Sir William Griffith Lord of Penrhyn Castle, Chamberlain of North Wales ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7}

   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

From Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America before 1700, Line 20-35 :
"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)."
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From Reifsnyder-Gillam Ancestry, 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..."

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From Welsh Biography Online (http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s1-GRIF-PEN-1300.html):

"His son and heir by the first marriage, WILLIAM GRIFFITH (c. 1445-1505/6), is not always easy to distinguish from his father. He m. (1) Joan Troutbeck, widow of Sir William Butler of Bewsey, Ches.; her mother was Margaret, daughter of Sir Thomas Stanley (c. 1406-1459), first baron Stanley; William Griffith was therefore nephew by marriage to Thomas, first earl of Derby (1435-1504) - another confirmation of the Stanley connection (Dwnn, Visitations, ii, 167; Penrhyn MSS. 12; D.N.B., liv., 76; Ormerod, Cheshire, ii, 42). In 1476 he is described as 'king's servant' and 'marshall of the King's Hall' (an office held by his father) in a grant to him by Edward IV of an annuity of £18 5s.; the annuity was renewed by Richard III in March 1484 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1476-85, 18, 418). At Michaelmas 1483 he was appointed chamberlain of North Wales by Richard III; the appointment was confirmed by Henry VII within a month of Bosworth (Davies, Conway and Menai Ferries, 48; Owen , Manuscripts rel. to Wales in the Brit. Mus., ii, 147; Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1485-94, 5). His record suggests that he followed very closely the lead of his kinsman, the time-serving earl of Derby, and a poem by Lewis Môn (q.v.) proves that immediately before Bosworth he shared with lord Strange, Derby's heir, his perilous imprisonment at Nottingham as hostage for his father's all-too-uncertain loyalty; presumably, he shared, too, the same narrow escape from death on the eve of the battle. Tudur Aled (q.v.) also refers, more obscurely, to this crisis in William Griffith's career. (Gairdner, Richard III, ed. 1898, 227-38; Mostyn MSS. 148, 467; Gwaith Tudur Aled, ed. T. Gwynn Jones , i, 143.) His influential connections were not confined to the Stanleys.

"He appears to have m., as his second wife, Elizabeth Grey, grand-daughter of Reginald, 3rd baron Grey of Ruthin (the enemy of Owain Glyndwr ) and first cousin to John Grey, lord Ferrers of Groby (1432-1461) who was the first husband of Elizabeth Woodville, later queen of Edward IV. (D.N.B., xxiii, 193, 197; Williams , Observations on the Snowdon Mountains, 1802, 174.) The marriage must have brought him into personal contact with the powerful Greys and Woodvilles and it would explain the presence of a William Griffith as member of Edward IV's council on 8 Aug. 1482. (Gairdner, op. cit., 338-9.)

"Under Henry VII he continued to hold the chamberlainship of North Wales until 1490 when he was replaced by Sir Richard Pole (Davies, Conway and Menai Ferries, 48, 68.) He was knighted when Arthur was created prince of Wales in 1489 and he continued to serve on a number of North Wales commissions. (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1485-94, 86, 354.) He d. 1505/6. (Penrhyn MSS. 44-5.) Among poets (qq.v.) who sang to him are Tudur Penllyn , Dafydd Pennant , Dafydd Llwyd ap Llywelyn , Lewis Môn , and Tudur Aled . (Mostyn MSS. 148, 467, 504, 532, 535; Gwaith Tudur Aled, ed. T. Gwynn Jones , i, 142.)"

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

William next married Elizabeth Grey after 1489.

  Marriage Notes:

Second wife of Sir William Griffith (1445-1539)