-known man in North Pembrokeshire, of the church
of Castellan in Emlyn to the Preceptory of Slebech," and
died in 1173, leaving three sons: Other, who succeeded to
Carew; Raymond, "the bravest and wisest of the con-
querors of Ireland"; and William, who also settled in
Ireland. Another son, Gerald, had been killed at Camrose
by the men of Roose, upon whom his family took dire
vengeance."
Other married Margaret, daughter of Richard Fitz
Tancred, Castellan of Haverford.'" Fenton tells us that
there were few men of rank among the Flemish settlers,"
but we find the son of one of these settlers allied by
marriage with the two great Norman houses of Carew and
Manorbier. Other, soon after his father's death, got into
trouble with the Welsh, who took from him his castle of
Emlyn, but he obtained from Henry II the manor of
Bampton, co. Oxon., so long as the Welsh held Emlyn.'-
He began the long connection of the Carews with Devon,
by acquiring Brunton in that county," and he confirmed
his father's gift of the vill of Redberth to Slebech. He
was a witness to the grant of Trefduauk (St. Edrens) to
St. David's by Robert Fitz Elidor." He died about 1204,
leaving as his successor his son William, who was enf
in, or accused of, rebellion against King John.
* See at the end of this article.
'3
Carew, of Careiv Castle.
in 1207 William had to pay forty marks of gold for a
charter from that king, confirming to him the manor of
Moulsford, which charter sets out his descent as above
stated ;" and in 1212 he was restored to his house at Carrio
(Carew), and the other lands which he held on the day
upon which the king embarked for Ireland from Pembroke
two years before.'" William died soon afterwards, and
after some minorities was succeeded by his son Eichard,
whose wife's name was Scholastica, and whose brother and
son were successively bishops of St. David's {i.e., Thomas
Wallensis in 1248 and Eichard de Carew in 1256). This
is evident from a charter of the last named," although it is
not so stated in the history books. Besides the bishop
who made his mark on the history of St. David's, Eichard
had an elder son, William, lord of Carew, who in 1247
held five knight's fees in Pembroke, which in the
Mareschal division were assigned, like Manorbier, to Joan
de Munchensy."
Eichard's son, Sir Nicholas de Carew, was a man of
mark ; of his local influence we have had evidence at p. 5
above. In 1298 he was a witness to the charter of Philip
of Angle to William de la Eoche.'' In 1301 he signed the
famous letter of the parliament of Lincoln to the Pope,
asserting the feudal dependence of Scotland on the
English crown, not as lord of Carew, where he was a
tenant of the Earl of Pembroke, but as lord of Moulsford,""
and in the same year was summoned by Edward I to the
host against the Scots." He bore as arms the famous black
lions passant of the Carews, and he died in 1311, having
in his lifetime granted his lands in Carlow, Ireland, to his
son John,'-'' who in 1317 was ordered by writ of military
summons to go to Ireland to defend those lands from
Edward Bruce, the brother of the more famous Eobert,
Caretv, of Caretv Castle.
who, after Bannockburn, liacl ovei - ruii nearly the whole of