"The Welsh value distinguished birth and noble descent more than anything else in the world. They would rather marry into a noble family than into a rich one. Even the common know their family tree by heart and can readily recite from memory the list of their grandfathers, great-grandfathers, great-great grandfathers, back to the sixth or seventh generation..."
Giraldus Cambrensis, 12th Century Welsh historian.

Henry Jones lived at a house in a hamlet called Pentre Cae Heilyn, nowadays Pentrecelyn. It appears he inherited it from his father Edward, in the Parish of Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd nr Ruthin and in Derwen Llanerch Township along with a holding described as of Trwyn y Garth shown in successive churchwarden accounts 7. . Pentre Cae Heilyn was described as containing 6 or 7 houses in 1699 in Lluyd’s Parochialia 8. These would probably have been stone Welsh homesteads perhaps whitewashed. According to the churchwarden accounts it was one of the more substantial properties in the township.

Pentre Cae Heilyn was named after Cuhelyn a son of Tudor ap Rhys Sais born c 1100, 4th in descent from Tudor Trevor (via Ednyfed and Llyddocca) or from Heilyn ap Eunydd. Eunydd ap Morien, is reputed to have been Lord of both Dyffryn Clwyd (ie what was later called the Ruthin Lordship. He was apparently related to Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, Prince of Powys,(see http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id51.html) and was the founder of the so called 14th Noble Tribe of North Wales.

So Pentre Cae Heilyn either means “Hamlet of Cuhelyn” or “Hamlet of Heilyn’s Field”. Many of the inhabitants of Llanfair DC in the 17th and 18th century were in fact descendants of Tudor Trevor.

Thomas Pennant in his Tours in Wales said of the area-the Clwyd valley, Dyffryn Clwyd-: “From Llanruth [Llanrhudd] the vale grows very narrow, and almost closes with the parish of Llanfair. If I place the extremity at Pont Newydd, there cannot be a more beautiful finishing; where the bridge, near the junction of the Clwyd and the Hespin, and a lofty hill, with its back clothed with hanging woods, terminate the view.” Dyffryn Clwyd -the Vale of the Clwyd-is one of the most fertile parts of Wales (NB the traditional expression “as rich as Dyffryn Clwyd” quoted by Arthur Bradley)

The major property in Pentrecelyn now is Pentrecelyn Hall. This included several farms when sold in 1927. See sale particulars in Denbighshire Record Office DD/DM/51-3 The property called Pentre Cae Heilyn in the tithe map of 1840 is just next door and comprises a house with 30 acres of land.

Near Pentrecelyn still exists Ty Brith (see watercolour) which is a farmhouse built c 1540 and was lived in by Simwnt Vychan the Eisteddfod winning poet, grammarian, genealogist and herald in 1568 and friend of Dr Gabriel Goodman the refounder of Ruthin School. Henry Jones and his family probably lived in something similar.

Henry Jones is described as “freeholder” in the Parish Records after 1748 and is in the freeholders listed in the Wynnstay MSS for 1741 (DD/WY/6759) and/or DRO NTD/611 -a list of voters in the controversial 1741 Denbighshire election. Henry (and probably his father Edward) voted for the Jacobite Sir WW Wynn (3rd Bart) it appears-who eventually was declared the winner by Parliament after a petition had been raised against the election of John Myddleton (of Chirk Castle -who also happened to be the Lord of Ruthin Lordship), on the grounds that the Sheriff and Returning officer, William Myddleton, a cousin of John Myddleton, had wrongfully disallowed 600 or so votes of the Williams Wynne supporters.9 Henry’s vote (see entry number 1012 in “List of Person that voted for Sir Watkin Williams Wynn and were queried by the Sheriff at the time of polling”10) was one of these and therefore he could have been one of the petitioners.

Sir WW Wynn founded the Jacobite ‘club’, the Cycle of the White Rose. This included several landowners from the district John Robinson of Gwersyllt, George Shakerley of Lower Gwersyllt, Robert Ellice of Croesnewydd and Richard Clayton of Brymbo Hall, whose wife Mary had previously been married to Sir Griffith Jeffreys’ heir, Robert. (see https://thefireonthehill.wordpress.com/2014/11/12/...and-ann-drelincourt/)

[For a full description of the rivalry between the Myddletons of Chirk Castle and the Wynns of Wynnstay in the Denbigh politics of the 18th Centrury see “Wynnstay versus Chirk Castle” The National Library of Wales Journal Volume XI Winter 1959 Number 211]

He is also included (as Henry or Harry Jones) in the Lists of Freeholders of Derwen Llanerch township in Llanfair DC drawn up for the Lordship of Ruthin from 1743 onwards. He appears in the Lordship of Ruthin Freeholder list of 1759 (where he is “Harry”12). He is not found in the 1760 freeholders list for land tax (Denbighshire Record Office).

In the 1761 Ruthin Lordship list of Derwen Llanerch freeholders owing suit and service13 his name is crossed out and his abode is stated to be Dodleston, a village in England just over the Cheshire border. His wife Magdalene Jones was buried there in 1766.

His namesake Henry Jones (Gent of Garthgynan Qtr whose will was proved at Bangor in 1757) was one of the Overseers of the Poor for Llanfair parish in 1741 and 1753. See PD/55/1/44 at the Denbigh Record Office. This is clear from comparing their signatures in the Churchwardens’s accounts and from the signature on the 1757 Will of Henry Jones of Garthgynan. In 1597 the office of Overseer of the Poor was created by act of Parliament. The parish was required to elect each Easter two "Overseers of the Poor" who were responsible for setting the poor rate, its collection and the relief of those in need. These overseers should ideally be "substantial householders" but in small villages the only practical qualification was to be a rate payer.

Our Henry however was Overseer of the Highways for Derwen Quarter in 1747 and 1748 and a churchwarden for Llanfair in 1752.7

Originally there was little knowledge in the family of descent further back than Richard Jones of Llay, Henry’s third son. A Hayes marriage search revealed that the Llanfair parish records-registry of births- tie up with the known names of Richard Jones’ brothers and sisters and the order of their ages from Ruth Speed’s will, except for the eldest son Edward, who from the freeholders lists probably took over the Pentre Cae Heilyn farm in 1761 but died in 1772.14,13. This would explain his non appearance in Ruth Speed’s Will.

The birth of Henry’s sister Lucy is recorded in the Llanfair DC Parish registers (in 1711) but not his. The only entry in a searchable North Wales Parish for a date which fits is that for Holywell, Flintshire in 1715.

The only possible entry in the Llanfair DC Parish registers relating to Henry Jones death between 1758 and 1780 is “Henry Jones buried 22nd Dec 1769 Derwen Township”.14 so he may have come back to Pentrecelyn after his wife’s death and died there three years later.

Henry Jones and Magdalen his wife both feature in the Quarter Session Records for Denbighshire. Pentrecelyn clearly was not the most peaceful of hamlets! Sarah wife of Thomas Ellis was bound over to keep the peace “especially towards Magdalen wife of Henry Jones, husbandman on the 13th December 1751. The word husbandman is normally used to describe a tenant farmer but this is clearly not used accurately in this case.

In March 1755 a group of people, Elizabeth Jones, William Thelwall and John Ellis all of Pentrecaeheilin were bound over to keep the peace “especially towards Thomas Ellis of Llanfair DC, labourer”. In April 1757 Magdalen, described as “wife of Henry Jones of Pentre Cauheilin, Llanfair DC yeoman” was herself bound over to keep the peace “especially towards Griffith Parry of Derwen quarter, husbandman and his children”. Sarah wife of Thomas Ellis was similarly bound over.

The marriage between Henry and Magdalen Jones took place in Llanrhyd Parish nr Ruthin on 10 November 1741. The marriage is represented by a bookplate (see illustration) showng the coats of arms of the two Jones families.

Because the colours of the coat of arms are not obvious from the bookplate it is impossible to be sure about descent but in his book “Welsh Family Coats of Arms” Robert JCK Lewis quotes the Introduction to the Llyfr Baglan of John Williams by Joseph A Bradney: “English genealogists make the mistake of imagining that, because a family bears the surname say, of Price or Powell, it must necessarily belong to some particular established family of that name. The surname (in Wales) as is obvious from the haphazard way in which it arose is in many cases no clue to the stock from whence the family derived. A much surer method by which the paternal stock can be determined is to ascertain the coat of arms that the family has borne, even though it may be unrecognised by the Heralds’ College”

The Gules 2 lions passant gardant argent are explained under the entries on the card for John David/Davies, Magdalene’s grandfather and Richard Jones Apothecary, her uncle. They are the same as the arms on the memorial to Apothecary Richard Jones’ in Gresford Church.

The chevron between the 3 fleur de lys is it seems the coat of arms of Henry Jones’ family. They could be the same as those attributed to Collwyn (or Gollwyn) ab Tangno, a prominent tenth century Welsh chieftain (Sable a chevron inter three fleur de lys argent).

Collwyn was the founder of the so called 5th Noble Tribe of North Wales. Lord of Eifionydd, Ardudwy and part of Lleyn (formerly in Merionethshire and Caernarvonshire now Gwynedd). His grandchildren are said to “have flourished in the reign of Gryffydd ap Cynan”.

Collwyn’s arms are attested in a Welsh poem by Gruffudd Gryg as early as 1351-9. For pedigree of Collwyn tribe see page 391 of Griffith Pedigrees of Anglesey and Carnarvon Families15.

Collwyn claimed descent from Coel Hen (perhaps the “old King Cole” of nursery rhymes) who lived around AD 350-420 and who may have been the last of the Roman Duces Brittannorum ie leader of the Britons, who commanded the Roman army centred on York, making him effectively King of North Britain when the Romans withdrew. From him descended “the Men of the North” (Gwŷr y Gogledd in Welsh)-the Britons who attempted to repulse the Angles conquest in the north-such as Urien King of Rheged (covering modern Cumbria Lancashire and Cheshire ). Coel Hen was a member of the Brigantes tribe who were one of the most notable of the British tribes when the Romans invaded and who rebelled many times during the Roman era.

'Brut y Tywysogion' ((The Chronicle of the Princes. a translation of a lost Latin work, the Cronica Principium Wallie) has the following entry in 890, which could explain our origins in the Vale of Clwyd!

"The men of Strathclyde {ie North Britons] who would not unite with the Saxons were obliged to leave their country and go to Gwynned, and Anarawd (king of Wales) gave them leave to inhabit the country taken from him by the Saxons, comprising Maelor, the vale of Clwyd, Rhyvoniog, and Tegeingl, if they could drive the Saxons out, which they did bravely. And the Saxons came on that account a second time against Anarawd, and fought the action of Cymryd, in which the Cymry conquered the Saxons and drove them wholly out of the country; and so Gwynned was freed from the Saxons by the might of the 'Gwyr y Gogledd' or Men of the North."

Urien attracted the “best and the brightest” to his court, including the famous Welsh bard Taliesin, whose songs in praise of the king as a wise, learned, and benevolent ruler became famous in their day, and spread his legend.  Composed in the mid to late 500s, they are some of the oldest poems in Welsh literature.

A stronger possibility given what appears to be Coel Godebog’s YDNA (E-V13) and Collwyn’s (R 1b) is descent from Cunedda, of the Votadini or Goddodin, another North Briton from whom Nefydd Hardd of Nantconwy another Patriarch of a Noble Tribe (VI) descends and was likely to have been the ancestor of Hywel Coetmor, a Welsh knight who took part in Owain Glyndwr's rising. His brother was Rhys Gethin, who was one of Glyndwr's leading generals. Coetmor had earlier fought under the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers (1356). He by some accounts (notably Lloyd in Powys Fadog16) bore Azure a chevron between three fleur de lys argent and has a stone effigy in the Gwydir Chapel of St Grwst Church in Llanwrst.

Recent YDNA results for TCJ from FTDNA however show an I2 Cont 2b haplotype (I-223 and CTS 1977) described on Manx.DNA.co.uk as “Continental Europe’s Mesolithic Paternal Lineage”.

Daniel Defoe passed through the Vale of Clwyd (Dyffryn Clwyd) on his “Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain” in the early years of the 18th Century (although the volumes of the book were published between 1724 and 1726). He said this :”We came into a most pleasant, fruitful, populous, and delicious vale, full of villages and towns, the fields shining with corn, just ready for the reapers, the meadows green and flowery, and a fine river, with a mild and gentle stream running thro’ it: Nor is it a small or casual intermission, but we had a prospect of the country open before us, for above 20 miles in length, and from 5 to 7 miles in breadth, all smiling with the same kind of complexion; which made us think our selves in England again, all on a sudden.”

Dr Samuel Johnson (that great Tory) spent some time later in the same century (1774) in the Vale of Clwyd as the guest of the Cotton family at Lleweni nr Denbigh and at Gwaenynog or Gwaynynog, owned by John Myddleton also nr Denbigh whilst on his Tour in North Wales with Henry and Hester Thrale. Mrs Thrale (later Piozzi) was a Salusbury and had inherited property at Bachycraig, nr Denbigh. Dr Johnson is alleged to have said that “he had nowhere seen so many elegant country houses in one district”