MADRYN family of Madryn (Llŷn).
It is a great mistake to think that it was the family of Parry of Madryn who were the original holders of this estate; the Parry s did not arrive till the marriage of the third Love Parry of Cefnllanfair with Sidney Lewis in 1763; and neither of the two had the slightest connection with the old family. The Madryns were grounded deeply in the parishes of Llandudwen and Ceidio for generations, with younger branches settled at Carngiwch and Llannerch-fawr. One of them, THOMAS MADRYN, was in the age of Elizabeth, together with other squires of Llŷn, in serious trouble on account of the unscrupulous schemes of the earl of Leicester; his son, ROBERT MADRYN, married into the house of Bodvel (first wife) and that of Cefn Amwlch (second). His grandson was THOMAS MADRYN, the greatest of the family: colonel in the Parliamentary army, sheriff in 1648-9 (and before that in 1643), member of parliament for Caernarvonshire, 1654-5; he held many important offices in Anglesey and Caernarvonshire. His influence was great and far-reaching; he managed to keep the cleric John Gethin, married to his sister Dorothy, in the living of Llangybi after losing that of Criccieth under the Propagation Act of 1650; he made it easy for his relative, Thomas Meredith, headmaster of the Friars School at Bangor, to go up to London in 1647 to secure moneys that were due to the school, and sat himself on a committee appointed in 1650 to examine the Friars ' accounts; through his Anglesey marriage, with a daughter of Plas Llandegfan, he enabled his relative, Evan Lloyd, rector of Rhoscolyn, to secure another living in addition, and even to keep that living under the stringent Propagators of 1650-3. Though his name stood at the head of the Caernarvonshire list of well-wishers to the new Protector in 1658, and though bundles of pistols were discovered at Madryn in 1661 by Restoration investigators, Thomas Madryn eventually conformed with the new powers, and was again sheriff of Caernarvon in 1665-6 (notwithstanding the awkward pistols, readers of the Gwydir Papers will know how well Sir Thomas, expert opportunist as he was, had prepared for coming events by diplomatic kindnesses to Royalists in the period 1658-1660). His son, another THOMAS MADRYN, died in 1688; he was followed by his brother WILLIAM MADRYN, who sold the Madryn lands to Owen Hughes, the rich attorney of Beaumaris; the Sidney Lewis of 1763 was a descendant of the attorney's sister Jane. See, in continuation, Parry and Jones-Parry family, of Madryn.
Author
- Thomas Richards, (1878 - 1962)
- J. E. Griffith, Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire Families (1914), 64, 116, 242, 206, 224
- T. Richards, A History of the Puritan Movement in Wales (1920), 116
- Barber and Lewis, The history of Friars School, Bangor (1901), 34-5
- Public Record Office, List of Sheriffs for England and Wales … to A.D. 1831 (1898) (P.R.O.), 249
- W. R. Williams, The parliamentary history of the principality of Wales, from the earliest times to the present day, 1541-1895 (Brecknock 1895), 60
Sources
- Wikidata: Q20733873
Additional Links
Published date: 1959
Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/
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