Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

CYLCHGRAWN LLYFRGELL GENEDLAETHOL CYMRU THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES JOURNAL VOLUME V. Summer, 1948 NUMBER 3. THE BROGYNTYN LIBRARY OF PRINTED BOOKS Brogyntyn-anglicized in Tudor times first to Porchington and then Porkington- was, in the Middle Ages, the property of the family of Laken (also spelt Lakyn). Margaret Wynn Lakyn, sole heiress, was born in 1541. She married Sir William Maurice, M.P., of Clenenney, Caernarvonshire. Their grand-daughter and sole heiress, Elin Maurice, married, first, John Owen, of Bodsilin, Anglesey, sometime private secretary to Sir Francis (afterwards Lord) Walsingham, the Elizabethan statesman. She married, secondly, Sir Francis Eure, brother of Lord Eure, Lord President of the Council of Wales at Ludlow. In 1617 she pulled down the mediaeval house and built a Jacobean mansion in its place. Of this only the carved oak armorial mantel- piece survives today. Brogyntyn remained in the Owen family from the death of Sir William Maurice until the death in 1811 of Margaret Owen, sole heiress of Brogyntyn, Clenenney, and Glyn, Talsarnau, who in 1780 had married Owen Ormsby of Dublin and Willowbrook, County Sligo. Their only child and heiress, Mary Jane Owen Ormsby, married in 1815 William Gore, M.P. for the County of Leitrim, Ireland, and between that date and 1825 the old house was pulled down and rebuilt as it stands today. The interior of the house was much altered and entirely redecorated, and the shelving of the libraries re-arranged by their eldest son, the first Lord Harlech, between 1870 and 1876. Three successive Owen owners of Brogyntyn (owning from 1666 to 1768) married heiresses. William Owen married Catherine Anwyl, only child of Lewis Anwyl of Pare, Llanfrothen, Merioneth. Their son Sir Robert Owen, M.P., married Catherine Wynne, heiress of Glyn, Talsarnau, Merioneth. Their son married Mary Godolphin, daughter and heiress of the Rev. Henry Godolphin, D.D., Provost of Eton College, Windsor. The collection of printed books now at Brogyntyn amounts to approximately 17,000 bound volumes. There is a manuscript catalogue of the library as it was at that time made by John Broster, of Chester, dated Feb. 28th, 1809, which lists about 2,000 printed