Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1576-[late 19 cent.] (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
101 ff. (foliated 1-98 with 3 ff. of insertions (ff. 3a, 11a, 40a, presumably inserted in 1947); many folios contain multiple items) ; 355 x 255 mm.
Re-bound in half green morocco with gold fillets at NLW, 1947; 'GWYSANEY LETTERS AND PAPERS VOL. I' in gold on spine.
Context area
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Biographical history
Thomas Pennant, naturalist, antiquary and traveller, was born on the Downing estate in Flintshire. He was educated at Wrexham and London before entering Queen's College, Oxford aged eighteen. Thomas developed a love of the natural world at school and began travelling whilst at Oxford; in the following years he travelled widely throughout Britain and Europe. The Outlines of the Globe was Thomas's most ambitious literary project. The work originally took up twenty-two volumes but only four of these were published - two by Pennant himself and two by his son, David.
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Robert Davies [III] of Gwysaney and Llannerch
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Robert Davies [IV] of Gwysaney and Llannerch.
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Archival history
Some of the letters were recorded as being part of 'A folio volume of letters' in the possession of Whitehall Dod of Llanerch in 1872 (see Historical Manuscripts Commission, Appendix to the Third Report (1872), pp. 258-260); the presence of additional letters in that folio, absent from the present volume, indicates that the contents were rearranged and re-bound as a new volume sometime after 1872. Annotations to the letters on f. 90 are dated 1895.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A volume containing some one hundred and sixty-three letters and other papers, 1576-1810, mostly of the Davies family of Llanerch and Gwysaney or of the related families of Mutton, Whitehall and Dod (ff. 1, 3-92, 97 verso-98), together with a few later additions, 1813-[late 19 cent.] (ff. 2, 3a, 11a recto-verso, 18 verso, 40a).
The papers include commissions signed by Charles I, 19 July 1643 (f. 1), and Charles II, 15 August 1651 (f. 3), and an order signed by Oliver Cromwell, 30 June 1658 (f. 4); other correspondents include the 1st Earl of Bridgewater, 1620-1647 (ff. 5-9), the 2nd Earl of Bridgewater, 1650-1653 (ff. 10-11), Charles, Earl of Derby, 1652-1663 (ff. 14-16), Barnabe Fizpatrik [Barnaby Fitzpatrick] to [Edward VI], 4 March [1552] (f. 17), Sir Peter Mutton to his mother (in Welsh), 17 January 1604/5 (f. 19), Sir Marmaduke Lloyde, 1635-1637 (ff. 22-23), Robert Corbett, Stanwardine, 1636-1639 (f. 24), [Col.] Thomas Davies, [1624]-[?1625] (ff. 33-34), Mutton Davies, 1654-1657 (f. 41), Sir Roger Mostyn, 1st bart, 1655-1686 (f. 42), Thomas Price, Bishop of Kildare, 6 March 1660/1 (f. 43), Eubule Thelwall, 15 April 1661 (f. 48), Letitia Davies to her husband Robert Davies [IV], 1700-1708 (ff. 59-62), Sir Watkin Wm Wynne, 4th bart, 20 February 1777 (f. 76), Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th bart, 1784 (f. 77), Thomas Pennant, 1784-1796 (f. 78, 2 letters), [Lloyd Kenyon, 1st Baron] Kenyon, 1796 (f. 80, 2 letters) and Wm Oliver, Bath (f. 91). The main recipients are Robert Davies [II], 1620-1633 (ff. 5-6, 33-35, 37-39), his brother Col. Thomas Davies, 1635-1650 (ff. 7-10, 22-32), Robert Davies [III], 1652-1665 (ff. 14, 16, 38, 40, 41-46, 48), Robert Davies [IV], 1685-1708 (ff. 13, 36, 42, 46-50, 53, 56, 59-63), Peter Davies, [Tybroughton, brother of Robert Davies VI], 1777-1796 (ff. 73-80) and Thomas Pennant, 1784 (f. 77). A list of the contents, [19 cent., last ΒΌ], is on ff. 93-97.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
- English
- Welsh
Script of material
Language and script notes
English, some Welsh.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Most items in this volume are transcribed in NLW, Transcripts of some Gwysaney Letters and Papers (1947), a copy of which is available in the Library's reading room and at https://archives.library.wales/transcripts/Gwysaney_transcripts.pdf
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Available on microfilm at the Library (NLW Film 15), filmed in 1947.
Related units of description
Publication note
G. A. Usher, Gwysaney and Owston: A History of the Family of Davies-Cooke of Gwysaney, Flintshire, and Owston, West Riding of Yorkshire (Denbigh, 1964).
Publication note
David Jenkins, 'Pethau Nas Cyhoeddwyd: 9. Llythyr Syr Peter Mutton (1565-1637)', NLWJ, 5 (1947-1948), 220-221.
Publication note
J. B. Lewis, 'Some letters of the Davies family of Llannerch and Gwysaney, being those to and from Robert Davies III (1616-1666); Anne Davies (d. 1609); Robert Davies IV (1658-1710) and Letitia Davies, his wife (1681-1736)', Flintshire Historical Society Journal, 38 (2010), 95-115.
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Many folios contain multiple items.
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma system control number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Davies family, of Llannerch and Gwysaney -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Davyes, Robert -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Davies, Thomas, -1655 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Davies, Robert, 1616-1666 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Davies, Robert, 1658-1710 -- Correspondence (Subject)
- Davies, Peter, 1723-1810 -- Correspondence (Subject)