83 Some Notice of William Herbert, 



turies ; amongst the most interesting are those of different members 

 of the Hei'bert family, ancestors of the subject of our present notice. 

 Mr. Octavius Morgan has published an elaborate memoir of these 

 monuments, and has also given a full account of the pedigree of the 

 Herbert family, the result, indeed, of a long series of careful and 

 persevering researches which have been undertaken by the most 

 reliable' of the Welsh genealogists.^ It appears then, that they are 

 descended from Sir William ap Thomas, of Raglan, who was 

 knighted by Henry VI. in 1426. His tomb is in Abergavenny 

 Church, he was a native of that part of the country, and must have 

 been the author of his own fortunes, as he was the fifth son of 

 Thomas ap Gwilym ap Jenkin ; and here his upward pedigree must 

 stop as far as any authentic documentary proof is known to exist, 

 although the heralds carry it back to Henry I, Sir William ap 

 Thomas was a notable man in South Welsh story, and the father of 

 sons, by Gwladys, daughter of Sir David Gam, of whom two were 

 also remarkable: (1) Sir William; (2) Sir Richard Herbert, of 

 Coldbrook. The fortunes of these brothers are matters of history ; 

 they were among the boldest and most powerful supporters of the 

 White Rose, and shared in the varying fortunes of that party. 

 William gained the earldom of Pembroke with large Welsh estates, 

 and on the occasion of his receiving the Garter from Edward IV., 

 lie and Sir Richard (of whom more hereafter) had the royal command 

 to renounce the Welsh custom of varying surnames, and to bear 

 that of Herbert, for it appears that the surname of Herbert grew 

 up in the families of the Earls of Pembroke and Powis and their 

 immediate kinsmen as the English name of the race or clan con~ 

 currently with the continuance of their old Welsh patronymics. 

 They were called Gwilim ap Jenkin, otherwise Herbert, and so on. 

 . This William, Earl of Pembroke, of the first creation in the 

 Herbert family, known as " Gwilim Ddu," or " Black Will,^^ was 

 beheaded at Banbury .by Warwick and Clarence in 1469 j he left 



> Some Account of the Ancient Monuments in the Priory Clmrch at Abergavenny, 

 by Octavius Morgan, Esq. Piiuted for the Monmouthshii-e and Carleon Antiq. 

 Association. 



