Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

" Old Brecknock Chips." FEIDAY, AUGUST 10th. 67 SIE JOHN DAVY, OF DEFYNOCK. The name of Sir John Davy is so often mentioned, and with so much gratitude and respect, in connection with the parish of Defynog, that it is improbable but that an account of himself and of his family is some¬ where preserved either in print or in MS. As, however, I have not been fortunate enough to meet with it, I venture to offer some few facts regarding him, in the hope that some one of your correspondents may complete the account. He was the son of Eobert Davy of London, from whom he inherited a large fortune, but it was rather from his mother that he inherited the inclination, as he certainly did the example, of a liberal disposition of that fortune to the benefit of posterity, for his mother was the grandchild of one of the most munificent of English Founders, Sir Andrew Judde, citizen and skinner, and some¬ time Lord Mayor of London. The following are some co-temporary notices of him : 1550. Edward VI. Ao. 3 Memorandum, this year on Michaelmas day Mr Andrewe Judde Alderman, was chosen Mayor of London for the yeare ensueyng, and upon the election there was a communion kept in the Guild-hall Chappell . . . The service songe lyke parishe clarkes accordinge to the Kinge's proceedings. 1550. Memorandum the 14 of November, my Lady Mayres departed out of this worlde at 10 of the clock at night, and she was buryed the 20th day of November ; my Lord Mayor givinge for hir to every parish of London 2 gownes for poore men and women, and 11 gownes for poore men and women of St. Bartlemew hospitall, which gownes were of Bristowe freese, so that the nomber he gave was above xijxx. gownes, which was a godly act for he gave noe black to none of th' aldermen, but only to his officers and the cheife mourners. Three months later he married again: 1550-1 Feb. 7 being Saturdaie before Shrove Sun- daie, My Lord Mayor Maried one Thomas Langton's widowe a skinner, which died three daies before Twelvetide last past, which was a rich mariadge, the inventorie amounting to sixe thousand poundes and more, having five children by the said Langton all orphans. The 15th Feb , being the first Soundaie of Lent my Lord Mayor was presented to the Kinge's Majestie at his pallace of Westminster ; and after the proposition made by the Recorder the Kinge's Majestie made him Knight. [Wriothesley's Chronicle]. 1558. xiv Sept was buried Sir Andrew Jud skinner, merchant of Mvscovy, and late Lord Mayor of London with a pennon of arms and x dozen penselles . . skochyons and a herse of wax of v. prynse pals garnished with angelles and . . pormen in new gownes. [Maclyn's Diary]. Sir Andrew Judde's monument is the great school, now one of the richest in Eng¬ land, which he founded at Tonbridge. His sole daughter and heiress, his child by the first of his three wives of the family of Merfyn or Mervyn, married Thomas Smith or Smyth, and her eldest daughter Mary Smyth, was mother to Sir John Davy. Thomas Smith came from the village of Corsham, or as then more commonly written Cossam, in the county of Wilts, on the line of rail between Bath and Swindon. Corsham Court, now the property of Lord Methuen, one of the architectural beauties of Wiltshire, was built by this family. Their wealth originated in the office held by Thomas Smith as " collector of the Queen's Majestie's subsidy for tonage and poundage." [Visit¬ ation of Lond. 1568.] Whence also came his famous sobriquet of " Customer Smith." It will be seen that Eobert Davy, in his will mentions the purchase he had made for his son of the reversion of his " office," and I find him described as " Eeceiver for Wales." [Visitation of Lond. 1568.] He was born probably in Norwich : he had lands there and in counties Carmar¬ then and Eadnor; but the estate in Defynog was bought after his decease by his son Sir John Davy or his trustees. This property was the " Little Forest of Brecon," which included not only the hill but the farms sloping down to the Usk, Treweren and Cray rivers, and at that time presumably unenclosed. I am acquainted familiarly neither with the geography nor the early history of the Little Forest, but I may mention this singu¬ larity regarding it, that the Davy estate passed in undivided moieties or halfendeals in the line of representatives or assigns of the original purchaser till the beginning of this century, when by the purchase of un¬ divided ninths and other fractions, the bulk of it came into the hands of the projectors of the line of tram, whose terminus was at Defynog, or rather at Pont Senni. The chief estate of these representatives of the Davy family lay in the county Dorset. Christopher Brodreff of Mapperton, in that county, married " Catherine daur. and co-heir to John Davy of Lutton, in Holderness, co. York" ; or as less accurately, but still suggestively, described " Katherine one of the granddaughters and co-heirs of Sir John Davy of Norwich, co. Norfolk, Knt." I have not the materials for tracing the intri¬ cacies of this descent, but would only note that the reason of the occurrence of the Dorsetshire name of St. Loe in the list of the sheriffs of the county of Brecon is to be sought in this direction. We have seen that Sir John Davy was