Research Notes:

Son of Owen ap Hywel ap Llywelyn, of Llwyn, Dolgelley. Under Henry VIII he was appointed deputy-chamberlain of North Wales and baron (i.e. judge) of the exchequer at Caernarvon; he was sheriff of Merioneth in 1545-6 and 1554-5, and Member of Parliament for the shire in 1547, 1553, and 1554; he lived at Cwrt Plas-yn-dre, Dolgelley. As sheriff, he undertook to extirpate the ‘ Red Bandits of Mawddwy,’ and in revenge was killed, 11 Oct. 1555, on the spot still known as ‘ Llidiart-y-barwn,’ near Mallwyd, Mer. ¹

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Lewis Owen was born around 1500. He married Margaret Puleston, a niece of Sir John Puleston, of Hafod y Wern, to whom Lewis Owen was a deputy in 1540, and in his will in 1551 Sir John left to Lewis Owen 'who has had the same heretofore these twenty years' and also 'all my goats in Merionethshire to Margaret Puleston, wife of Lewis Owen.'....
.... Under Henry VIII, Lewis Owen was appointed deputy chamberlain of North Wales and a baron of the exchequer at Caernarvon (the position which resulted in his description as 'Y Barwn'). He was Sheriff of Merioneth in 1545-6 and 1554-5, and represented Merionethshire in four parliaments between 1547 and 1554.
The convulsions in the realm in the later years of Henry VIII and in the next two reigns affected Lewis Owen in at least three ways. In Merioneth, the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536-1540) resulted in new owners for lands formerly belonging to Cymer Abbey. Owen acquired lands in Nannau, Llanegryn and Talyllyn, and in 1552 he took a twenty-one year lease of the township of Dolgellau, so that before his death he had built up a considerable (if scattered) estate....
Lewis Owen represented Merioneth in the two parliaments in the reign of Edward VI (November 1547 to April 1552, and the brief one of March 1553). The first of these saw the passing of the two Acts of Uniformity (January 1549 and April 1552) and the introduction of the two versions of the English Prayer Book. At the same time sweeping changes in religious practice were imposed, with the removal of images, pictures and frescoes from parish churches; many mediaeval customs were abrogated. The introduction of an English Book of Common Prayer, replacing the Latin, did not provide a service more generally comprehensible in Wales. We do not know how Lewis Owen reacted to these changes, nor to the still more dramatic ones in the next reign. He was not in the first parliament of the reign of Mary I (October to December 1553) but he served in both in 1554, in April (shortly before Mary's marriage to Philip of Spain) and in November to December at the time when it was believed she was pregnant. Lewis Owen may well have been in Parliament when, on 30 November, Pole—the papal legate—addressed the Lords and Commons and the clergy, and 'all knelt to ask forgiveness for their error in breaking away from the Holy See'....
Lewis Owen did not live to experience the Elizabethan settlement which eventually restored some measure of religious balance. He was Sheriff for Merioneth from 1554 until his death, and with Sir John Wynn of Gwydir attempted to bring greater order into the commote of Mawddwy, which had only been incorporated in Merionethshire in 1543....²

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Lewis Owen, Esquire, of Plâs yn dref in Dolgelley, Vice Chamberlain of North Wales, and Baron of the Exchequer of Carnarvon, M.P. for Merionethshire, 1547, 1552, 1553, 1554, High Sheriff 1543, 1552, 1554, in which last year he was murdered by outlaws. The following account of his murder was written by his great grandson, Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt:

"Afterwards the sayd Lewys Owen, being high shiriffe of the County of Merioneth, & having occasion to goe to Montgomery shire assizes, to treat wth the Lord Mouthewy, about a marriage to be had between Jon Owen, his sonne and heire, and the daughter of the sayd Lord of Mouthwy, was in his returne met by a damned crew of thieves & outlawes, who in thick woods of Mouthwy lay in wayt for his coming, & had cutt downe long trees to crosse the way & hinder his passage, & being come to the place, they lett flie att him a shower of arrowes, whereof one lighted in his face, the which he took out with his hand & brake it, then they fell upon him with theire bills & javelings & killed him-his men upon the first assault fledd & left him onely accompanied with his son in law John Lloyd, of Keiswyn, Esqre, who defended him till he fell down to the ground as dead, where he was found having above 30 bloody wounds in his body. This cruell murther was committed about alhallowtide in the year of our Lord 1555. And the murtherers soone after were for the most parte taken & executed, some few fled, the land, & never returned. And soe, wth the losse of his life, he purchased peace & quietnes to his countrey." ³