File NLW MS 24111G. - Pedigree of John Bowen of Bath

Pedigree roll, [1810x1819], of, and probably in the hand of, the Rev. John Bowen of Bath, incorporating seventy-five coats of arms, nearly all impaled and most fully painted by an unnamed artist, some surmounted with crests or crowns and all set within canopies, tracing Bowen's ancestors primarily from Caradog Fraichvras and Brychan [Brycheiniog] (f. 5), as well as Bleddyn ap Maenarch (f. 20).
The pedigree is based on 'the pedigree and achievements of Robert Bowen of Bally Adams' [in Queen's County (now Co. Laois), Ireland], a roll (now lost) of 1608 by Thomas Jones of Fountain Gate, Tregaron, together with a continuation of Robert Bowen's line to 1720 by William Hawkins, Ulster King of Arms (f. 32 verso). Three main lines of descent are depicted, originating with Caradog Fraichvras (f. 5), Brychan (f. 5) and Cadwaladr (f. 9) and ending with John Bowen (f. 34), with a single generation on each panel. Preceding these are the ancestors, some spurious, of Caradog and Brychan (ff. 2-4), together with a 'Regal Line' (ff. 2-8). Some collateral lines are also shown alongside the main lines of descent (ff. 29-30, 32-35); however in nine instances (ff. 4 verso-5 verso, 21 verso-23 verso, 27 verso-33 verso (versos only)), for reasons of space, the collateral lines extend onto the versos, most significantly to show the Bowens of Ballyadams (ff. 30 verso-32 verso). The early lineages (ff. 2-4), 'Regal Line' (ff. 2-8) and collateral lines are depicted without heraldry, other than occasional blazoning. Various notes have been added in the same hand, including lists of the children of Brychan Brycheiniog (ff. 6 verso-9 verso), a description of a monument to the Bowen family in Ballyadams (f. 30 verso) and notes on the original pedigree (f. 32 verso) and Thomas Jones (f. 36 verso). A few later annotations, to 1832, are on f. 34. A painted figure of a woman holding in her left hand a shield displaying the Bowen arms and in her right hand a pedigree roll is on f. 1. The matches shown in the line of Roger ap John of Llanfrynach (see f. 27) differ significantly from those in P. C. Bartrum, Welsh Genealogies A.D. 300-1400 (Cardiff, 1974), pp. 863, 865. For the Bowens of Ballyadams see Lord Walter FitzGerald, 'Ballyadams in the Queen's County, and the Bowen Family', in Journal of the Archaeological Society of the County of Kildare and Surrounding Districts, 7 (1912-1914), 3-32, and Rhys Morgan, The Welsh and the Shaping of Early Modern Ireland 1558-1641 (Woodbridge, 2014), pp. 76, 146, 193, 197.