Ynysymaengwyn

Ynysymaengwyn (sometimes Ynysmaengwyn) was a gentry house in the parish of Tywyn, Gwynedd (formerly Merioneth), situated near the south bank of the River Dysynni. The name means 'the white stone island'.

It was in the commote of Ystumanner or Ystum Anner that Gruffydd ap Gwenwynwyn did homage and swore fealty to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd on 12 December 1263. In return he was made a vassal lord and the lands taken from him about six years earlier were restored to him. The commote was in the cantref of Meirionnydd.

From the late medieval period until the twentieth century, Ynysymaengwyn, situated roughly a mile from Tywyn by the road to Bryn-crug, was by far the most powerful estate in the parish. The family's wealth is revealed in official records and also in the Welsh poetry composed to its leading members.

The estate may be traced back to the days of Gruffudd ab Adda of Dôl-goch and Ynysymaengwyn, bailiff of the commote of Ystumanner in 1330 and 1334, whose effegy is thought to lie in St Cadfan's church in Tywyn. His daughter Nest married Llywelyn ap Cynwrig ab Osbwrn Wyddel, and Ynysymaengwyn was to remain in the hands of their direct male descendants for well over two centuries. Llywelyn's great-great-grandson Siencyn (or Jenkin) ab Iorwerth ab Einion ap Gruffudd ap Llywelyn farmed Crown lands in Cyfyng and Caethle as well as the Aberdyfi ferry in the middle of the fifteenth century.

Siencyn's son Hywel married Mary the daughter of Sir Roger Kynaston (c.1433 - 1495). Hywel died of the plague in 1494, an event which inspired a memorable elegy by Hywel Rheinallt. He was followed by his son Hwmffre (or Humphrey) who was the subject of a famous request by the poet Tudur Aled to bring to an end a bitter family dispute. This poem has been described as 'one of the great poems of late medieval Wales'. Indeed, for some three centuries from the fifteenth century onwards, numerous Welsh poets were welcomed to Ynysymaengwyn and also to several of the most significant houses of Tywyn parish, most of whom were linked by blood or marriage to Ynysymaengwyn. Amongst these were Caethle, Dolau-gwyn, Gwyddgwion, Plas-yn-y-rofft (Esgairweddan), and Trefeddian.

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