EDWARDS
family, of
Stansty, Denbs.
This family boasted continuous occupation of the same area from
1317
, when
David ap Meilir
is said to have bought the manor of
Stansty
, to
1783
, when his direct line died out. The surname was first stabilized by
JOHN
EDWARDS
(
1573
-
1635
), son of
David ab Edward
; his
executorship
of the will under which his neighbour
Sir
William
Meredith
established a ‘lectureship’
at
Wrexham
suggests
Puritan
leanings, which reappeared in some of his descendants. His eldest son
DAVID
EDWARDS
(d.
1635
) expanded the estate and built in
1577
the family seat of
Plas Isa
, while two younger sons distinguished themselves at
Oxford
.
JOHN
EDWARDS
(second son, b.
1612
) was educated at
Westminster
(
1629
) and
Christ Church
(matriculated
26 Oct. 1632
), graduating
B.A.
1633 (6 Dec.)
,
M.B.
1635
, and becoming
court physician
to
Charles
I
. As
Fellow
of
Christ Church
he refused to submit to the
Parliamentary visitors
in
1648 (10 May)
, but there is no record of his expulsion.
JONATHAN
EDWARDS
(third son, b.
1615
) went to
Jesus College
,
Oxford
(matriculated
3 Feb. 1633
), graduated
B.A.
1634 (9 June)
, became
M.A.
and
Fellow
1637 (24 April)
, and
D.D.
(
Nov. 1642
). By
1679
he was
archdeacon
of
Londonerry
. Their sister
MARGARET
(d.
1651
), an ardent disciple of
Morgan
Llwyd
(q.v.)
, m.
John
Jones
(
1597?
-
1660
) (q.v.)
the
regicide
, whose son
John
was a friendly correspondent of the
archdeacon
. Another sister,
CATHERINE
, m.
Watkin
Kyffin
, through whom her brother
Jonathan
tried in vain, on attaining his
Fellowship
, to induce the 2nd
Sir
Thomas
Myddelton
(q.v.)
(to whom
Kyffin
was
agent
at
Chirk
) to send his son to
Jesus College
with those of the
earl of Pembroke
(see under
Herbert
of
Pembroke
) and ‘the best gentry of
South Wales
.’ The
John
Edwards
who was thrust by the
Triers
(
1650
) into the living of
Llangorse
,
Brecknock
and ejected in
1660
(
T.
Richards
,
Religious Developments
, 45, 51, 386), is confused by
Foster
(
Alumni Oxon.
) with
Jonathan
, but cannot be fitted into the
Stansty
pedigree.
JOHN
EDWARDS
(
1619
-
1673
), son and heir of
David
Edwards
, held the
recordership of the lordship of Chirk
under
Sir
Thomas
Myddelton
, but is said to have fought for
Charles
I
, and certainly m. the widow of a
Lancashire
Royalist
(daughter of
Sir
Thomas
Powell
of
Horsley
), for whose claims on her first husband's estate (put up for sale by the
Commonwealth
)
John
Jones
the
regicide
himself put in a word, describing his nephew-by-marriage as
‘of an honest, harmless, sweet disposition.’
After the
Restoration
Edwards
was presented by the
churchwardens
(including his brother
David
) for non-attendance at church. He added further to the estate till it embraced most of
Stansty
township and extended into that of
Gwersyllt
, but on the death, without children, of his great-great-grandson
PETER
EDWARDS
(
1783
), it went to the
Lloyds
of
Pengwern
, and was eventually sold to the
iron-master
Richard
Thompson
, who built
Stansty Hall
in
1830-32
.
Bibliography:
-
A. N. Palmer
,
History of the thirteen country townships of
the old parish of Wrexham, and of the townships of Burras
Riffri, Erlas, & Erddig Being the fifth and last part
of "A history of the town and parish of Wrexham"
,
1903
, 187-94;
-
J. B. Whitmore
and
G. R. Y. Radcliffe
,
The record of old Westminsters a
biographical list of all those who are known to have been
educated at Westminster school from the earliest times to
1927
and
, London, 1928
, i, 304, and supplement, 51;
-
M. Burrows
,
The Register of the Visitors of the
University of Oxford, 1647–58
. Camden Society,
1881
, Camden Soc., 30, 33, 68;
-
National Library of Wales
Manuscripts
11440 (15, 22, 92), 11449 (6);
-
W. M. Myddelton
,
Chirk Castle Accounts
,
1605-66
, 16-17, 27;
-
Plymouth deeds at the National Library of Wales,
Aberystwyth
, 908.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Arthur Herbert Dodd, M.A., (1891-1975), Bangor
