Sir William Griffith Lord of Penrhyn Castle, Chamberlain of North Wales

   Other names for William were Sir William Griffith Hael (the Liberal) and Sir William Gruffydd of Penrhyn, Chamberlain of North Wales.

  Research Notes:

2nd Chamberlain of North Wales

Source: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr, ed. by William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, Baltimore, 2008, Line 20-35 has "JOAN TROUTBECK, b. 1459, m. (2) Sir William Griffith d. by 1509/10, of Penrhyn, co. Carnarvon, Chamberlain of North Wales, son of Fychan ap Gwilym and Alice Dalton, dau. of Sir Richard Dalton of co. Northampton. (Dwnn II: 167-168)."

Also Source: The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, and the Ancient Lords of Arwystli, Cedewen, and Meirionydd by J. Y. W. Lloyd, Vol. IV, London, 1884, p. 342.

Source: http://www.varrall.net/pafg55.htm#1122 has b. abt. 1445

Also FamilySearch.org Disc #94 Pin #121432
(submitted by Samuel Taylor "Sam" Geer) - less info except for extensive lineage.

http://www.penrose.org/getperson.php?personID=I56429&tree=penrose has b. abt 1450 and d. bef 1510.

From the book Reifsnyder-Gillam Ancestry, Edited by Thomas Allen Glenn at the request of Howard Reifsnyder, privately printed, Philadelphia, 1902, provided by http://books.google.com, p. 57-58:

"VII. LADY JANE TROUTBECK, daughter of Sir William Troutbeck, married Sir William Griffith, Knight, of Penrhyn, in the county of Caernarvon, as appear of record in the Visitations of Lewis Dwnn, II, 154-5, Harl. MSS. No. 1424, fo. 135b., also MS. of the celebrated antiquary, Robert Vaughan, of Hengwrt, Known as the Hengwrt MS. 96, p. 603 (vide Montgomeryshire Collections, by the Powysland Club), vol XXV., page 98. The translation of this MS. is as follows:

'Wm. Vaughan (Vychan) Chamberlain of No. Wales (son of Gwilym ab Gruffydd ab Gwilym ab Gruffydd ab Heilen, by his 2d wife Sioned (Jonet) D. of Sir W. Stanley of Hooton, Chamberlain of No. Wales and Chester), and had all the land of his father, and the lands also of Paris, (from whom Paris Mountain), by his mother's influence, and in the 18th year of Henry VI. (1440) he got himself made a denizen of England, under covenant that he should not marry any Welsh woman, so he married Alice, dau. and heir of Sir Richard Dalton, kt., by a daughter of Lord Clifford, his wife. Their son, Sir william Griffith, Hael (the Liberal), m. Jane, dau. of Sir Wm. Troutbeck, Kt., by his wife, a sister to Sir Thomas Stanley.'

"Sir William Griffith must, therefore, have been born subsequent to the year 1440, and succeeded his father as Chamberlain of North Wales, some time after 10th of August , 1466, for his said father was alive upon the last mentioned day.

"He was created a Knight of the Bath 1489. The record therefore being as follows:

'These XXI. followinge were made Knightes of the Bathe at the Creation of Prince Arthur and of his Bayne on St. Andrew's Eve in anno quinto of the king'

"Sir William Griffith was living 12 Henry VIII., 1520, and was then Chamberlain of North Wales. He survived, however, for many years, or until about 1539-40; he is mentioned in the Welsh records as Captain or Constable of Caernarvon Castle, and he is remembered by antiquarians on account of the pains he took to collect and preserve the official archives and records and manuscripts relating to Wales. There are some fine verses extant addressed to him by the leading Bards of his day.

"The Griffiths of Penrhyn were the owners of immense estates in Caernarvonshire, and had their seat at Penrhyn Castle, which then was, and continues to be, one of the finest seates in the Principality. At the time of Henry VII., and Henry VIII., they reached a height of splendor and power second only, perhaps, in Wales, to the family of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, of Dynevor.

"Their entertainments at Penrhyn were magnificent, especially at those times when the King tarried there; their retainers, a small army, and their tenants, bound by feudal tenure, placed an armed force at their command, at all times ready for instant service in the field. He had Issue:

"VIII. SIR WILLIAM GRIFFITH..."

  Death Notes:

At least one source says he died 1506 in Penrhyn, but according to the Reifsnyder-Gilliam Ancestry, he was still living in 1520 and "survived, however, for many years, or until about 1539-40..."

  Noted events in his life were:

• Created: a Knight of the Bath, 1489. From Welsh Settlement of Pennsylvania by Charles H. Browning, Philadelphia, 1912, p. 286, "made a Knight of the Bath on St. Andrew's Eve, 1489, at the coronation of Prince Arthur, and of his Bayne,"...

William married Jane Troutbeck, daughter of Sir William Troutbeck of Pyrns Castle in Worrill, Lord of Dunham and Margaret Stanley, in Caernarvon, Wales. (Jane Troutbeck was born about 1457 in Mobberly, Dunham, Cheshire, England and died about 1485-1489.)