Rhys Meurug (Anglicised: Rice Merrick) (died 1586), was a Welsh genealogist, historian and

landed gentleman The landed gentry, or the gentry (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is th ...

Personal life

Rhys lived in St. Nicholas parish in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( ), locally referred to as ''The Vale'', is a Principal areas of Wales, county borough in the South East Wales, south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf t ...

. He is descended from the line of

Caradog Freichfras Caradoc Vreichvras (; Modern , ) was a semi-legendary ancestor to the kings of Gwent. He may have lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is remembered in the Matter of Britain as a Knight of the Round Table, under the names King Carados and Ca ...

, a supposed knight of the

Round Table The Round Table (; ; ; ) is King Arthur's famed table (furniture), table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status, unlike co ...

. Meurug served as Clerk of the Peace in Glamorgan, having been appointed by the

earl of Pembroke Earl of Pembroke is a title in the Peerage of England that was first created in the 12th century by King Stephen of England. The title, which is associated with Pembroke, Pembrokeshire in West Wales, has been recreated ten times from its origin ...

. He is buried in Cowbridge church.

Literary works

Meurug wrote a book on the history of Glamorgan, entitled ''A Booke of Glamorganshire Antiquities'', completed in 1578. Though the original volume was lost in the Hafod library fire in 1807, a copy made in the late 17th century can be found in the

Queen's college, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

library, and a second copy is in the Cardiff public library. The book is written in English and concerns three areas: Glamorgan region's characteristics, division of the country by Norman knights and the original Welsh families, and Meurug's modern-day Glamorgan. However, a final missing manuscript is insinuated from citations within the two extant manuscripts, and only a portion of the description of Meurug's Glamorgan is available. This third part may be more substantially preserved in

Edward Llwyd Edward Lhuyd (1660– 30 June 1709), also known as Edward Lhwyd and by other spellings, was a Welsh scientist, geographer, historian and antiquary. He was the second Keeper of the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, and published the firs ...

's manuscripts, written by Meurug c. 1584, though this is not certain. This section discusses rivers, houses of the landed gentry, parishes and the lands.

Notable connections

Meurug collaborated with the historian Sir Edward Stradling while writing his book. He is also known to Dafydd Benwyn and Sils ap Sion, who both sang elegies to Rhys Meurug.Cardiff MS. 2, 277, 344-6, Manuscript

References

External links

''A Booke of Glamorganshires Antiquities''
by Rhys Meurug, 1578; published London, 1825 {{DEFAULTSORT:Meurug, Rhys 16th-century Welsh historians 1586 deaths