Ynysymaengwyn was a gentry house in the parish of Tywyn, Gwynedd (formerly Merioneth), situated near the left bank of the River Dysynni. The name means 'the white stone island'.
Early history
It was in the commote of Ystumanner or Ystum Anner that Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn did homage and swore fealty to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd on 12 December 1263. In return he was made a vassal lord and the lands taken from him about six years earlier were restored to him. The commote was in the cantref of Meirionnydd.
From the late medieval period until the twentieth century, Ynysymaengwyn, situated roughly a mile from Tywyn by the road to Bryn-crug, was by far the most powerful estate in the parish. The family's wealth is revealed in official records and also in the Welsh poetry composed to its leading members.
The estate may be traced back to the days of Gruffudd ab Adda of Dôl-goch and Ynysymaengwyn, bailiff of the commote of Ystumanner in 1330 and 1334, whose effigy is thought to lie in St Cadfan's church in Tywyn. His daughter Nest married Llywelyn ap Cynwrig ab Osbwrn Wyddel, and Ynysymaengwyn was to remain in the hands of their direct male descendants for well over two centuries. Llywelyn's great-great-grandson Siencyn (or Jenkin) ab Iorwerth ab Einion ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn farmed Crown lands in Cyfyng and Caethle as well as the Aberdyfi ferry in the middle of the fifteenth century.
Siencyn's son Hywel married Mary the daughter of Sir Roger Kynaston (c.1433 - 1495). Hywel died of the plague in 1494, an event which inspired a memorable elegy by Hywel Rheinallt. He was followed by his son Hwmffre (or Humphrey) who was the subject of a famous request by the poet Tudur Aled to bring to an end a bitter family dispute. This poem has been described as 'one of the great poems of late medieval Wales'. Indeed, for some three centuries from the fifteenth century onwards, numerous Welsh poets were welcomed to Ynysymaengwyn and also to several of the most significant houses of Tywyn parish, most of whom were linked by blood or marriage to Ynysymaengwyn. Amongst these were Caethle, Dolau-gwyn, Gwyddgwion, Plas-yn-y-rofft (Esgairweddan), and Trefeddian.
'Sir' Arthur ap Huw (sometimes known as Arthur Hughes), a grandson of Hywel ap Siencyn of Ynysymaengwyn, was vicar of St Cadfan's church in Tywyn between 1555 and his death in 1570, and was also a notable patron of Welsh poets. He is also known for his translation into Welsh of George Marshall's counter-Reformation text A Compendious Treatise in Metre (1554). 'Sir' Arthur's nephew David Johns (sometimes known as David Jones or David ap John, fl. 1572–98) was another important figure in the Welsh Renaissance. A great-grandson of Hywel ap Siencyn, he copied an important manuscript of cywyddau (British Library Additional MS 14866) which includes several poems to the Ynysymaengwyn family (amongst them the poem by Tudur Aled mentioned above).
Hwmffre (or Humphrey) ap Hywel ap Siencyn of Ynysymaengwyn died in 1545 and was followed by his son John Wynn. He was followed by his son Humphrey Wynn. Upon his death, the estate passed to his daughter Elizabeth and her husband Sir James Pryse of Gogerddan, Cardiganshire, who both died in 1642. The failure to produce a male heir would prove to be the norm for the family from this point onwards.
The Corbet family
Ynysymaengwyn was inherited by Sir James and Elizabeth's daughter Bridget who married Robert Corbet (d. 1644), the third son of Sir Vincent Corbet of Moreton Corbet, Shropshire. Robert Corbet was a Royalist during the English Civil War, during which Ynysymaengwyn was burnt to the ground to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Parliamentarians. Robert was followed by his son Vincent Corbet, who was followed by his son, another Vincent. On this Vincent's death in 1723, Ynysymaengwyn passed to his daughter Anne (d. 1760) who married Athelstan Owen (1676-1731) of Rhiwsaeson, Llanbryn-mair. Corbet Owen, the eldest son, died without issue in 1750, following which the Rhiwsaeson estate was sold. His mother then settled Ynysymaengwyn on her second son Richard. He also died childless, so the estate passed to her daughter Anne (d. 1767), who had married Pryce Maurice of Lloran, Llansilin in 1740.
