HOLBACHE
(
HOLBECHE
, etc.),
DAVID
(
fl.
1377-1423
),
lawyer, founder of Oswestry Grammar School
.
Despite his (as yet unexplained)
English
surname, he was a
Welshman
; according to the pedigrees in
Harl. MS. 4181
(
Powys Fadog
, iv, 93) and
Pen. MS. 129
(by his fellow-countryman
Gutun Owain
, q.v.)
, he was son of
Ieuan Goch ap Dafydd Goch ap Iorwerth ap Cynwrig ap Heilyn
(of
Pentre-heilyn
— see under
Heylin
,
Rowland
)
ap
Trahaearn ab Iddon
; he had lands at
Dudleston
in
Chirkland
; he was
steward of the town and lordship
of
Oswestry
, and (in
1409
)
deputy-steward of the lordship of Bromfield and Yale
. He was a member, either for
Shrewsbury
or for
Shropshire
, of
Parliaments
between Feb. 1406 and Nov. 1417
. He suffered great losses in the
Glyndŵr wars
; according to a petition of his in
1406-7
(
Rot. Parl.
, iii, 600-1) he had lost 2,000 marks of rents of his lands in
Wales
, over and above about 2,000 marks through destruction of his property. Not unnaturally, he complained that he was ground between upper and nether millstones, for
Owain Glyndŵr
's men had harried him, while Parliamentary legislation deprived him of the rights of
Englishry
. Accordingly, he induced
Parliament
(
Rot. Parl.
, iii, 590;
Cal. Pat. Rolls
,
1405-8
, 245, 298) to petition the
king
not only to compensate him in part by granting him some lands forfeited by a
Welsh
‘rebel,’ but also to grant him
Englishry
despite the fact that he was
Welsh
(‘
entier Galois
’) in respect of both his parents. Remembering these facts, it is difficult to accept
Stow
's statement (in
1615
) that
Holbache
afterwards interceded with
Henry
on
Owain
's behalf. Yet we know that
Holbache
did intercede on behalf of another
Welshman
,
Adam Usk
(q.v.)
, for
Adam
's pardon (
20 March 1411
—
Cal. Pat. Rolls
,
1408-13
, 283) states that it was granted on the petition of ‘
David
Holbache
,
esquire
.’ At some time
between 1418 and 1421
(the original documents are lost),
Holbache
endowed a free grammar school
at
Oswestry
, the first of its kind in (what was then)
Wales
; the endowment was increased by his widow
Gwenhwyfar
.
Holbache
's will was proved in
1423
; he left a widow and a daughter.
Leland
(
Itinerary in Wales
, ed.
Toulmin
Smith
, 75) was mistaken when he suggested that
David
Holbache
was the ‘David’ who founded the
Inn of Court
in
Holborn
called ‘
Thavies Inn
.’
Bibliography:
-
Bye–Gones, relating to Wales and the Border
Counties
,
1881
(consult index);
-
J. E. Lloyd
,
Owen Glendower / Owen Glyn Dwr
,
1931
, 139n;
-
L. S. Knight
,
Welsh independent grammar schools to 1600
their charters of foundation, deeds, statutes, customs,
etc.
, Newtown, 1926
;
-
Bulkeley-Owen
(q.v.),
The founder and first trustees of Oswestry
Grammar School
, Oswestry, ca. 1903
(important documents);
- and the other references given above.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Robert Thomas Jenkins, C.B.E., D.Litt., Ll.D.,
F.S.A., (1881-1969), Bangor
