Family and Education

b. by 1532. m. at least 3s. 2da.1

Offices Held

Town clerk, Cardigan 1 June 1553; j.p.q. Card. 1558/59-?d.; escheator Jan.-Dec. 1560, 1561-2, 1573-4; commr. subsidy 1559, against smuggling 1565.2

Biography

Edward ap Hywel was a Cardigan man who made his career in the law, but if he studied at an inn of court there is no trace of him in its surviving records. He is first found late in the reign of Edward VI practising as an attorney at the great sessions in Cardiganshire, and it was presumably in the hope of advancement that he entered the Parliament summoned early in 1553 at the prompting of the Duke of Northumberland. If the Owen Gwyn who as sheriff returned him to Parliament was the dependant of the 1st Earl of Pembroke who was to sit for Marlborough a year later, ap Hywel may have owed his election as much to Pembroke’s support as president of the council in the marches and ally of Northumberland as to his own status in Cardigan: the next Member but one, John Powell was perhaps his brother, and the John Gwyn whose Membership alternated with his and Powell’s was a servant of Powell. While in London for the Parliament ap Hywel obtained the lease of some chantry land in Cardigan and of Waterhill in the lordship of Cardigan, and after the dissolution he acquired an interest in Berwick rectory. His appointment as town clerk several months later may also have been one of the fruits of his service in the House.3

Ap Hywel remained active in town and county government until his death. He was still alive in January 1575 when his second son Rowland was admitted to the Middle Temple, but that both he and his eldest son died a few years later is shown by Rowland’s contesting of the will made ‘about half a year last past’ in a chancery case heard before the end of Sir Nicholas Bacon’s lord keepership in 1579. All that is known about the will comes from this action: the plaintiff Robert Lloyd of Morvil in Pembrokeshire alleged that ap Hywel had provided only for his daughters before naming them executors and Lloyd overseer, whereas Rowland claimed that provision had been made for him also. In another case, also heard by Bacon, Rowland sought possession of 300 acres near Cardigan which had belonged to ap Hywel. The outcome of neither suit is known.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. C2/Eliz.L6/7, P13/10; M.T.Adm. i. 39.
• 2. CPR, 1553, p. 79; 1563-6, 30; APC, vii. 286; E179/219/75.
• 3. NLW ms Wales 18/8, m. 9v, 9, m. 2; Augmentations (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xiii), 226-7, 234.
• 4. R. Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 74; C2/Eliz.L6/7, P13/10.