LLOYD family, of Leighton and Moel-y-garth, Montgomeryshire
The family of Lloyd of Leighton was founded by DAVID LLOYD (died 1497), son of the Sir Gruffydd Vychan who fought at Agincourt and was executed in 1447 at the instance of Henry Gray, lord of Powys, and descended through Brochwel ab Aeddan from Elise, prince of Powys. On David Lloyd's death his wide estates were divided between the children of his two marriages, who founded numerous families of Montgomeryshire Lloyds. From his first marriage descended the Lloyds of Marrington, who disappeared from the land when their estate was sold in 1633. HUMPHREY LLOYD, the eldest child of his second marriage, who inherited Leighton, was closely associated with Sir Richard Herbert (1458 - 1539, in effecting the settlement of mid Wales under the Acts of Union, joining with Herbert to petition for the abolition of the Marches and of gavelkind, and himself becoming the first sheriff of the county (1541-2), one of its earliest M.P. s (1545-52). His son OLIVER LLOYD followed him in the latter capacity (1586) and his grandson CHARLES LLOYD in the former (1601); but on 20 August 1623, Charles Lloyd sold the estate (already heavily mortgaged to Sir Thomas Myddelton (1550 - 1631) and others, and his son BROCHWEL LLOYD (associated with him in the sale) became a soldier of fortune, fighting in the Dutch service and in the Bishops' Wars and becoming a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Charles I.
Sir CHARLES LLOYD (c. 1602 - 1661), military engineer,
was the son of the above Brochwel Lloyd. He learned the art of fortification with the Dutch, commanded a regiment of foot under Charles I, and, on 6 April 1639, was given for life the post of general-in-chief of engineers and quartermaster-general of all fortifications in the British Isles, at a salary of 13s. 4d. a day. On 20 December 1641, Parliament summoned him to exercise these functions in the army raised against the Irish rebels, with a salary of thirty shillings a day, but he joined the king when civil war broke out, becoming governor of Devises and receiving knighthood in the field (1 November 1644). He followed the Court abroad, but died soon after the Restoration, loaded with debts incurred in the royal service, and petitioning in vain (and his mother and sister after him) for arrears of pay sufficient to stave off destitution. His brother, Sir GODFREY LLOYD, also served as an engineer with the Dutch, joined the exiled Court at Brussels (suffering proscription by Parliament as a conspirator), was knighted there in 1657, and on his brother's death was summoned from the service of the duke of Brunswick-Luneburg to take up Sir Charles's vacant post, in which capacity he attained a high reputation and was consulted on defences during the Dutch crisis of 1667; but he had equal difficulty in securing his pay. The date of his death is unknown.
Sir CHARLES LLOYD (died 1678?), merchant and politician,
was the son of David Lloyd of Moely-garth, a member of the Shrewsbury Drapers' Company and fourth son of Humphrey Lloyd of Leighton, above. After the death of his elder brother John he inherited the property of Moel-y-garth (Guilsfield), which had been in the family since the 13th century, but he also engaged in trade in the city, and may have entered the Inner Temple in November 1657. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Owen Vaughan of Llwydiarth, one of the strongest supporters of Parliament in Montgomeryshire. These influences determined the sympathies of Lloyd, who sat as commissioner of taxes for Montgomeryshire in 1649 and represented the shire in the first two Protectorate Parliaments (1654-5 and 1656-8) and the borough in the third (1659). He spoke frequently and effectively on foreign policy, but was critical enough of the Government to be excluded by the Protector's council from the first session of the 1656 Parliament. He was defeated by Sir Thomas Myddelton II in Montgomery borough at the election of the Convention Parliament, and petitioned against the return, but promoted the Restoration and was created a baronet on 10 May 1661 and pricked as sheriff of his county in 1669. During the interregnum he purchased from the sequestered estates of the earl of Powis lands in and near Welshpool, his title to which was successfully challenged after the Restoration. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son and grandson (both Sir Charles), but on the latter's death in 1743 (after serving as sheriff in 1706-7) the title became extinct.
Author
- Emeritus Professor Arthur Herbert Dodd, (1891 - 1975)
Sources
- William Valentine Lloyd, The Sheriffs of Montgomeryshire (London 1876), 3-7, 280-90, 329-438
- Collections Historical and Archaeological relating to Montgomeryshire, xxvii, 354
- sqq. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, xxxiii, 408,420-1, and sources therein cited
- The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion, 1946-7 (84), 1948-9 (69), and sources therein cited
- Calendar of the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents, etc., 1643–1660 iii, 2197, 2199
- W. R. Williams, The parliamentary history of the principality of Wales, from the earliest times to the present day, 1541-1895 (Brecknock 1895), 144
- George Edward Cokayne, Complete baronetage (1611-1800) (Exeter 1900-09), iii, 193-4
- W. A. Shaw, Knights of England (1906), ii, 218, 225
- Ifan ab Owen Edwards, A Catalogue of Star Chamber Proceedings Relating to Wales (Cardiff 1929), 122
- Firth and Rait, Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum, 1642–1660 (London 1911), ii, 47
- A. H. Dodd, Studies in Stuart Wales (Cardiff 1952) (index)
Published date: 1959
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