Given name “Iorwerth” generally shown in its anglicised form, “Edward,” as below.
Edward ap Dafydd ap Ednyfed Gam ap lorwerth foel ap lorwerth fychan ap yr hên lorwerth ac i Tudr Trefor. 1
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Edward ap Dafydd of Bryncunallt, fl. c.1390–d. 1445, and his family
Two of Guto’s poems for Edward ap Dafydd, the head of the Bryncunallt family in Chirk, have survived:
- ‘In praise of the sons of Edward ap Dafydd of Bryncunallt’
- ‘Elegy for Edward ap Dafydd of Bryncunallt’
There are no other poems for Edward. Guto sang an elegy for Edward’s eldest son Robert Trefor, and later in his career he claims that he received patronage from Siôn Trefor, Edward’s second son, but the poems have not survived. Guto’s surviving poetry to the family of Bryncunallt can be dated between the early 1440s and 1452.
Lineage of the Bryncunallt family
The two brothers Iorwerth Ddu and Dafydd, sons of Ednyfed Gam, were married to two sisters, Angharad and Gwenhwyfar, daughters of Adda Goch ab Ieuaf ab Adda ab Awr, bringing together two important branches of the Tudur Trefor clan. This descent from Awr is frequently mentioned by Guto in his poems to the family, possibly because of the assumed link between Awr and Trefor near Llangollen, one of the family’s principal seats in Nanheudwy. Siôn Trefor, of Trefor, the bishop of St Asaph in 1346–57, was the son of Llywelyn, a brother of Adda Goch; the second Siôn Trefor who became bishop of St Asaph in 1394–1410, was the son of Angharad and Iorwerth Ddu...
By marrying Angharad, daughter of Robert Puleston, Edward ap Dafydd ensured a close connection with two other very important families in the area: the upwardly mobile Pulestons, with their main home in Emral near Wrexham..., and the family of Owain Glyndwr, a traditional Welsh family that could trace its descent back to the princes of Powys and Gwynedd. Guto is very careful to remind his audience of these important connections....
We can be fairly confident of the date Edward died. In Pen 26, 97–8, there is a stray folio containing contemporary notes written by various hands dated between 1439 and 1461 on matters relating to the Oswestry area. Many of the entries refer specifically to members of the Trefor family of Bryncunallt, which may suggest that it was members of that family who were responsible for recording them. One entry states that Edward ap Dafydd died on 25 April 1445: Obitus Edwardi ap Dafydd in festo Marci evengeliste anno domini MCCCXLV... The earliest reference to him is in a deed dated 11 March 1390 (Ba (M) 1629), and we can assume that he would have been born at least 15–20 years previously. He would have been in his seventies at least in the 1440s when Guto Guto sang to him and his four sons, and although Edward is described as the family’s [p]enadur ‘chieftain’ (103.59), it is obvious that it was his eldest son, Robert Trefor, who was the effective leader of the family by then. In his elegy, despite conveying the region’s very great sorrow at losing such an authoritative and learned leader, the message is a positive one, focussing on the the future which is secure in his sons’ hands. We can assume that his death was not entirely unexpected....
Learning and career
We learn from Guto’s poetry that Edward was a very learned man, and the specific reference to his expertise in the ‘two laws’ (civil and ecclesiastical) as well as in the arts may suggest that he had received an university education, although there is no external evidence to support this... Edward probably received some of his elementary education at Valle Crucis (the kind of education described in Thomson 1982: 76–80), or possibly at the school which had flourished in Oswestry since the early years of the fifteenth century (Griffiths 1953: 64–6 et passim). We can be sure that there was a strong connection between the Pengwern and Trefor branches of the family and the abbey, as many family members were buried there. Guto testifies that Robert Trefor’s final resting place was within the abbey’s grounds, and it is believed that Edward ap Dafydd was also buried there.
Guto suggests that Edward ap Dafydd had a role in administering law and order in Chirk..., but we have no external evidence to support this either. However, the fact that Edward’s name appears in deeds regarding the conveyance of land in the region does suggest his status within society: e.g. he is named in a deed issued in Chirk, 11 March 1390 (Ba (M) 1629); as witness to a deed dated 15 May 1391 at Trefor (Jones 1933: 93) and in a similar deed dated 29 September 1411 at Lower Trefor (LlGC Bettisfield 977); and in another, he is named together with his son Robert regarding the receipt of land in Nanheudwy in 1441 (LlGC Puleston 935). He may also be the magister Edward Trevor who is named in a deed dated 1427 regarding land in Chirk, Lower Chirk and Gwernosbynt (LlGC Chirk Castle 920), although that may have been his son. Like many members of his family, Edward took part in the Glyndwr rebellion, and along with many of the local landowners he later had to forfeit his land to the lord. By 1407 peace was restored and, following the payment of a twenty pound fine, his lands were restored to him (Carr 1976: 27). 2
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