A BLEND OF ENGLISH AND WELSH LAW IN LATE MEDIEVAL AND TUDOR WALES: INNOVATION AND MIMICRY OF NATIVE SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN WALES

• Published in: Irish jurist 2017-01, Vol.58, p.153-183
• Main Authors: OWEN, GWILYM, CAHILL, DERMOT
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-1273

This article will demonstrate the assimilation of principles of native Welsh land law with the English common law, both prior to and following the Acts of Union 1536–43. Traditionally, historians have eschewed looking to estates such as the Penrhyn Estate in north-west Wales for evidence of the practice of the Welsh native laws. This article will show that in so doing, vital evidence has been overlooked, not only in the practice of native Welsh law, but also with regards to experimentation with uses. The article will consider new evidence which the authors have brought to light following research at The National Archives concerning the experimentation which was going on in this Estate owned by the Griffith family of Penrhyn concerning the development of the use (the precursor of the trust) in the years leading up to the Statute of Uses 1536. Further, new evidence is coming to light concerning certain settlement patterns. As will be explained in this article, there is new evidence which shows that settlement patterns in the Penrhyn Estate, and beyond, while outwardly conforming to English land law principles, appear upon closer examination to mimic some of the principles of native Welsh land law. This research therefore fills a gap in existing knowledge by showing that principles of Welsh law and English law existed side by side in the Crown lands of north-west Wales even following the Acts of Union; and demonstrates by reference to new evidence certain features in connection with uses, and settlement patterns in these Crown lands. The article also reveals a paradox; the Griffith family entail was originally formed not in order to avoid the Welsh custom of partibility, but to avoid the effects of the English canons of descent. However, once that entail was in being, the family then displayed a tendency to mimic the norms of cyfran (the native Welsh concept of partible inheritance) in order to offset the harshness in the English practice of primogeniture.