KYFFIN
,
RICHARD
,
dean of Bangor
(
c.
1480-1502
).
He was not connected with any branch of the better-known family of that name. It is very likely that he was the
Richard ap John
or
Ris ap Ieuan ap Ris ap Gruffydd
,
rector
of
Gyffin
in the diocese of
Bangor
, ‘the son of unmarried parents,’ who in
1470
received a papal dispensation, on account of his illegitimacy, for promotion to holy orders. As
dean
he appears to have been an active supporter of
Henry
Tudor
during the years before
Bosworth
. The choir of the cathedral was rebuilt during his period of office, and one of the windows (with figures of
SS.
Dwynwen
and
Catherine
) was donated by him. He held the rectory of
Llanddwynwen
, and was the
founder of the cathedral chantry of S. Catherine
near which (in the south transept) he was buried. An inscription in brass marked his resting-place, which was known until the
18th cent.
as ‘bedd y Deon Du’ (‘the grave of the Black Dean’).
Bibliography:
-
Browne Willis
,
A survey of the cathedral church of Bangor;
and the edifices belonging to it …
, 1721
, 17, 34, 124;
-
Calendar of entries in the Papal Registers
relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal Letters
.
Record Publication, 1894 ff
, xii, 782.
Author:
Professor Thomas Jones Pierce, M.A., F.S.A., (1905-1964),
Aberystwyth
