Family and Education

b. by 1511. m. by 1532, Isabella.1

Offices Held

Bailiff, Haverfordwest in 1562.2

Biography

Thomas ab Owen of Haverfordwest is to be distinguished from his namesakes of Pentre Ifan and of Roblinston, as well as from the Thomas Bowen of Trefloyn in the commote of Narberth whom Sir John Perrot recommended for the Pembrokeshire bench in 1575. He was a merchant who lived in the parish of St. Martin in the town. In 1532 he and his wife took a 72-year lease of the rents of the customary tenants at Leweston, near Treffgarne, and on lands and tenements in Anastaslade and elsewhere. In the same year he appears as a freeholder at Narberth; when he does so again in 1547 it is as Thomas ab Owen alias Jones.3

After his election for Haverfordwest to the Parliament of 1558 Thomas ab Owen is glimpsed but rarely. The fact that he was bailiff of the borough in 1562 makes it likely that it was he who with other inhabitants, including Alban Stepneth^†, was sued on the equity side of the Exchequer at some time in the reign of Elizabeth; the plaintiff was the lessee of three watermills near Haverfordwest who alleged that the defendants were failing to use these as they were legally obliged to do. The last reference found to ab Owen is his assessment of 1575 on property in Haverfordwest worth 20s. a year.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

• 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Augmentations (Univ. of Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xiii), 481.
• 2. Cal. Haverfordwest Recs. (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xxiv), 173.
• 3. Dwnn, Vis. Wales, i. 116, 169; Arch. Camb. (ser. 6), iii. 44, 50, 52; R. Flenley, Cal. Reg. Council, Marches of Wales, 140; Augmentations, 481; Pemb. Recs. (Cymmrod. rec. ser. vii), 95, 122.
• 4. Exchequer (Univ. of Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. iv), 300-1; E179/223/492.