There is a rule when it comes to researching your family tree and that is, just because someone says something, doesn’t make it true. What the rule should be is just because someone or 200 someone’s says something, doesn’t mean it’s true. This rule has never been more true when it comes to Bed ap Richard.
If I were to believe the hundreds of family trees on Ancestry.com and other similar sites, I would be here telling you today that Bedo Ap Richard was the father of the very first “Richardson”. His name means Bedo son of Richard ap Hywel and that he was He was born in 1430 in Glamorgan, Wales. He died in 1470.
Hundreds and hundreds of family trees have this information wrong. Why? Because they all just accepted that the information was true because someone else said it was.
So then who is Bedo ap Richard? He was born in Mathraval. I googled that and it turns out Mathraval (also known as Mathrafal) is a castle. It was the original capital of the Princes of Powys, one of the three royal seats in Wales. The castle was destroyed in 1212. That means he couldn’t have been born in 1430, two hundred years after his birthplace was destroyed. So that tells us Bedo ap Richard was born some time before 1212.
Now I found a document that tells us who his family is. His father was in fact Richard ap Hywel. Just not the one from Glamorgan. This document comes from page 416 of the book “The Montgomeryshire Collections, Volume 8”.
So from this document, we can say for sure that the line here starts with Hywel ap Einws. This would be Bedo ap Richard’s grandfather. (Remember ap = son of).
Hywel ap Einws
son of Hywel ap Einws
son of Richard ap Hywel (Mawd Verch Ieuan Vychan)
son of Bedo ap Richard – (married Jane Verch Dafydd ??)
Ieuan ap Robert
son of Robert ap y Bedo – (married Jane Verch Rhys Dafydd ??)
The document also tells us who married who. Bedo ap Richard’s son married Jane daughter of Rhys Dafydd. This makes her name Jane Verch Rhys Dafydd. (Remember Verch means daughter of like ap means son of).
At the very bottom of this document, we see that Bedo ap Richard’s son Robert’s mother was Mawd Verch Ieuan Vychan.
Bedo ap Richard is in fact son of Richard ap Hywell, not the same Richard ap Hywell who has the son Morgan ap Hywell who married Joan Button.
Bedo could also be known as Blddn or Bleddyn.
Other variations of Hywel include Hywell, or Howell or Howel.
Bedo’s wife is Mawd Verch Ieuan Fychan aka Mawd Verch Ieuan Vychan.
That means you may find documents calling him Blddn ap Richard or Bleddyn ap Richard or even Bedo ap Rich’d, which is a variation of “Richard”.
So anyone doing their family tree and want to list Ralph Richardson of the Jersey Channel Islands as having a father named Bedo ap Richard would be wrong.
Are there any other references to Bedo ap Richard in old books? Turns out there are!
In a document called Montgomeryshire Pedigrees (page 137) it says …
Griffith ap Thomas, of Halchton, ap Llywelyn ap Madock ap David ap Evan. Griffith's mother was Jonet, vrch. Owen Bedo ap Rich'd ap Howell ap Einion, of Drewern. Griffith ap Thomas's children were Rich'd; Edw'd; David ; Evan ; Catherin, who maried Tho. Lewis ap David ap Griffith; Mawd ; Alice ; and Catherin. Their mother was Catherin, vrch. Llewelyn ap Reynold.
The previous document said that Bedo ap Richard’s father was Richard ap Hywel (howel) who’s father was Hywel ap Einws. This document tells us something similar.
It says Griffith’s mother was Jonet verch Owen (Jonet daughter of Owen).
Then it says Bedo ap Richard is the son of Richard ap Hywel (Howell) who is the son of Hywel ap Einion of Drewern.
Now we have two different new spellings. The first is Bedo ap Rich’d. The next is Hywel (Howell) ap Einion of Drewern.
With this new variation in his name I was about to find a Hywel ap Einion.
This led me to a new book called – “Montgomeryshire Pedigrees: Heraldic Visitations of Wales and Part of the Marches, Between the Years 1586 and 1613; Ed. with Notes by Samuel Rush Meyrick”.
This book reveals to us a new family tree of this previously mentioned Griffith.
David ap Evan
Madog ap David
Son of David ap Evan
Llyweln ap Madock (Madog)
Son of Madog ap David
Thomas ap Llywelyn
Son of Llyweln ap Madog
Griffith ap Thomas of Halchton’s
Son of Thomas ap Llyweln
Again they reference Griffith’s mother as Jonet vrch. Owen Bedo ap Richard ap Howell ap Einion, of Drewern.
This means that his mother was Jonet verch (daughter of) Owen. Owen may be a spelling variation of Owain (just as Hywel is of Howel or Rich’d is of Richard).
What I don’t know is, does this make her Bedo ap Richard’s wife? Or is Owen Bedo ap Richard’s son?
If you recall in a previous document, where we learned about Robert ap y Bedo (son of Bedo ap Richard), we learned his wife was Mawd. So that means that this Jonet isn’t his wife. But she could be the wife of a child of Bedo or maybe the daughter of a child of Bedo?
He died of a cardiac arrest, due in part to his morbid obesity on August 3, 1982. His death certificate also tells us that he was a wrecker driver in Fort Worth, Texas. He was 55 years old. (
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