Dwnn
The Dwnns , also known as Don , Donne , Done or Dunne , are an ancient Welsh family. The family name is likely of Welsh origin, the family traces back to Llywelyn ap Gwrgan , an 11th century Welsh chief of Cydweli . After the English conquest of Wales , the family was among the leading gentry families in South West Wales from the 14th to the 16th centuries . Under the Earls and later the Dukes of Lancaster , who became Lords of Kidwelly in 1297 and who ascended the English throne with Henry Bolingbroke in 1400 , several members of the family held important offices in South Wales.
The main seat of the family was Pibwrlwyd , a late medieval mansion near what is now Cwmffrwd south of Carmarthen . Around 1400 they also acquired the Muddlescwm estate from Kidwelly .
history
In the 1330s, Cadwgan ap Gruffydd, the head of the family, and seven other members of the family were suspected of having been involved in the robbery of King Edward II's treasure in 1326 . In the 1340s, Gruffudd Dwnn led a force of 350 Welsh in the wake of Henry of Grosmont, Earl of Lancaster . His son Henry Dwnn had initially held numerous offices for the Duchy of Lancaster and fought in France during the Hundred Years War . In 1403 at the latest, however, he became a leading supporter of the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr in South Wales, who in 1403 besieged Kidwelly Castle in vain . Henry Dwnn's son Maredudd presumably died as a young man around 1401. However, he had several children. His daughter Mabli became the first wife of Gruffudd ap Nicolas , who became the most powerful official in South Wales in the first half of the 15th century. Maredudd's eldest son, Gruffudd Dwnn, fought for the English kings in France during the Hundred Years' War. He also held important offices in South Wales. He married a daughter of John Scudamore . His eldest son, Robert Dwnn, fought on the side of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses and became Constable of Cardigan Castle in 1471 . Another of his sons, John Donne, was also a major supporter of the House of York during the Wars of the Roses and served King Edward IV as a courtier, military man, and diplomat. After the Battle of Bosworth he was pardoned by King Henry VII .
Owain Dwnn , a younger son of Maredudd Dwnn, acquired Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire by marriage around 1435 . He was also known as a poet. His only son, Henry Dwnn , died in 1469 during the Wars of the Roses at the Battle of Edgecote Moor . His holdings of Muddlescombe and Picton were divided between his two daughters after his death. His daughter Joan, who married Thomas ap Philip from Cilsant, became the ancestral mother of the Philipps family , who still live at Picton Castle today.
With the death of Sir Edward Done , the main line of the family at Kidwelly died out in male line in 1552. The estates were divided between his daughters and other relatives, including John Cotton and Sir Thomas Jones . Gruffydd Done, from a branch living in Ystrad Merthyr , was MP for Cardigan in the House of Commons in 1547 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Thomas Lloyd, Julian Orbach, Robert Scourfield: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion (Buildings of Wales) ; Yale University Press, New Haven 2006, ISBN 978-0-300-10179-9 , p. 168
- ^ Carmarthenshire Family History Society: Muddlescombe (Mudlescwm). (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 26, 2015 ; Retrieved February 25, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ David Sutton: Kidwelly and the lost treasure of Edward II (Kidwelly History). Retrieved March 4, 2015 .
- ↑ ADK Hawkyard: DONE (DONNE, DOUNE, DWNN), Gruffydd (by 1501-66 or later), of Ystrad Merthyr, no. Kidwelly and Carmarthen, Carm. (History of Parliament online). Retrieved February 25, 2015 .
