Roger (ap Gronwy) Powys (abt. 1100 - aft. 1186)

Born about 1100 in Powys, Wales

Ancestors

Descendants

Died after 1186 after about age 86 in Wales

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Biography

Name

• Roger ap Gronwy. As a Welshman, the patronymic "ap Gronwy" would have been his name at birth, with the designation Powys added during his career.
• Sir Roger Powys ^[1]
• Sir Roger Powys ap Gronwy ap Tudur. ^[2]
• Roger is not a traditionally Welsh name, nor is Jonas, that of Roger's brother. For Suppe, the use of English names suggests that Goronwy may have continued the English leanings or connections of his father and grandfather, and may have married an Englishwoman. ^[3]

Title

• Lord of Whittington. ^[1]
• Knight of Rhodes

1130 Birth Year Estimation

Roger was born about 1130.

Note -- his parents currently died well before his birth in 1130. His birth year has been moved back to 1100 in the datafield, but there is no documentation for this, and further research into all the birth and death dates is required!

It would seem reasonable to assume, that on 25 July 1155, the occasion of William Fiz Alan's grant to Haughmond Abbey, which Roger de Powys witnessed, Roger was an adult of at least twenty years old. ^[3] This would place his birth no later than 1135. He could have been born earlier, so it is quite reasonable to posit that he may have been born as early as 1120 or 1125. ^[3]

Parentage

He was the son of Gronwy ap Tudor and Maude ferch Indelric.

Roger of Powys was a son of Gronwy ap Tudor ap Rhys Sais II.^[4]

Siblings

Roger of Powys had a brother named Jonas. ^[4]

1155

Roger's first known appearance in a document is as the first named witness to a charter dated 25 July 1155 in which William Fitz Alan granted the advowson of Wroxeter to haughmond Abbey. ^[3]

Owen Gwynedd, who ruled over North Wales from 1137 to 1169, was a prince of considerable ability, and he obtained from King Henry the Second a grant of, among other places, the lordship of Whittington, which he re-granted to Sir Roger de Powys and his brother Jonas, the uncles by the half-blood of Miletta Peverell. ^[5]

This took place in the year 1156, and there can be no doubt, from the grant and all other circumstances attendant thereon, that Warine, the husband of Miletta, had just previously died, leaving his son Fulk in a very early minority; for it appears from the Pipe Rolls of that year, under the head of Gloucester, that the honour of Alceston, in that county, was assigned to Fulk Fitz-Warine as a compensation for the deprivation occasioned to him by the grant to Owen Gwynedd of the lordship of Whittington: and this will account for Fulk having been brought up from his infancy with Sir Josce de Dinan, to whom, there can also be no doubt he was in ward; and during this his minority Owain Gwynedd obtained Whittington from the English monarch. ^[5]

1157 Flourished

Sir Roger Powys was of record from 1157 to 1173 ^[6]

1165 Henry II and Whittington Castle

Roger merits more systematic attention than he has received hitherto, because his career helps us to understand developments on the central Welsh Marches during the mid-twelfth century, especially Henry II’s frustrated 1165 invasion into Wales from Shropshire, and its aftermath. ^[3]

Roger of Powys held Whittington in Salop in the mid-twelfth century. ^[4]

In 1165 Henry II conferred the castle on Roger de Powys, to whom he gave funds for its repair in about 1173. ^[7]

Marriage and children

No marriage information has yet been identified. If Roger was born in 1130, he married in, say, 1155, and his children might have been born beginning in 1156.

Death

Wolcott reports that he died about 1186^[4] Note, however, Boyer's estimation of 1200 as birth year for his youngest son.

Roger died in 1186 or 1187. ^[3]

Issue

Children, listed by Bartrum ^[1]

1. Maredudd^[1], born, say, 1156
2. Hunydd, m. Owain^[1], born, say, 1158
3. Sir Meurig Llwyd of Whittington, d. 1200. m. Gwenhwyfar ferch Dafydd ap owain Gwynedd.^[1] This Roger was followed by his son, Meurig, to whom King Henry II confirmed possession of Whittington. ^[4], born, say, 1160. Sir Roger had a son Meuric, the "Morice Fitz-Roger" of "the Gestes of guarine and hys Sunnes:" ^[8] and Meric had two sons, Gronwy (Wrenoc) and Gwen (the latter often written Owen in Welsh pedigrees.)
4. Gronwy, had son Llywelyn.^[1], born, say, 1162 Sir Roger Powys had a son Gronwy. ^[9]
5. Owain, , born, say, 1164, m. Angharad ferch HGwyel Sais ab Yr Arglwydd Rhys^[1]

Questionable given Roger's death in 1186: ^[4] or 1187^[3]

1. Roger Estwick (or Roger Fychan), born, say, 1200.^[1]

Research Notes

Siblings

Peverel Connection

Roger of Powys and Jonas were half-brothers of the Peverel siblings which included Miletta who married Warin de Metz and gave birth to the first Fulk fitz RogerWarin. ^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} Carl Boyer III, Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans. Santa Clarita, California, 2003. "Tudur Trefor" p. 359.
2. ↑ Lewis Dwnn. Pedigrees of Montgomeryshire Families selected about the year 1711-12 and extracted from The Visitations of Wales, Printed for the Powys-land Club. London: Whiting & Co, 1888. p. 143. Accessed December 24, 2017. jhd
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Frederick Suppe, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana. Roger of Powys, Henry II's Anglo-Welsh Middleman, and his Lineage Welsh History Review, Vol. 21 (June 2002), pp. 1-23. Accessed Sept 11, 2015
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6} Darrell Wolcott, The Other Sir Roger of Powys. Ancient Wales Studies. http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id56.html. Accessed Sept 11, 2015
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Joseph Morris. The Family of Fitz-Warine Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. Shrewsbury, 1882: Volume V, page 245. Accessed December 15, 2017. [[Day-1904|jhd]
6. ↑ Eyton's Shropshire, 11:31-34, Cited by Carl Boyer III, Medieval Welsh Ancestors of Certain Americans. Santa Clarita, California, 2003. "Tudur Trefor" p. 359.
7. ↑ Wikipedia. Whittington Castle Accessed January 5, 2017
8. ↑ Joseph Morris. The Family of Fitz-Warine Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Natural History Society. Shrewsbury, 1882: Volume V, page 244. Accessed December 15, 2017. [[Day-1904|jhd]
9. ↑ Ancestors of Philip Bride: Philip Bride's mother was Eva, v. and heir to Griffith ap Llewelyn ap Griffith ap Ll'n Vaughan of Pentre Madoc, ap Gronwy ap Sir Roger Powys ap Gronwy ap Tudur. Cited by Lewis Dwnn. Pedigrees of Montgomeryshire Families selected about the year 1711-12 and extracted from The Visitations of Wales, Printed for the Powys-land Club. London: Whiting & Co, 1888. p. 143. Accessed December 24, 2017. jhd