p. 14. b.) who ferved in parlement for the borough of Leominster in the fixth of Edward III. and feveral other parlements as late as that of the thirty-eighth of the fame prince. THE family affumed afterwards their proper arms, those of Tudor Trevor. In the year 1580, a patent for a creft, the antelope's head moft ftrangely disfigured with heraldic liberty, was granted to Pyers Pennant, one of the four gentlemen-ufhers to Queen Elizabeth, and to the posterity of his father Hugh Pennant. In this patent, which I have in high preservation, the first coat is that of the Trevors, the fyelde party par bend, finifter ermen, and ermyne, a lion rampant goulde, langued and armed gules.' The two next are as defcribed above, and the fourth by the name of Gruffydd Lloyd, the fyelde azure three flower-de-luces of the fyelde:' and fuch is the diftum of Robert Cooke, alias Clarencieux, Roy D'ARMES, 1580.· THE Moftyns of Moftyn bear as their crest, a lion rampant. THE Trevors, who were the Pen-cenedl, or head of the whole line, had for their creft the wivern or dragon on a cap of dignity. The prefent Lord Hampden is its true Pen-cenedi; but by heraldic rules, on the descent of the Hampden eftate to his lordship, from the alliance of his ancestor Sir John Trevor with the Hampdens, the talbot, the creft of that family, fuperfedes the antient dragon. THE dragon was worn as a cognizance by all our princes, particularly by Cadwaladr, who died in 688. It was adopted by Henry VII. who clamed defcent from him, and wore it in he battle of Bosworth. It took its origin from the legend of Uther Pen-dragon, father of king Arthur, who is faid to have received the the addition of Pen-dragon, from his wearing that imaginary animal on his helmet. OUR bards united with the poet the office of herald. At firft our pedegrees were preferved by oral communication; afterwards committed to writing, and preferved in the houses of our The heralds office is at prefent a great repofitory great men. of these kinds of treasure. By the first we are affured of many other illuftrious defcents from princes' ancestors to our Tudor Trevor; from the princes of Powis; from Rywalbon Conwyn, (who, with his brother Kynric, were joint princes of North Wales); from even Roderic the Great, and from Cadwaladr; and finally from Vortigern, the unfortunate king of the Britons, who fled from the rage of his fubjects, for his invitation of the Saxons into Britain, and died ingloriously about the year 465, in the darksome Nant y Gwrtheyrn, in the county of Caernarvon*. THE English heralds attempt to add fame to our race, by telling us that the prefent Sir Roger Moftyn is nineteenth in descent from the Conqueror, from John of Gaunt, from Richard Plantagenet, duke of York, father to Edward IV. I leave Arthur Collins, (vol. iii. p. 129, 131) to adduce the proofs. Why will my ingenious countrywoman, after admitting these honors †, deny to us BIRTH, by diftinction fine as ether, and as imperceptible, allowing us only the advantage of family! And, notwithstanding the lady's juftly-favored Johnson makes birth and lineage fynonymous, yet my cousin will allow us no more of the former than what that great writer defines the act of coming ↑ British Synonymy, i. p. 231. *Tour in Wales, ii. p. 204. into the world,' the act which graced our country with its fair fynonymist. I HOPE the reader will not think me too warm, for thus vindicating my clame to birth, in common with my worthy brotherin-law. I am jealous that the honors which I poffefs by means of our marriage with his aunt Shonet, ten afcents higher, should receive any abatement: and I trust that the lady concerned will, as a Welsh-woman, even applaud my warmth on fo very interefting an occafion! OUR house has always been the Pen-cenedl, or chief of the name. We had several branches, all which, excepting those I have enumerated, are extinct in the male line; unless it be in the gentleman who of late years spread our celebrity in the capital, under the title of Pennant's Parcel Poft. THE first who branched from us was the hofpitable, the useful, the valiant Thomas Pennant, abbot of Bafingwerk, fon of David Pennant ap Tudor, before mentioned. He flourished in the reign of Edward IV. and is highly celebrated by Guttun Owain, a bard of the year 1480, who records the hofpitality of the abbot, in a poem printed in the collection of Mr. Rhys Jones. The poet is fo liberal of his praife as to fay, That he gave twice the treasure of a king in wine. Er bwrw yno aur brenhin And among his other luxuries I think he enumerates fugar, which a rich abbot of the fifteenth century might eafily indulge himself in, for it had been a great article of commerce in Sicily as early as the year 1148. Guttun Owain alfo adds: Tŷ da i'r ŷd, o'r tu draw. Tŷ brâg fydd, Tŷ brics iddaw. A good granary on the other fide, a malt-house, and a house of bricks which laft was probably a material in building of recent introduction in our country. Guttun Owain and Tudor Aled, another noted bard, fpeak not only of his works of utility; of the water and of the wind-mills he erected; of his having enlarged and beautified the abbey, but alfo compliment him on his prowefs in battle. Neither is Guttun filent on a subject, pleasing to every Welsh ear, the pedegree of his patron, whom he derives from Edwyn, and from Rhys Sais, a direct defcendant from Tudor Trevor. It is probable that our abbot discovered that celibacy did not fuit his conftitution. He quitted his profeffion, and became (in the law term) a monk deraigne, and married into the great house of Penrhyn, a lady of the name of Angharad. He became the father of four children. Of them, Edward the eldest succeeded to the fortunes which he seems to have fecured in the parish of Holywell. Thomas, the fecond fon, became vicar of Holywell. And Nicholas, the third, in due time abbot of Bafingwerk; he was the last, and became founder of a family, as I fhall have occafion to mention. More alfo will be faid of the line of Edward, whó may be confidered as the first of the house of Bagilt, We did not affume the name of Pennant, till the time of David Pennant ap Tudor, fifteenth in defcent from Tudor Trevor; it is a true Welb name, taken from Pen, a head, and Nant, a dingle, our house of Bychton being feated at the head of a very confiderable one. The name is very common in North Wales, applied to places, fuch as Pennant St. Melangl, Pennant Mowddwy, Pennant Lliw, &c. &c. I have found it in Cornwal, and again in the great bay of Douarnenez, in Bretagne, where, among numbers of other Welb names, is that of Pointe Pennant. IT has been delivered down to us, that in fome diftant time a gang of gipfies used to haunt this dingle, and that eighteen of them were executed, after which the gipfey race never more frequented the neighborhood. I cannot learn their crime, poffibly there was none, for they might have been legally murdered by the cruel ftatute of the 1ft and 2d of Philip and Mary, which enacts, that if, within forty days next after proclamation of this 'present act shall be made, that then he or they which shall not • depart and avoid within the faid time of forty days, according to 'the true meaning of this act, fhall be judged and deemed, ac'cording to the laws of this realm of England, a felon and felons, ' and shall suffer therefore pains of death, lofs of lands and goods as in other cafes of felony, and shall be tried as is aforesaid, ' and without having any benefit or privilege of fanctuary or clergy.' Sir Matthew Hale tells us, that in Suffolk, a few years before the reftauration, were executed, at a fingle affizes, not lefs than thirteen; but none, on that barbarous law, have suffered fince that time. In these humane days the gipfies may wander in peace, provided they behave inoffenfively wherefoever they chance to make their tranfient abode; for the bloody act was repealed in the twenty-third year of his prefent majefty. F 2 David GIPSIES. 35 |