Arnholt Ap (Gwillim) ap Gwillim (abt. 1390 - abt. 1441)

Born about 1390 in Monmouthshire, Wales

Ancestors

Husband of Janet (Fleming) Gwillim — married 1420 in Wales

Descendants

Died about 1441 at about age 51 in England [uncertain]

This person is part of a false pedigree of William Arnold, the immigrant to New England, created by Horatio G. Somerby in 1870. Individual parts of the pedigree may be correct, but many of the parts are incorrect and false.

Biography

Research Notes

There is a dispute on his death date: 1441 vs. 1503.

Correct spelling of his father's name is Qwillim; therefore he is known as Arnholt ap Qwillim.

This may not be true as there is no Q in the Welsh alphabet, it is probably Gwillim, but the dialect pronunciation may have been recorded by English writers phonetically as Quilim.

NOTE: "ap" ("ab") means “son of” his father; therefore "ap Qwillim" means "Son of Qwillim". Used before surnames became commonplace.

Biography by Somerby

Arnholt ap Qwillim, of Meiric, Esq., married Janet, daughter of Phillip Fleming, Esq.^[1][2]

Son: Arnolt ap Arnholt^[1][2]

Rejection of the Somerby Biography

From Wikipedia:
In 1870, genealogist Horatio G. Somerby compiled a pedigree^[3] of the Arnold family. This pedigree, showed William Arnold as son of a Thomas Arnold and a descendant of a 12th-century King of Gwentland (in modern day Wales) whose name was Ynir. In 1915, Edson S. Jones on checking Somerby's information with his sources, discovered discrepancies in dates and places, mixed up generations and unrelated people. "This fabricated research was not an isolated incident; Mr. Somerby had also been implicated in other fraudulent research and was out to please his clients regardless of the veracity of his work"^[4]

From Anderson's Great Migration:
In 1915 Edson Salisbury Jones published a brief account^[5] of his research into the ancestry of immigrant William Arnold (NEHGR 69:64-69), which showed the problems of the supposed pedigree done by Somerby, which did not have the correct father or location of William Arnold the immigrant. Anderson states unequivocally, "The pedigree prepared by Somerby is completely erroneous, and William Arnold came from Ilchester, Somerset"^[6]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "Arnold" hosted by rootsweb
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Drowne, Henry T. (communicator). "Mr. Somerby's Genealogy of the Arnold Family" New England Hist. and Gen. Register. 33:432. 1879.
3. ↑ ”Mr. Somerby’s Genealogy of the Arnold Family. New England Historical and Genealogical Register 33:432 Link at Google Books
4. ↑ 'The false pedigree of the Arnold family' in the Wikipedia article "William Arnold (settler)"
5. ↑ Jones, Edson Salisbury. "The Parentage of William Arnold and Thomas Arnold of Providence, R. I." New England Historical and Genealogical Register 69:64 Link at Archive.org
6. ↑ Great Migration 1634-1635, A-B. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: The Great Migration, Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volume 1, A-B, by Robert Charles Anderson, George F. Sanborn, Jr., and Melinde Lutz Sanborn. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1999. William Arnold article p. 84; comments p.89 American Ancestors (pay site)

• https://web.archive.org/web/20161022093455/http://hoffee.info/Arnold_Family_History_2.html
• https://web.archive.org/web/20160511221722/http://hoffee.info/uploads/arnold_family_history-np.pdf