EDWARDS
,
RICHARD
(
1628
-
1704
), of
Nanhoron
in
Llŷn
,
Puritan squire
.
A member of an ancient family, his immediate forebears allied with
Abércain
and
Pénllech
, his first wife a daughter of
Saethon
, it was his second marriage with a niece of
Thomas
Wynn
of
Boduan
(or ‘
Bodfean
’ — see under
Wynn
of
Rug
) that brought him within the orbit of the higher gentry. Proofs of his active Parliamentary sympathies are scanty, but the new
Restoration
powers definitely placed him on the lists of the ill-affected, discovered (under the
Militia Acts
) two cases of pistols at
Nanhoron
, opened his letters, and (according to some accounts) lodged him in
Caernarvon gaol
.
Puritan
though he was, and an
Independent
at that, it was found impossible to ignore his high qualities as an effective factor in the life of the countryside; what with his
legal knowledge
, his
uncanny acquaintance with the family ramifications of Llŷn
, and his great fund of secretive common sense, he became an ideal
arbiter in disputes
, and gradually came to be consulted even by the stoutest
Cavaliers
over their private concerns, as is proved by the part which he played in the
Cefn Amwlch
will dispute in
1691
(see
Griffith
of
Cefn Amwlch
); previous to this he had been called in to draw up the last will of
Jeffrey
Glynn
, the taciturn
Anglican
of
Gwynfryn
by
Pwllheli
, and to draft a will for
Edward
Williams
of
Meillionydd
in
1677
, under which a capital sum was to be set apart to found a grammar school at
Pwllheli
, with
Edwards
himself as one of the
feoffees in trust
. He was appointed
deputy-mayor
of
Caernarvon
in
1668
, and
sheriff of the county
in
1696
. These accessions to office and his close familiarity with
Cavaliers
and
Anglicans
must not make us forget that
Edwards
was a loyal
life-long Puritan
, as witness his welcome in
1672
to his
Puritan
kinsman
Henry
Maurice
(
1634
-
1682
) (q.v.)
, the son of
Methlan
, near
Aberdaron
, the pains he took to help
Maurice
's widow over the leasing of the
Gwynfryn
lands in
1688
, and his assistance in securing the services of a
South Wales
Independent
(
Daniel
Phillips
,
1680
-
1722
, q.v.
) to
superintend the Puritan causes
of
Pwllheli
and its neighbourhood. In
1687
a particular tribute to his standing as a
Puritan
was paid as a result of
James
II
's first
Declaration of Indulgence
(for
Roman Catholics
and
Dissenters
); he was named as likely to make a
J.P.
loyal to
James
II
's new policy — not that there is the slightest evidence that
Edwards
believed in the policy of the
Declaration
, nor that he would have acted as
J.P.
if nominated. [He d.
10 July 1704
, aged 76.]
The
Puritanism
of
Edwards
comes out in the Scriptural names of some of his children (
Jeremiah
,
Timothy
,
Martha
— six Timothys altogether in the
Pedigrees
) and in their marriages to well-known
Puritan
families, one son to a
Lathrop
of
West Felton
, a daughter to
Walter
Griffith
of
Llanfyllin
. Curiously, the
English
wife of one of his great-grandsons —
TIMOTHY
EDWARDS
(
1731
-
1780
), a
captain
in the
Royal Navy
— was very prominent in her support of the
Welsh Independent cause
at
Capel Newydd
, near
Nanhoron
. Their grandson,
RICHARD
EDWARDS
(
1806
-
1876
), was a stalwart
Conservative
and
Churchman
,
D.L.
of
Caernarvonshire
,
high sheriff
at various times of three
Welsh
counties, and in the forefront of the public life of his native county in the middle decades of the
19th cent.
Bibliography:
-
J. E. Griffith
,
Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvonshire
Families
, 1914
, 161;
- Cefn Amwlch MSS. 15, 20;
-
Nannau Manuscript at University College North Wales
Library, Bangor
1717
;
-
Rawlinson Manuscript at the Bodlean Library,
Oxford.
A 139 (160);
-
Y Cofiadur
,
1928
, 39-40, 45;
-
Caernarvonshire Historical Society
Transactions
,
1947
, 27-34;
-
Hanes Eglwysi Annibynnol Cymru
, iii, 172-3.
Author:
Thomas Richards, D.Litt., (1878-1962), Bangor
