CROMWELL—WILLIAMS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
Sia,—In relation to your occasional note as to Oliver Cromwell having been originally a " Williams," in which you correct a lapse of
the Pall Mall Gazette, I beg to send you a rough sketch I have made of the arms and descent of the great Protector, as extracted for me many years ago by Sir Albert Woods, now Garter, then Lancaster Herald. The varied coats-of-arms you cannot give your readers, suffice it to say that they, by coat-armour, properly convey the succession of the families. From Morgan ap Hoel, a son of a Welsh Bard or Prince, there sprang Jevan (John?) ap Morgan, from him William ap Jevan, whose son named after his grand- father, was Morgan ap William, a perfectly Welsh name. His son was Richard ap Morgan ap Williams, or Sir Richard Williams, a favourite of Henry VIII., it is said, who married Frances, daughter of Sir John Myrfin, of London, Knight, with whom, we presume, he had money, and sister (in-law ?) of Cromwell, Earl of Essex,. by which marriage, says an authority, "he was much enriched, all grants of religious houses passing through him." Hence no doubt his estate of " Hinchingbroke, formerly a nunnery, removed by William the Conqueror from Elteslie," says Camden. I am not clean how the Lady was sister to the Earl of Essex. He assumed the name and arms of Cromwell, and was great-grandfather to the Protec- tor, who kept that name. Other branches of descent refused it. Henry Cromwell, "first cousin, one remove, says Noble, to Oliver, Lord Protector," was so ardent a royalist, that Charles H.. wished to make him a knight of his new order of Knights of the Royal Oak, and he is set down in the list thereof. These names- are to be seen, it is said, in a Baronetage of 1741 ; and that of Sir Henry Williams, who discarded the name of Cromwell, amongst them. Charles was dissuaded from instituting these Knights, or else they were soon abolished, " so as not to keep awake: animosities," adds Noble.
It may perhaps be worth while noting that Thomas Cromwell,. Earl of Essex, was born at Wandsworth, and was created Baron Wimbledon, which recalls Thackeray's Lord Kensington, also an actual title. "There is a little town," says Camden, "on the Thames called Wandlesworth, the native soil of Thomas Crom- well, one of the flowting stocks of fortune."—Britannia, col. 159. The last descendant of Oliver Cromwell, or he who claimed to be so, was Oliver Cromwell, Esq., barrister-at-law,. who in 1825, or thereabouts, published a life of his great ancestor.. Mr. Williams, whose head resembles the Protector's, must there- fore be a collateral, although, by the way, it is said that "his descendants" (who were they who did so ?) reverted to the name of Williams.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Fair Home, Bexley, January 8. HAIN FRISWELL " MORS META LABORIIM." MORGAN AP HOW.
JEVAN AP MORGAN.
WILLIM AP IIWAN.
MORGAN AP WILLIM.
RICHARD AP MORGAN AP WILLIMS, alias FRANCES, daughter of Sir John hlyrfla,.. Sir RICHARD CROMWELL, alias of London, Ent. WILLIAMS, of Hitchinbrook, Co. Hunts.
From whom
OLIVER CROMWELL.
(Extracted from the Records of the College of Arms, London, by me, Albert Wooct4 Lancaster, for J. Hain Friswell, Esq., 1852.)
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