Family and Education

b. by 1529, 1st s. of Meredydd ap Rhys ap Hywel of Bodowyr by Catherine, da of Owen ap Meurig of Bodeon. m. Agnes, da. of Rhydderch ap David of Myfyrian in Llanidan, 4s. 1da. suc. fa. ?1555 or later.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, commote of Twrcelyn, Anglesey 1550; j.p. Anglesey 1555-1600; collector of relief 1558, subsidy 1563; commr. defence 1569; other commissions c.1555-90; escheator 1570-1.2

Biography

Rowland ap Meredydd was the nephew of Lewis ab Owen ap Meurig and cousin to Owen ap Hugh, two leading figures in the commote of Menai. Of ancient Anglesey stock, its ancestry stretching back to the 12th-century lord of Menai Llywarch ap Bran, the house of Bodowyr had declined by the 16th to a modest position, with land rated for the subsidy of 1547 at only £2 a year. It is not known when Rowland ap Meredydd succeeded his father, who is said to have been living in 1555, the year in which Meredydd became a justice of the peace: his uncle ab Owen ap Meurig was then custos of the island. He was unsympathetic towards the Bulkeleys, and in January 1556 he supported the attempt to shift the quarter sessions back from Beaumaris to the ex-shire town of Newborough. He owed both his elections for the shire to the sheriff, the first being his friend William Lewis and the second his uncle ab Owen ap Meurig.3

Rowland ap Meredydd lived until near the end of Elizabeth’s reign, if not beyond: he was last named a justice of the peace in 1600. He was known in Anglesey as a man of business and a great builder of mills.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Griffith, Peds. 51; Dwnn, Vis. Wales, ii. 137; Arch. Camb. 1848, pp. 241-3.
• 2. Augmentations (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xiii), 177; E179/219/7, 12, 13; C1/1352/77-82; 3/135/26; R. Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 57, 133-4; Trans. Anglesey, Antiq. Soc. 1939, p. 67; St.Ch.4/8/6; 5/L40/2; CPR, 1560-3, p. 446; 1563-6, p. 31.
• 3. Griffith, 51; Dwnn, ii. 137; E179/219/6; Arch. Camb. 1848, pp. 241-3; St.Ch.4/8/6, 4/57.
• 4. St.Ch.5/L40/2; Conway and Menai Ferries (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. viii), 133, 137-8; Exchequer (ibid. iv), 22.