LANGFORD family, of Allington Gresford
The pedigree books state that this family came from Leicestershire to Ruthin with one of the Greys, lords of that place. The earliest records of the family in Wales show that JOHN LANGFORD was steward of Dyffryn Clwyd and constable of Ruthin castle between 1403 and 1412. Edmund, lord Grey, granted the receivership of the lordship of Ruthin to RICHARD LANGFORD, 1441, son of the said John, and the constableship of Ruthin castle to him and his son EDWARD, 1447. Richard Langford died 12 July 1466, two years after his wife, Alice, daughter and heiress of Howell ap Griffith ap Morgan of Hopedale, widow of John ap Richard Wettenhale. Their heir was the Edward Langford mentioned above. Henry VI granted him the offices of escheator and attorney of the lordship of Denbigh, for his personal service against Richard, duke of York, 4 February 1460. He married Ellen (died 1465), daughter of John Dutton, and died 5 November 1500. It was their son, JOHN LANGFORD, that first resided at Allington as the husband of Catherine, daughter and heiress of William ap David (died 1476) ap Griffith of that place. He died 26 December 1531.
Their son was the
old RICHARD LANGFORD (died 1586),
John Griffith of Cae Cyriog states that he was lieutenant of Bromfield and Yale under William Herbert, earl of Pembroke. Richard Langford took a keen interest in Welsh literature, and copied manuscripts, e.g. 'The White Book of Rhydderch,' in 1573, including portions of that important manuscript which were afterwards lost from it. Little of his work has survived. Parts of Peniarth MS 283 (pedigrees) may be in his hand, but the grammatical miscellanea (Peniarth MS 169 , and Havod MS. 24) and the old englynion (Peniarth MS 111 ), which he rescued from oblivion, are preserved only in transcripts from his manuscripts. By his first wife, Margaret, daughter of John Almor, he had John Langford and Edward (possibly the man who wrote his name in Peniarth MS 56 (99); he married Catherine, daughter of Humphrey Lloyd, sheriff of Montgomeryshire, 1540, and it was his grandson, Thomas Langford, who wrote the pedigree manuscript Bodewryd MS 102D ), William, Roger, David, Mathew, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Ann. By his second wife, Marsli, daughter of John ab Ieuan ap Howell of Trefriw, he had Thomas, George, Owen, Jane, Ellen, Jane (2), and Alice.
JOHN
He married Catherine, daughter of John ap Harry Jervis of Ruthin. He died 27 March 1606. His heir was his son RICHARD LANGFORD (died 1643), sheriff of Denbighshire, 1640. He had seven sons and nine daughters, besides four children who died in infancy, by his wife, Elizabeth (died 1657), daughter of Thomas Wynne ap John ap Harry. Of these mention should be made of the heir, JOHN LANGFORD, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Simon Thelwall of Plas-y-ward, Catherine, who married Walter Cradoc of Wrexham, and
WILLIAM LANGFORD (1602 - 1668), rector
Born 12 April 1602, educated at Gresford, Ruthin, and Brasenose College, Oxford, B.A. 1620, M.A. 1623; a member of the household of Godfrey Goodman afterwards bishop of Gloucester, usher at Ruthin grammar school 1624, headmaster there 1626-50, rector of Heneglwys, Anglesey 1630, vicar of Welshpool 1632, rector of Llanerfyl 1637, canon of S. Asaph 1639, and rector of Llanfor, 1644. He was deprived of all his preferments except Llanfor by the Committee of Sequestrators, but he was restored to Welshpool in 1661, and was made rector of Castle Caereinion in 1664. He made a doleful autobiographical will (Mont. Coll., xiii, 259) and died 17 June 1668; he was buried at Welshpool. In spite of some unpleasantness between them at first, Richard Davies (1635 - 1708), the Quaker, has a good word to say about his friendly, tolerant, and neighbourly attitude towards him and his friends in the time of the great persecution (An Account of the Convincement … 3rd ed., 111).
Allington passed to the second son of John Langford, also named JOHN. He was sheriff of Denbigh, 1677, and his wife, Mary, daughter of Jonathan Green, was a widow in 1687. Two of their sons died young around the time of their father's death, in December 1686 and January 1687. The heir, RICHARD LANGFORD (born 1672), left only two daughters, and so the main male line be came extinct, but a number of collateral branches continued to bear the family name. One of these was the family of John Langford, translator of The Whole Duty of Man into Welsh.
Author
- Evan David Jones, (1903 - 1987)
Sources
- NLW Archives: Peniarth MS 287: Robert Vaughan's book of pedigrees, 1203-4
- Wynnstay Manuscripts at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth 143, 597
- Bodewryd MS. at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth 102
- NLW Archives: NLW MS 7008E
- Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1460
- Reports on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language (Historical Manuscripts Commission 1898–1910)
- History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, iii, 207-13
- Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches between the years 1586 and 1613, under the authority of Clarencieux and Norroy, two kings at arms (Llandovery 1846), i, 325, ii, 356
- Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: the members of the University of Oxford
- The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1941, 181-2
- Wikidata: Q20733756
Dolenni Ychwanegol
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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