THE GOLDEN GROVE BOOK OF PEDIGREES. BY EDWARD OWEN, ESQ.

CONSIDERABLE attention has recently been directed to what is perhaps the best known collection of Welsh pedigrees still remaining in manuscript, the Golden Grove Book (in four volumes), now the property of the earl of Cawdor; and there appears to be fair hope of settling some of the questions to which it has given rise questions relating to its authorship and its authority.

In the number of our Journal for October, 1898 (5th Ser., vol. xv, p. 377), Mr. Stepney-Gulston drew attention to "this extremely interesting manuscript," gave a brief account of its arrangement, of its supposed compiler, of its past possessors and present owners; and suggested "that if any enterprising person, society, or firm of publishers, obtaining permission, could see their way to the reproduction of the said Golden Grove Book in a printed form, it would undoubtedly prove of inestimable value to all those interested in the genealogical history of Wales.'

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In the next volume but one of our Journal (5th Ser., vol. xvii, p. 277, October, 1900), in the course of an article under the somewhat misleading title, "Welsh Records," Mr. J. Pym Yeatman dealt with the authorship of the Golden Grove Book; and, whatever may be thought of that gentleman's argument, or of his conclusions, it must be admitted that his was the first real attempt to grapple with the important and fundamental questions of its source, date, and authorship.

Take," says Mr. Yeatman (p. 279), "the Golden Grove Book, almost the latest of the great [Welsh pedigree] authorities; that is obviously drawn from many sources, and a list is given to

distinguish some of them (since they are only quoted in the body of the book by initials), but this list curiously omits the two leading lights which inspired it, William Lewis and David Edwards, whose notes are passim; both of them are constantly referred to, and generally by name, so that it was unnecessary to mention them amongst the list of the initialed. It is well known to Welshmen that William Lewis, of Llwynderw, copied Edwards' works and arranged them on a new method, setting the one under the different chieftains, and the others together in a separate volume.' This is stated by Edward Prothero, junior, under date August 12th, 1842, in a series of letters, to be found with the volumes now in the Bodleian Library, under Additional C, 177. Now this is precisely the arrangement of the Golden Grove Book, so that it is obvious that the writer, as he acknowledges, had access to Edwards, though possibly through his copyist Lewis."

Mr. Yeatman next traces the fortunes of the genealogical manuscripts of David Edwards, of Rhyd-y-gors, satisfactorily proving that several of the volumes now in the Heralds' College, called the Prothero MSS. (because they were purchased from Mr. Edward Prothero), and certain others in the Bodleian at Oxford, catalogued as Additional C 177-179, at one time constituted one complete and connected collection, which had been formed by Mr. Edwards, of Rhyd-y-gors, in the county of Carmarthen, who towards the end of the seventeenth century had acted as deputy to one of the Officers of Arms. Mr. Yeatman, after exposing the ignorance of the Heralds' College authorities of the Golden Grove Book, as well as of their own volumes, observes :

A visit to the Bodleian resulted in finding Edwards' five1 volumes there, with Prothero's 1 Quære three.

account of his sale of the others to Heralds' College. That Prothero's not very positive beliet that the whole of the volumes in both collections were the work of David Edwards, was accurate, has been proved by the aid of photography, the University authorities (unlike some Welsh owners of MSS.) having very generously permitted photographs to be made of parts of these books, which prove that they formed part of the collection at Heralds' College, and were in the same handwriting."

Mr. Yeatman then proceeds to deal with the connection, which he had already shown to exist, between David Edwards's volumes and the Golden Grove Book. Prothero (according to Mr. Yeatman's rather confused account) seems to have thought Edwards's volumes to have been "only' rough copies of some better books," and to have considered the Golden Grove Book to be the, or some" of the, "better books." Mr. Yeatman's conclusion is different. He adduces "ample evidence to show a common origin between the Golden Grove Book and David Edwards; or, rather, that Edwards was the groundwork of the other, and that he made his book up from the older authorities, probably presented to him through William Lewis."

I now leave Mr. Yeatman for a brief space, in order to draw attention to the latest pronouncement upon the Golden Grove Book, contained in an article in The Ancestor (No. 4, January 1903), upon "The Value of Welsh Pedigrees," by Mr. H. J. T. Wood. The object of this writer is thus stated in his own words:"At first sight it is undoubtedly an astounding proposition that an eighteenth-century MS. such as the Golden Grove, should be a good authority for eleventh- and twelfth-century pedigrees; yet that there are good prima facie reasons for such being the case, I hope to show in the present article." How far Mr. Wood has succeeded in demonstrating his highly hazardous

proposition, I will not stay at this moment to inquire.1 What he has to say concerning the Golden Grove Book, is as follows:

"This is the latest and most accessible of the general collections of Welsh pedigrees; it appears to have been compiled in the years 1752-65, and contains some later additions, chiefly in the handwriting of Theophilus Jones, who used it for his History of Breconshire, published in 1805, and states in effect that it is the book of the Arwyddfeirdd (Chief Bard), taken by command of the Earl of Carberry. Mr. Pym Yeatman names Evan Evans as the compiler. It is certainly not by Hugh Thomas, as stated by Mr. Horwood, for

1 As indicating Mr. Wood's competence for his task, and knowledge of Welsh historical authorities, I quote the following remark: "It is possible that the arguments advanced with respect to the later ones [i.e., to Welsh pedigrees of later date than the 'passing' of the laws of Howell Dda] are applicable to them [i.e., those earlier than that period], at all events for some time previous to this date [A.D. 942]; since the laws of Howell Dda are known to have been founded on those of Dyfnwal Moelmud, who probably flourished about A.D. 400, though there was another chieftain of the same name, who is said to have lived about eight hundred years earlier." And Mr. Wood calmly proceeds to quote as from documents "of an early date and considerable authority," the late sixteenth- or early seventeenth-century forgeries, known as the Moelmutian Triads. As for two Dyfnwal Moelmuds, one living B.C. 400, the other A.D. 400, even if we admit the existence of one, there is not the slightest justification for Mr. Wood's adoption of the bipartient

methods of Solomon.

2 It is, of course, not more accessible than any of the British Museum collections.

This shows that knowledge of Welsh, in which language all the early collections of our pedigrees are written (vide Dr. Gwenogvryn Evans's Catalogue of the Peniarth Library), is not amongst the qualifications of Mr. Wood for estimating "the Value of Welsh Pedigrees."

(Note by Mr. Wood). Vol. ii, p. 140, and cp. p. 139 with the Golden Grove, G. 1030.

3 (Note by Mr. Wood). Notes and Queries, Ser. 9, v. 359. [Mr. Wood is evidently ignorant of Mr. Yeatman's later and more elaborate article in this Journal.]

6 (Note by Mr. Wood). Second Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, Appendix, p. 31.

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he died in 1720; but it is possible that some of his MSS. are now bound up with it. On going through the pedigrees, it will be seen that certain dates in the seventeenth century constantly occur. In the case of Breconshire these are 1644 and 1686, the dates at which the collections of pedigrees of Richard Williams, of Llywel, sometimes known as Dick Howell Williams, and David Edwards, of Rhyd y gors, are known to have been made, so that it would seem that the immediate source of the Golden Grove was, as regards Breconshire, the work of these two genealogists. A similar state of affairs is found in regard to the other counties,3 the conclusions being that the Golden Grove is a copy and continuation of pedigrees drawn up in the seventeenth century. Going further back, references will be found to various other pedigree writers under their initials (a list of thirty has been inserted by Jones at the beginning of the first volume); so that it would appear that the book, in its present form, contains a continuous series of additions made to existing pedigrees, each addition being within the reasonable knowledge of its author, and is not a collection of pedigrees made at a late date, and therefore of little value."

Mr. Wood does not carry us much further than Mr. Yeatman had already taken us, and we will accordingly return to the latter gentleman.

1 This is not the case.

2 It would be interesting to know Mr. Wood's authority for this statement. The dates are, no doubt, approximately, if not actually, correct; but it would be well to substantiate the point.

Not of North Wales. The families of Gwynedd are summed up very briefly, and the careless manner in which this part has been written betokens either a summary closure of the scribe's labours, or lack of interest on the part of the writer he was copying from in families of whom he knew nothing.

4 This list of "authorities" is not in the hand of Theophilus Jones, but in that of the individual whose initials "E. E." are at the foot of the same folio.