Generys "ap" Cadwgan Fychan

GENERYS 'ap" CADWGAN FYCHAN

By Darrell Wolcott

In the course of our recent research on a different topic, [1] it became necessary to determine the ancestry of a lady named Tangwystl ferch Hywel Colunwy, She appears of the Bartrum chart "Elystan Glodrudd 23(A)" and is charted as "ferch Hywel Colunwy ap Meurig ap Maredudd ap Madog ap Meurig Twpa ap Maredudd Goch ap Generys ap Cadwgan Fychan ap Cadwgan ap Gwion ap Hoedliw Goch ap Rhys ap Hoedliw ap Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd. [2]

While Bartrum did notice the female name Generys is cited as a male, his only explanation is that the spelling may be an error for "Severus", a suggestion made earlier by Robert Vaughan of Hergest. [3] A wholly different solution is found just 4 pages earlier in the same manuscript we cited above. We translate it as: [4]

Mother of Dafydd ap Morgan was Mallt ferch Maredudd ap Madog ap Meurig Twpa ap Maredudd Goch ap Generys "ap" Bod ap Bod ap Einion...to Rhys ap Hoedliw ap Cadwgan ap Elystan Glodrydd

Here, we are again told that Maredudd Goch was a son of Generys, but that the father of Generys was "Bod ap Bod ap Einion". The citation dissolves into illegible garbage before concluding with the same 4 names found in our first-mentioned citation. "Bod" is a universal nickname [5] some early writers used for men named Maredudd. Since that other citation (we think correctly) called the father of Generys "Cadwgan Fychan ap Cadwgan", where did this "Maredudd ap Maredudd ap Einion come from?

When we charted and dated what was contained in the two citations, we found that "Bod ap Bod ap Einion" exactly fit as the FATHER of Maredudd Goch and we can understand the author's confusion when trying to attach him to the family of Hoedliw ap Cadwgan. We believe it was only Generys ferch Cadwgan Fychan who descended from Hoedliw, and that Maredudd Goch, her son, was paternally descended from the Arwystli family of Einion ap Cynfelyn:

990 Elystan Glodrydd

1020 Cadwgan

1055 Hoedliw

1085 Rhys

1120 Hoedliw Goch Dolphyn 1110

1150 Gwion Cynfelyn 1140

l l

1180 Cadwgan Einion 1170

l l

1215 Cadwgan Fychan Maredudd 1200

l l

1250 Generys=========Maredudd Ddu 1235

1265 Maredudd Goch

1295 Meurig Twpa

l 1270 Meurig***

1325 Madog l

l 1305 Philip

1360 Maredudd l

_______l_________ 1340 Gruffudd

l l l

1390 Meurig 1390 Mallt====Morgan 1375

l l

1420 Hywel Colunwy Dafydd 1405

___________ l______

l l

1450 John Colunwy* 1450 Tangwystl**

*This is NOT a surname, he served as Constable of Clun in Shropshire

**The lady whose pursuit led us to write this paper; she was married to Morus (1435) ap John Goch (1400)

descended from Ieuan ap Madog Sais of the family of Caradog ap Rhys Gryg ap Lord Rhys

***ap Hoedliw (1235) ap Philip (1205) ap Rhys Gryg (1165) ap Lord Rhys (1123)

NOTES:

[1] See Tangwystl in our paper at this link:

http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id328.html

[2] Pen. 131, 163 cites the ancestry of Hywel Colunwy ap Meurig exactly as we reproduced it

[3] Pen. 287, 810

[4] Pen 131, 159

[5] A replacement nickname, such as "Dick" for Richard, not a descriptive nickname which is merely added to a birthname. There are several examples of these in ancient Welsh families, including "Badi" = Madog; "Gutun" = Gruffudd; "Deio" and "Dacws" = Dafydd.