Thomas "William" Edwards - A different Edwards family?

Started by Justin Durand on Sunday, April 12, 2015
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4/12/2015 at 9:14 PM

A mistake in the profile for Thomas "William" Edwards led me to something that might help explain why some descendants of Rev. Richard Edwardes developed the idea that their ancestor was an illegitimate son of Henry VIII by Agnes Blewitt.

We've discussed this mistake at length on other threads. The claim goes back to The Edwards Legacy by David Dean Edwards (1992), but no further. He said it was whispered among some Tudor researchers that Agnes was mistress to King Henry VIII of England and that the son Richard was fathered by King Henry. David D. Edwards did not cite a source for this information. There are many hundreds of references on the Internet, but all of them appear to trace back to this one 1992 source.

In addition to the problems with the name of Agnes Blewitt's husband (Thomas or William?) and an odd AKA for him (Thomas ap Llewelyn), I noticed his Geni profile says he was "Keeper of the Black Park". That struck me as odd because the Black Park is near Chirk (Denbigh) but Richard Edwardes was born in North Petherton (Somerset). Not impossible, but worth investigating.

Turns out it is a different Edwards family with a different kind of Tudor connection.

"Amongst the Vaughan MSS. in the possession of W. W. E. Wynne, Esq., of Peniarth, M.P. for Merionethshire, is a pedigree showing that a connexion existed between the House of Tudor and the Edwards family; and from this pedigree it appears that, in the reign of King Henry the Seventh, John Edwards was appointed Receiver of Chirkland by the Crown, by Letters Patent bearing date the 2nd June, in the 13th year of that king. William Edwards of Plas Newydd, son of John, was of the King's household, Keeper of the Black Park (which is close to Chirk), and Constable of Chirk, by letters patent dated 3rd Dec. 15 Hen. VII. He died in 1532. a The family of Edwards continued to reside at or near Chirk during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, until, near the end of the seventeenth century, an alliance took place between the families of Edwards and Puleston by the marriage of Katherine, sole daughter and heir of William Edwards of Chirk, with Sir Roger Puleston of Emral."

* Letters of Queen Margaret of Anjou and Bishop Beckington, edited by Cecil Monro, Esq. (1863), xvi.
https://archive.org/stream/queenmargaretofa00camduoft#page/xvi/mode...

It seems plausible David Dean Edwards confused the two different families.

There is more about the Edwards family of Plas Newydd here:
* The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, Volume 4, by Jacob Youde William Lloyd (1884), 63-70
https://books.google.com/books?id=Eh0fAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA64&lpg=...

And the start of a Geni tree here:
Catherine Puleston

Private User
4/13/2015 at 4:30 AM

I think David Dean Edwards confused the two families and thks for all your hard work on geni Justin for trying to keep people honest about their tree so it is not fake

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