Cylchgronau Cymru

"OLD BRECKXOOK CHIPS.' A Column of Antiquarian Chit-Chat relating to the County of Brecknock. NOTES. QUERIES, AND REPLIES, on Subjects inter¬ esting to Breconshire, must be addressed to EDITOR Brecon County Times, Brecon. Real names and addresses must be given in confidence, and MSS. mast be written legibly, on one side of the paper only. FBIDAY, MAY 20th, 1887. NOTES. THE AWBREY FAMILY. The Herefordshire Awbreys.—The Awbreys seem to have been a very unlucky lot. The Herefordshire branch of the family came to grief during the Civil War. I have before me an extract " from the petition of Herbert Awbry, of Clehonger, near Hereford, Esq.," whose estate was sequestrated during those troublous times :— '' Hee prayes to bee Considered that hee lived in such a place, where both the Armyes had by turnes comaund of those parts which Condicion hee againe humby Supplicates yor. most serious and pious thoughts that over & aboue the many distractions of his affrighted ffamilie, in an instante hath beene render'd incapable, either to put bread or drinke into his owne, his wife & seaven childrens mouthes, but necessitated to the fountaine for the one, and the Charitie of Straungers for the other, Besides hee had his dwelling house destroyed by the Kinges partie, not built for £5000 : And lost by them by Plunder and Compulsory Contribuctiones £570 more. And by the Parliaments Souldiers & the Scotts Army, with Plunder, Contribuctione, free- quarter, etc., £1100." In another place he refers to the sufferings of his family, which " are such that hee " hopes without ostentation hee may say " theire birth and breedinge might have " promised them better condicions." Never¬ theless f quoting Webb's Civil War in Herefordshire), although this "William Awbry" had taken the Covenant and the Negative Oath (which amounted to an abjuration of allegiance), this was his sentence—"fine at two yeares £500," and there is no appearance that any part of it was remitted. The Editor. Awbrey Charity.—By deed dated 17th June, 1668, Herbert Awbrey, of Clehonger, Esq., charged £6 per annum upon a tene¬ ment called Penyfagwr, in Peterchurch, Herefordshire, to be distributed amongst the poor of Llanfrynach annually, and £5 is now received annually by the Rector of Llanfrynach, near Brecon, and so distribu¬ ted. The Editor. Extract from Britten's Memoir of Awbrey the Antiquary.—As regards the most distinguished member of the family, Dr. Awbrey, and the house he dwelt in, the following passage occurs, quoted from John Awbrey's (the antiquary) life of his great¬ grandfather, in Britton's Memoir of Awbrey :— "He [Dr. A.] purchased Abercunvrig (the ancient seate of the family) of his Cosen Awbrey. He built the great house at Brecknock: his studie looks on the river Uske. He could ride nine miles together in his owne land in Breconshire. In Wales and England he left 2500 lib. per ann., whereof there is now none left in the family.....He made a deed of entaile (36 Eliz.), which is also mentioned in his will, whereby he entailes the Brecon estate on the issue male of his eldest son. And in def&iler, to skip the 2nd son (for whom he had well provided, and had married a great fortune) and to come to the third. Edward the eldest had seaven sonnes, his eldest sonne Sir Will, had also seaven sonnes, and so I am heere the 18th man in remainder, which puts me in mind of Dr. Donne, ' For what doth it availe ' To be the twentieth man in an entaile ?' " The tedious law-suit on this entail cost him, he says, " 1,200 lib." It is not said whether he gained or lost it. Later he was obliged to sell all his estates. One might suppose some curse, or doom, for the ill-deed of some ancestor, lay over the house of Awbrey, seeing that with so many branches, most of them with many children, the name has vanished from the county in which the ancestor from which, I believe, all the Awbreys derive, established himself. S. E. C. Other Notes on the Awbreys.—On July 30th, 1645, the Earl of Leven sent in a summons to Hereford City to surrender, and we read in the Weekly Account of Friday, August 8th :—" They (the Parlia- " mentarians) were reputed to have occupied " Sir Samuel Awbrey's house, called The " Abbey, by Wyeside on the West of the "city." In May, 1643, when Cromwell's general, Waller, took Hereford, among the " nine worthies" taken prisoner in the city was Sir Samuel Awbrey. Kichard Awbrey (the father of John Awbrey, the Wiltshire antiquary) was the son of Dr. William Awbrey, of Cantreff, Brecknockshire, and " was a gentleman of " fortune, possessed of estates in Wiltshire, " Herefordshire, and Wales " f probably in "Breconshire), but the usual luck of the " Awbrey's attended his son John, the " antiquary, who was ever at law, and daily " lived for years in fear of receiving writs." The Awbreys must have been a hot-headed and quarrelsome lot, for we read of John, the antiquary, that he went to law even with his sweetheart (Joane Sumner), and he characteristically writes: "All my " business and affairs ran kirn kam." In