Aged about 17 years in 1617.
Colonel in the Army, Governor of Conway Castle, Vice-Admiral of North Wales. Succeeded by his son William Owen in 1666.
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[E]ldest son of John Owen of Bodsilin, Walsingham 's secretary , and of Elin (later lady Eure), granddaughter of Sir William Maurice. He was b. in 1600 at Clenennau, near Dolbenmaen, Caerns., his mother's home; m. Janet, daughter of Griffith Vaughan of Cors-y-gedol, Mer., and had some military experience before succeeding to Clenennau on his mother's death in 1626. He was sheriff of Caernarvonshire in 1630-31 and of Merioneth next year, and when the Civil War broke out he was put on the commission of array for Caernarvonshire (10 Aug. 1642) and commissioned by Charles to raise and equip from county funds a regiment from the three shires of Gwynedd. Hampered by opposition from a few neighbouring families, he was not able to put his recruits into the field till the following summer, first in operations round Oxford (May 1643), then at the siege of Bristol , where in command of the 6th brigade under Rupert he was wounded in the face (18 July), and at the first battle of Newbury (20 Sept.). He was back in Caernarvonshire by April 1644, and in the autumn he was reappointed as sheriff of Caernarvonshire, remaining in office until the king's authority there ceased. After the successful invasion of Wales by Sir Thomas Myddelton. he was summoned to Oxford , where the king made him governor of what became the ‘ffrontiere garrison’ of Conway (10 Dec. 1644), and a week later, a knight . On 17 Feb. 1645 he was commissioned as sergeant major general of foot under lord Byron (governor of Chester). His first task was to meet threats to Denbighshire and Flintshire which had developed during the winter..., he was summoned to Oxford, where the king made him governor of what became the ‘ffrontiere garrison’ of Conway ( 10 Dec. 1644 ), and a week later, a knight . On 17 Feb. 1645 he was commissioned as sergeant major general of foot under lord Byron ( governor of Chester). His first task was to meet threats to Denbighshire and Flintshire which had developed during the winter who, after lavishing his resources in organising local effort and equipping his native Conway as a depot, protested (Jan. 1645) against his supersession by an interloper from the wilds of Eifionydd . Byron sought a compromise, but in May (with authority from Rupert) Owen forcibly entered the castle, appropriating its contents, and denounced the archbishop in terms which drew a rebuke from the king himself. Increasing Roundhead pressure took Owen into Merioneth in Aug. but the day after Charles 's defeat at Rowton Heath (25 Sept.) he sent for him to Denbigh to confirm his commission, including custody of the castle. In response to Byron 's urgent plea for co-operation after the fall of Chester (1 Feb. 1646) Williams wrote a conciliatory letter to Owen on 24 April; but it was under Byron 's orders that the latter precipitated a final breach by impounding stores and cattle from Gwydir and so placing Williams 's favourite niece and her husband, Sir Owen Wynne..., at the mercy of the advancing Roundheads . Williams, exasperated, helped Thomas Mytton nto Conway in Aug., but Owen held out in the castle till 9 Nov., when honourable terms enabled him to retire to Clenennau after taking the Covenant and Negative Oath (26 April 1647).
A fortnight before this, Rupert had written from France inviting Owen to bring over a Welsh brigade for the French service, an invitation he reluctantly declined for lack of means of transport. In the second Civil War his commission was renewed ( 31 March 1648 ), and he raised Merioneth for the king , intending to join Rowland Laugharne at Pembroke, but besieging Caernarvon instead when it proved too late for that. Retreating through Bangor before superior forces, with the wounded parliamentary sheriff, William Lloyd, as his prisoner, he was trapped on the seashore at Y Dalar hir, Llandygài ( 5 June ), where his men were scattered by Mytton and he himself captured; the sheriff d. of the rigours of the journey. Owen was committed to Denbigh castle, then brought to London for trial on charges of treason to parliament, violation of his articles of surrender, and murder of the sheriff. Removed to Windsor (26 June), he was brought back for trial after the Lords had vetoed an order for his banishment with Laugharne (14 Nov.) and the Rump had resolved, two days after the king's execution (1 Feb. 1649), to try him with the chief instigators of the second Civil War . After a spirited defence without the aid of counsel ( 9 Feb. — 6 March ), he was condemned to death, but next day submitted a petition for reprieve (of which numerous drafts exist), with a success which he himself attributed variously to ‘interposall’ of Cromwell and of James Challenor, Clarendon to that of Ireton, and other accounts to the intervention of foreign ambassadors and to the kidnapping of Griffith Jones of Castellmarch as a hostage. By July he was free to entertain John Evelyn in London with a Welsh harpist, and he was home in Sept. An attempt to wring out of his estate, already decimated (27 May 1647) by a fine of £771, sums which had been earmarked in advance (10 Feb. 1646) for repaying loans contracted for Myddelton 's campaign, was thwarted by Mytton, and Myddelton seems to have behaved considerately over the work of sequestration.
Owen now lived absorbed in dogs and hawks at Clenennau, forbidden to travel without a pass, and three times put under preventive restraint: at Denbigh (with several absences on pass) in Aug. — Sept. 1651 ; at Chester in July 1655 (when plots were rife) until appeals to the Protector and his henchmen (including John Jones the regicide..., procured his release on 17 Aug.; and again in Beaumaris for three weeks in 1658. Apart from an appeal to Cromwell against his assessment to the decimation tax in 1655 he took no known part in politics until he began openly consorting with Cavaliers in May 1659, and on receiving a letter from the duke of York in exile in July, joined Booth 's revolt, bringing on himself a fresh sequestration order in Nov., which was, however, suspended through the efforts of his brother next month. On the king's return he petitioned for redress for his wrongs (31 July 1660), and was given the vice-admiralty of North Wales, while as deputy-lieutenant he joined William Griffith of Cefnamwlch... in rounding up the fallen faction in Caernarvonshire, turning the tables on some who had been busy with his sequestration but fourteen months earlier. He d. at Clenennau in 1666... 3
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In the church of Penmorva, in the county of Carnarvon, is the following monumental inscription to the memory of this gentleman:
M. S.
JOHANNIS OWEN
de Clenenney in Co: Carnarvon Militis,
Viri
in patriam amoris ardentissimi, in
Regem (Beatissumum Martyrem Carolum primum)
indubitatæ fidelitatis clari,
qui ad Sacro Sanctum Majestatem a perduellionum
rabie eripiendam, Summa pericula, lubentissime
obierit,
Hostiam copias non semel fudit, ac fregit,
Religionem vindicavit:
Donec infelici sorte in perditissimorum hominum
manus
Regali jam Sanguine imbutas
inciderit Dux præstantissimus;
Unde Supplex sese obsessum redimerat,
Nisi quod Heroi consummatissimo
famæ plus, quam vitæ, sollicito, tale 'lyzon' displicuit.
collo igitur imperterrite oblato,
Securis aciem retudit divina vis,
Volucrisq: fati tardavit alas, donec senex lætissimus
Carolum secundum et sibi et suis restitutum viderat.
Anno Domini 1666, et ætatis suæ 66, placide
expiravit,
Atq: hic cum charissima conjuge Jonetta filia
Griffini Vaughan de Corsygedol Arm:
in pace requiescit.
ELENA OWEN
gratitudinis et pietatis ergo
Avo Aviæq. B. M. pos. 1
Research Notes: