MAREDUDD AND PHILIP AP UCHDRYD
By Darrell Wolcott
While the medieval
pedigrees call both Maredudd and Philip "ap Uchdryd ap Edwin", both were born near 1120 and the "Uchdryd" which
forms their patronym must have occurred in the generation of grandsons of Edwin of Tegeingl. Families descended from
Maredudd held some of the same Tegeingl lands which were once a part of Edwin's lordship and he was almost certainly their
ancestor. Maredudd's father Uchdryd must, then, have been a son of either Owain or Uchdryd ap Edwin. The families
spawned by Philip ap Uchdryd are found in Cyfeiliog, on lands which Uchdryd ap Edwin had received from Cadwgan ap Bleddyn.
Further chronological analysis
indicates there were actually two men called Philip ap Uchdryd, the one born c. 1120 and another born a generation later.
Both men had, among others, a son named Hywel and this has led virtually all genealogists to assume a single Philip was the
ancestor of both subsequent families. Perhaps the ancestry of the second Philip can be found in B.M. Add 14918, 62;
alluded to but then ignored by Peter Bartrum, that source cites a "Philip ap Uchdryd ap Madog Penllyn".
In our paper devoted to
the life of Uchdryd ap Edwin, it was suggested that he was granted the lordships in Meirionydd, Penllyn and Cyfeiliog for
rendering exceptional military services to Cadwgan ap Bleddyn. The Brut record says Uchdryd built his own castle at
Cymer in Meirionydd. We suspect that the "Uchdryd, Lord of Cyfeiliog" mentioned in various pedigree manuscripts was
actually an eldest and same-named son of Uchdryd ap Edwin, while Madog Penllyn was a younger son who inheirited that part
of his father's lands. In 1116, we are told that two grandsons of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn took back the three lordships which
Cadwgan ap Bleddyn had granted to Uchdryd ap Edwin; this must have been but a temporary coup since we continue to find descendants
of Uchdryd in Cyfeiliog well into the 15th century. Perhaps Maredudd ap Bleddyn restored the Cyfeiliog lands to the sons of
Uchdryd about 1124 when he prevented heirs of his nephews from taking possession of Uchdryd's former lands in Powys.
A chart similiar to the following
would account for the men and the lands they held in the mid-twelfth century:
1085 Uchdryd Cyfeiliog
Madog Penllyn 1085
1120 Maredudd(a) 1120 Philip
1155 Hywel(b) Philip
(a) His descendants are found in Tegeingl on the paternal
lands of his grandfather, while those of his brother Philip are found in Cyfeiliog
(b) He had a brother Maredudd and sons Llewelyn and Tudor
(c) He had a brother Madog and sons Dafydd and Gruffudd
It was probably the brothers
Uchdryd and Madog who were forced from their Cyfeiliog and Penllyn lands in 1116. There is nothing to indicate this
family ever regained a foothold in either Meirionydd or Penllyn, but men descended from both those brothers did hold manors
In an earlier paper,
we had identified Maredudd ap Uchdryd as having been born c. 1120 and thus not a son of Uchdryd ap Edwin as his pedigree claims.
We suggested he might have been a son of Owain ap Edwin, but it seems more likely it was a same-named son of Uchdryd
ap Edwin who was father to both Maredudd of Tegeingl and Philip of Cyfeiliog. A wife cited for Uchdryd
ap Edwin fits chronologically with a Uchdryd ap Uchdryd ap Edwin:
1050 Uchdryd 1065 Maredudd
The marriage may also explain
why, when the sons of Cadwgan ap Bleddyn took back the Meirionydd, Penllyn and Cyfeiliog lands which had been granted
by their father to Uchdryd ap Edwin, Maredudd later restored the Cyfeiliog lands to Philip ap Uchdryd...that was his grandson.
demonstrate that there were two different men named Philip ap Uchdryd who were born a generation apart (Bartrum's charts show
a single man born c. 1130) one needs do little more than examine two daughters cited for him.
1. Sian ferch Philip ap
Uchdryd was married to Ednowain ap Bradwen of Ardudwy. That man was born c. 1155 and we should expect Sian to occur
c. 1155/65, a chronological fit for the daughter of a Philip born c. 1120...our estimate for the man Bartrum places c. 1130.
2. Arddun ferch
Philip ap Uchdryd married Madog ap Rhiryd Flaidd of Penllyn. He was born c. 1185 and we should expect his wife to
date from c. 1185/95...much too late to have been the daughter of the Philip born c. 1120. Her father should occur c.
1150/60 or a full generation later than the father of Sian. Bartrum solves this non-fit with his Philip of c. 1130 by
simply ignoring Arddun altogether; she is absent from his indexes.
That both men named Philip
ap Uchdryd had a son named Hywel is also evident when we follow the families descended from each. For example, Bartrum
shows "sisters" Lleuci and Isabel as daughters of Hywel ap Philip, but dates them a full generation apart with Lleuci at
c. 1200 and Isabel at c. 1230. Our own dating for the two ladies is the same and requires two different men named Hywel
ap Philip for a father. Lleuci married Madog ap Cadifor ap Cynillyn ap Gwaethfoed of Meirionydd, that Madog born
c. 1200, while Isabel married Ieuan ap Madog ap Cadwgan of Meirionydd. Ieuan was descended from the Dyfed dynasty
of Saul Felyn ap Meurig and was born c. 1225/30.
The earliest Philip ap Uchdryd
had, beside Sian and Hywel, another son Maredudd who was living in 1199 and born c. 1150. His descendant eventually
married an heiress of the family of his brother Hywel as follows:
lv 1278 Madog
Note: The citations and
Bartrum's charts omit the second pair of Llewelyn ap Gruffudd but place the Llewelyn who was husband of Mary three generations
after Gruffudd ap Maredudd without filling the gap.
The later Philip ap Uchdryd
had, beside Arddun and Hywel, a son Madog born c. 1180 whose daughter, Efa of c. 1210, married Madog ap Cadwgan ap Madog ap
Cadwgan ap Bleddyn ap Madog of Nannau; that Madog was born c. 1195 and was the father of Meurig of Nannau. This Philip's
son Hywel had, beside the daughter Isabel, sons Dafydd (living in 1278) and Gruffudd, the latter born c. 1220.
This Gruffudd ap Hywel ap Philip
is confounded with Gruffudd Goch ap Tudor ap Hywel ap Philip of the earlier family on Bartrum's convoluted chart by the assumption
the Madogs in the following charts are the same man:
Philip 1120 Uchdryd
1155 Hywel 1150
1190 Tudor 1185
Gruffudd Goch 1220 Gruffudd
1250 Madog 1255 Madog
The family on the left above was seated
in Penegoes parish in Cyfeiliog, while that on the right was found in Darowen parish in Cyfeiliog. It was the Darowen
family from which sprang Hywel Goch ap Madog born c. 1360.
Before considering the family of the c. 1120 Maredudd ap Uchdryd of Tegeingl, we should first dispose of the c. 1090 Maredudd
ap Uchdryd found in Harleian Ms 1969. Probably a base son of Uchdryd ap Edwin, this Maredudd married Sioned ferch Ithel
ap Eunydd of Ruthinland and had sons Einion and Madog who shared Maesmaencymro in Colion, Dyffryn Clwyd. Nothing more is
known of that family.
The process of
constructing the family descended from the c. 1120 Maredudd ap Uchdryd presents a wholly different problem, that of multiple
men named Ithel. This family was seated on Uchdryd's paternal lands in Tegeingl. The following construction is
the only pedigree which follows a consistent timeline for all later descendants:
Ithel Gam Hen (a) 1155
1180 Cynwrig Sais 1185 Dafydd
Ithel Lloyd 1190
(to Haliwel family) (Caerfallwch line)
see next chart
1190 Ithel Lloyd
1220 Ithel Fychan 1220 Ithel Gam
(father of Ithel Anwyl, (father of Cynwrig
Dafydd, Ieuan, Cynwrig and three daughters:
and Bleddyn Fychan) Ales, Angharad and one
1250 Ithel Lloyd
Ithel Fychan 1260
(father of Cynwrig Sais, Ithel
1285 Ithel Fychan
and 5 daughters, including
1410 Angharad of Mostyn
(a) Most extant pedigrees
skip from the Ithel Gam of c. 1220 directly to Maredudd, but the medieval citations identify both an "Ithel Gam" and a "Hen
It is also evident
there were at least three separate men named Cynwrig Sais in this family. The one born c. 1180 had two sons: Dafydd
whose son was John Haliwel, and Ithel. The Cynwrig Sais born c. 1250 had daughters Nest and Angharad while
the man of that name born c. 1295 had 3 daughters: Efa, Gwenllian and Angharad.
An oft-seen marriage connection
between a descendant of Maredudd ap Uchdryd and the family of the so-called Ednowain Bendew II is this one:
1050 Ednowain Bendew II
1110 Iorwerth Maredudd
1145 Madog Ithel Gam Hen
Ithel Lloyd 1190
Ithel Fychan 1220
1235 Robert===========Ales 1250
The Robert ap Iorwerth
in this chart is NOT the same man who had the son, Cynwrig. This one had a brother, Rhiryd, born c. 1240; that Rhiryd
had a son Iorwerth whose son Robert was born c. 1310. It was that later Robert who was father to Cynwrig and grandfather
to Ithel Fychan and others.
 Pen. 131, 105 & 186; Pen. 129, 56 & 74; and Pen. 127, 24 cite
Maredudd ap Uchrdyd ap Edwin, while Pen. 131, 284; Pen. 127, 145; and Pen. 128, 105a cite Philip ap Uchdryd ap Edwin
 Pen. 131, 284 cites a Maredudd ap Philip ap Uchdryd; Pen. 128, 179a
cites Llewelyn ap Hywel ap Philip and Pen. 128, 646a cites Tudor ap Hywel ap Philip
 Pen. 287, 385 cites Madog ap Philip ap Uchdryd; Pen. 128, 113a cites Dafydd
ap Hywel ap Philip and Pen. 128, 111a cites Gruffudd ap Hywel ap Philip
 See the papers "Uchdryd ap Edwin - The Younger Son" and "The Ednowain Bendew
II of Medieval Pedigrees" elsewhere on this site
 Harl. 1969 as quoted by "History of Powys Fadog", vol iii, pp 105 Bartrum
omits Angharad from his index because she did not fit his timeline, but it was Uchdryd ap Uchdryd ap Edwin she married
 Dwnn ii, 239 cites this marriage
 Dwnn ii, 229 cites this marriage; again Bartrum omits Arddun from his work
 "Welsh Genealogies AD 300-1400", vol 4 on chart "Philip ap Uchdryd 3"
 Dwnn ii, 241
 Dwnn ii, 236
 Montgomeryshire Collections, vol xvii, pp 53 cites this marriage but is
corrupt as to the ancestry of Llewelyn ap Gruffudd
 Pen. 287, 253
 See "Welsh Genealogies AD 300-1400" vol 4, chart "Philip ap Uchdryd 3" and
vol 6 of the index under "Gruffudd (Goch) (ap Tudor) ap Hywel ap Philip" where Bartrum rolls the two families into one
 Pen. 127, 144
 Pen. 287, 225 cites this marriage
 ibid Note 5; Einion and Madog are missing from Bartrum's charts
 Pen. 129, 115; Pen. 127, 129; and Pen. 128, 603a cite a "Hen Ithel Gam ap
Maredudd ap Uchdryd"
 Pen. 128, 886a cites John Haliwel ap Dafydd ap Cynwrig Sais while Pen. 129,
115 mentions both Dafydd and Ithel as sons of Cynwrig Sais ap Gronwy
 Pen. 129, 99 cites Angharad ferch Cynwrig Sais ap Ithel Fychan,
while Dwnn ii, 331 cites Nest ferch Cynwrig Sais ap Ithel Fychan. Marriages cited for those ladies date them to c. 1280/85
 Pen. 131, 46 cites Efa ferch Cynwrig Sais ap Ithel Fychan; Pen 131, 100
cites Gwenllian ferch Cynwrig Sais ap Ithel Fychan; and Pen 131, 186 cites Angharad ferch Cynwrig Sais ap Ithel Fychan.
Marriages cited for those ladies date them to c. 1325/30
 Citations for this marriage include Pen. 127, 131 & 164 and Pen. 128,
611a; other early 16th century citations incorrectly omit Ithel Lloyd from the ancestry of Ales, an error repeated by Bartrum
in his chronologically unstable charts