OSBWRN WYDDEL (’ Osborn the Irishman ‘), living in 1293 Irish nobleman and ancestor of landed families in Merioneth

Name: Osbwrn Wyddel

Author: William Llewelyn Davies

An Irishman with, however, some Welsh blood in his veins, who settled in west Merioneth, married a daughter of the Welsh house of Corsygedol, and became the ancestor of some of the landed families in that county — see, e.g. the articles on Wynne family of Glyncywarch, Wynne family of Peniarth, Vaughan family of Corsygedol. These families (and others) trace their descent from KENRIC AB OSBWRN, spoken of as ‘of Corsygedol.’ The fullest account of Osbwrn is probably that given by W. W. E. Wynne in Pedigree of the Family of Wynne, of Peniarth in the County of Merioneth (London, 1872). A member of the influential family of the Geraldines, Osbwrn was considered by Sir William Betham, Ulster-king-at-Arms, to be the son of ‘John Fitz Thomas Fitz Maurice Fitz Gerald de Windsor the first Lord of Decies and Desmond.’ Gerald (Fitz Walter) de Windsor was constable of Pembroke castle — he was alive in 1108; his wife was Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr. The well-known antiquary Robert Vaughan of Hengwrt (see Peniarth MS 6 ) surmised that Osbwrn came to Wales c. 1237 but W. W. E. Wynne suggests a rather later period. There is evidence that he was taxed up to a fifteenth in the parish of Llanaber in 1293 or 1294. W. W. E. Wynne suggests that he might have been responsible (in part, at any rate) for the building of Llanaber church.