1730. William Vaughan, of Cors-y-gedol, Esq., was appointed custos rotulorum for the county of Merioneth, as successor to Lewis Owen, Esq.

1733. George, third earl of Cholmondeley, was appointed lord lieutenant for the counties of Caernarvon, Merioneth, Montgomery, Flint, and Anglesey.

1761. William Vaughan, of Cors-y-gedol, Esq., custos rotulorum and M.P. for Merionethshire, occurs as lieutenant for that county. He was appointed upon the resignation of the Earl of Cholmondeley, and died April 12th, 1775.

1775. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart., of Wynnstay and Glanllyn, M.P. for the county of Denbigh, was appointed lieutenant and custos rotulorum for Merionethshire. He died in 1789.

1789. Watkin Williams, Esq., of Penbedw, in the county of Denbigh, (but owner of property in the parishes of Mallwyd and Llan-y-mowddwy, in the county of Merioneth) M.P. first for Montgomeryshire, and afterwards, during nearly thirty years, for the Flint contributary boroughs, was appointed lieutenant and custos rotulorum for Merionethshire.

1793. Sir Watkin Williams Wynn, Bart., of Wynnstay and Glanllyn, M.P. for the county of Denbigh, was appointed lieutenant and custos rotulorum for Merionethshire. He also held the same offices for Denbighshire. He died January 5, 1840.

1840. The Honorable Edward Mostyn Lloyd Mostyn, of Mostyn in Flintshire, and Cors-y-gedol in Merionethshire, eldest son of Edward Pryce, present Lord Mostyn, was appointed lieutenant and custos rotulorum for Merionethshire, and now holds those offices.

1846.

W. W. E. W.

ON THE TITLE OF “PRINCE OF WALES." Ir is generally supposed that "Edward of Caernarvon" was made Prince of Wales immediately after his birth in Caernarvon Castle, upon the 25th of April, 1284. Such, however, is not the fact. Amongst the records of the late Augmentation Office, at Westminster, is a collection of accounts of the receipts and expenditure of the chamberlains and other officers of the principality of Wales in the latter part of the reign of Edward I. and in the reign of Edward II.

Amongst these are two documents; the one a receipt from Vivian de Staundon, for his fee as constable of the castle of Harlech in Merionethshire, from Michaelmas in the sixth year of Prince Edward, to the same festival next following, in the first year of King Edward (Edward the Second, who in records relating to Wales is frequently so styled, without any other distinction); the other document is a pecuniary account of John le Coliere relative to the castle of Harlech, from Whitsunday in the seventh year of Prince Edward, to the festival of Michaelmas next following, in the first year of the reign of King Edward, son of Edward, a title commonly given to King Edward II. and to him only. The periods, then, included in these accounts, are from the 29th of September, 1306, to the same day in 1307, and from Whitsunday to Michaelmas in the latter year. In 1307, Whitsunday fell upon the 14th of May, and in that year of our Lord, as is shown above, it was in the seventh year of Edward's princedom of Wales.

These documents, therefore, fix the date of his elevation to that dignity as having taken place on or after the 29th of September in 1300, and before or on the 14th of May in 1301.1 It is remarkable that this accords with the year (29 Edward I.) in which it is stated that the freeholders of Wales did homage to the young prince at Chester.2

As it is stated in Wynne's History of Wales, that Edward of Windsor, afterwards Edward III., was created Prince of Wales in a parliament at York, in the fifteenth year of his father's reign, it may appear, at first sight, as probable that he was the prince referred to in this receipt as that Edward of Caernarvon was. But there can be little doubt, notwithstanding the assertion in Wynne's History, that Edward of Windsor never was Prince of Wales. In not one of the "Minister's Accounts" for Wales, nor in any other authentic document of the reign of Edward II. that the writer of this communication has seen, (and they are a great many,) does it appear that, at any time during that reign, Wales was under the government of a prince. Sandford too, in his history, says that Edward, the Black Prince, "became the second Prince of Wales of the royal family of Plantagenet, (for I find not

1 Since the above was written, the author has seen another contemporary record, which proves that Edward was created Prince of Wales before or on Easter Day, (March 26,) 1307. 2 Wynne's Hist. of Wales, edition

of 1702, p. 310.

that King Edward the Third was at any time so styled.)" In the inscription on Edward of Windsor's seal, to a grant dated the 19th of Edward II. (1325) his style is given as "Dux Aquitanie, Comes Cestrie, Pontivi, and Montistrolli ;" and in a charter dated upon the Sunday before Christmas-day, 1325, "Eddouart fils ainzè du Roy d'Angleterre, Duc d'Aquitaine, Comte de Cestre, et de Pontyn;"" but in neither as Prince of Wales. But, independent of all this, if Edward of Windsor was created Prince of Wales in the parliament of the fifteenth of Edward II., that parliament was held three weeks after Easter in 1322, and before the beginning of the sixth year from that time he had ascended the throne of England, and could not therefore have been the prince mentioned in Vivian de Staundon's receipt.

Another record in the collection above referred to, alludes to an event which occurred tempore regis, that is, when Edward I. was exercising the sovereignty of Wales, and prior to his conferring the principality upon his son.

Some of our early historians, little referred to, state correctly, or (as will be seen from the facts above brought to notice) very nearly so, the time of Edward's being created prince of Wales. In Fabian's Chronicle will be found,

1 The ancient name of the county to which this refers was Pagus Pontivus, called by the French Ponthieu; and a subdivision of it belonging to the town of Monasteriolum obtained the name of Montreuil, which it still bears. This is the name indicated above as Montistrollum. The name of Ponthieu is said to be derived from the unusual number of bridges it contains; and, in fact, it extends over a large portion of flat lands, watered by the deep and slow-flowing Somme; but the derivation seems to us, from the present appearance of the country, as well as from what we learn of it in former times, at least, fanciful. Edward III. did not find too many bridges in it when he was retreating from Poissy to the glorious field of Crecy. Monasteriolum was a name derived from a monastery built in that district. The county of Ponthieu once belonged to the celebrated abbey of St. Riquier, near Abbeville, the splendid church of which still stands entire; but in A.D. 1085, having fallen into the sole possession of the Countess Agnes, she brought it by marriage to Robert, Count of Perche and Alencon. The last descendant male of this stock was John, who dying s. p., the county devolved to his sister Mary, wife of Simon de Dammartin; whose daughter Anne de Dammartin Countess of Ponthieu, married Ferdinand III. king of Castile; and the only daughter of this marriage, Eleanora, was the Queen of Edward I. of England. It was in this way that the title quoted by the learned author of the above valuable communication, came into the Plantagenet family. After the battle of Poictiers, the absolute property, as well as the title, of the county was ceded to Edward III.—EDD. ARCHEOL. CAMB.

2 Sandford, pp. 157, 158, 182.

"In this xxix yere of Kynge Edwarde, dyed Edmunde earle of Cornewayle without yssue. Wherefore that earledome

retourned agayne to the crowne of Englande.

"And in thys yere the kynge gaue vnto Syr Edwarde hys sonne the Principate and hed of Wales, and ioyned thereunto the sayd earledom of Cornewayle."

Thomas Wikes, another old historian, says,

"1284. Regina Anglorum peperit filium, in partibus Walliæ, cui Rex proprium nomen imposuit, et vocari fecit Edwardum.

"1301. Rex Edwardus dedit filio suo Edwardo, principatum Walliæ, et Comitatum Cestriæ."

W. W. E. W.

December 5, 1845.

HISTORICAL PAPERS.

(PULESTON.)

THE following documents are copied from a collection of transcripts and abstracts of ancient deeds, and other evidences, relating to the families of Puleston and Hanmer, in the emblazoned Salusbury manuscript at Wynnstay, a manuscript compiled by Salusbury of Erbistock, a Welsh genealogist of eminence, about the middle of the seventeenth century. It is not known where the original records, from whence this collection was made, are now, if indeed any of them be in existence. Perhaps some, or all of them are at Glanywern in Denbighshire, the seat of John Madocks, Esq., at which place, a few years since, were certainly several very old records relating to the Puleston family. One of Mr. Madocks's ancestors, an eminent chancery barrister, being trustee, or having the management of the estates of that family, to which he was nearly related, it is not unlikely that the records in question were given to him as of no value with regard to the title to those estates.

Edmund comes Richmondiæ oibz ad quos pntes tre puen't sattm. Sciat qd nos consideracõe boni et laudabit Suic' dilect' nobis

1 Sandford states, upon the authority of the inquisition taken after the death of Edmund, earl of Cornwall, that he died in the 28th year of Edward I., which year terminated upon the 20th of November, 1300.

ARCHEOL. CAMB. VOL. I.]

Rogero Pylston armiger', not impenso, et imposteru impendend', dedim et concessim? eidm Rogo, quãdm annuitatē siue añuat reddit', decem marcar', legal' monet' Anglie, pcipiend añuatim p & [in] annuitatem siue añualem reddit' decem marcar' infra dominiu nrm

de Kyallayt Oweyn, in ptibz Northwallie, p man' recept' nři ibm, p tempe existent', a die dat' pntiu qua diu nob placuerit. Dat' sub sigilt não, decimo die menss Septembr', Anno Regni Henric' sext' post conquestu, tricessimo quarto. E. RYCHMOND.

To the right trusty & wellbeloved Roger a Puleston and to John Eyton, & to either of them.

Right trusty & wellbeloved Cousins and frinds we grete you well. And suppose that ye have well in yo1 remembrance the great dishonor and rebuke that we & yee now late have by trayto's Marche,1 Harbert,2 and Dwnns, with their affinityes, as well in letting vs of our Journey to the Kinge, as in putting my father yor Kinsman3 to the death, and their trayterously demeaning, we purpose with the might of our Lord, and assistance of you and other our kinsmen & frinds, within short time to avenge. Trusting verily that ye will be well willed and put to your hands unto the same, and of your disposicon with your good advise therein we pray you to ascertayne vs in all hast possible, as our especiall trust is in you. towne of Tenbye the xxvth of ffeur:

1 Edward, earl of March, (King Edw. IV.)

Written at our

J. PEMBROOK.

2 William Herbert, 3 The

created earl of Pembroke, or his brother, Sir Richard Herbert. following pedigree will show the relationship between Roger Puleston and the Earl of Pembroke:

Angharad, dau. & heiress = John Puleston, Owen Tudor=

Catherine, Queen Dowager of England.

(ob. 16 Hen. VI.)

Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, and Duke of Bedford.

(ob. 1495.)