HUGHES, OWEN ('Yr Arian Mawr '; died 1708), a Beaumaris attorney

son of Thomas Hughes of Porthllongdy by a daughter of Maesoglan; his wife was Margaret, daughter of squire Evan Wynn of Penllech in Llŷn (they were married in 1661). For years there were excellent relations between him and the Bulkeley family of Baron Hill; he held a lease on the Abermenai ferry, with their blessing; and it was he in 1683 that drew up the marriage settlement of one of the Bulkeley daughters with young John Griffith of Cefn Amwlch. In the same year he was high sheriff of Anglesey and the hero of a cywydd panegyric by Edward Morris; the bard's praise is indeed extravagant, but nearer to the truth than the irresponsible stories told by Angharad Llwyd. The peace with the Bulkeleys was not long kept; Hughes became mayor of Newborough, gathered a clique of the burgesses around him by revivifying the claims of that ancient borough, and before the sleepy citizens of Beaumaris had awakened to the fact, he was M.P. for the borough and enjoyed the honour for three years (1698-1700). He amassed a large sum-total of lands and an inordinate sum of money, so that his last will gave new life to decadent estates and put them on their feet. Bodfan by Llandwrog went to Lloyd Bodvel, husband of the attorney's niece Ann; Madryn in Llŷn fell to a grand-daughter of his sister Jane; and the house of Llysdulas in Anglesey was much indebted to the fact that the mother of squire William Lewis was another niece of Owen Hughes.

Author

• Thomas Richards, (1878 - 1962)

Sources

• J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (1914), 116, 176-7, 272
• Angharad Llwyd, A History of the Island of Mona, or Anglesey including an account of its natural productions, Druidical antiquities, lives of eminent men, the customs of the court of the ancient welsh princes, etc. :being the prize essay to which was adjudged the first premium at the Royal Beaumaris Eisteddfod, held in the month of August, 1832 (Rhuthin 1833), 143-6
• W. R. Williams, The parliamentary history of the principality of Wales, from the earliest times to the present day, 1541-1895 (Brecknock 1895), 11
• Henblas MSS. at University College North Wales Library, Bangor 1-4, 91-9, 103-10
• Garthewin Manuscripts at the University of North Wales, Bangor, 1986-94
• Anglesey Antiquarian Society & Field Club Transactions, 1943, 23-4, 26-8

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20734073

Published date: 1959

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