WILLIAMS
,
Sir
TREVOR
(
c.
1623
-
1692
), of
Llangibby, Mon.
,
politician
,
descended from the marriage of
Howel Gam ap David
(
fl.
1300
) to a daughter of the
Scudamore
family
. The surname was first adopted by his grandfather,
Roger
Williams
(d.
1583
), who was
sheriff of Monmouthshire
in
1562
and was succeeded in the office in
1627
by his son,
Sir
Charles
Williams
; the latter,
Sir
Trevor
's father,
knighted
in
1621
, also represented the county in
Parliament
that year, but ill-health made him ineffective, and he d. in the course of the session (
Mar. 1642
). His son,
Trevor
, made a
commissioner of array
for
Monmouthshire
at the outbreak of the
Civil War
and a
baronet
on
14 Sept. 1642
, was captured by the
Roundheads
at
Highnam
on
25 Mar. 1643
, and after his release garrisoned the ancient but long disused
castle of Llangibby
for the
king
with sixty men, and took part in the operations of
1644
round
Monmouth
. But as a tenant of the
earls of Pembroke
(qq.v.)
he shared the hereditary feud with the
house of
Somerset
(q.v.)
and resented royal favours to a popish family, especially the
earl of Glamorgan
's commission to bring
Irish
forces over to
Wales
, which had become public by
June 1645
; hence he resisted the recruiting activities of
Sir
Jacob
Astley
for the
king
in
South Wales
the following Aug., and was arrested on
Charles
's order at
Abergavenny
(
11 Sept.
), but subsequently released on bail, whereupon he seized and held
Monmouth castle
against the
king
(
24 Oct.
), and helped in the siege of
Raglan
next year. In the
second Civil War
, alarmed at the ascendancy of
Cromwell
and the
Commons
’ decision (
7 Mar. 1648
) to reward him with the
Somerset
manors in
Glamorgan
and
Monmouthshire
, some of which (especially
Chepstow
) he coveted for himself, he helped
Sir
Nicholas
Kemys
to seize and hold
Chepstow castle
for the
king
in
Mar. 1648
, until it was recovered for
Cromwell
by storm on
25 May
. Despite this he was put
on the local militia committee
on
12 May
, but was excluded from the
General Composition Act for South Wales
(
23 Feb. 1649
). The sequestration of his estate was, however, reversed on appeal to the
barons of the Exchequer
, and he himself bought sequestered
Royalist
lands in
Cardiff
and
S. Mellons
in
1650
, and was reconciled to the Protectorate even to the extent
of abandoning for a time his title of
baronet
(
1657
); but he bore no public office till, on the eve of the
Restoration
, he
sat on the county assessment and militia committees
(
Jan. and Mar. 1660
), and represented
Monmouth boroughs
in the
Convention
in April.
After the
Restoration
, he took out a pardon under the great seal and won the county seat at a contested by-election in
Nov. 1667
, caused by the succession of the heir of
Raglan
to the
marquisate of Worcester
. He sat for the boroughs in the
Parliament
of
1679
and again for the county in those of
1680
and
1681
. His support of the country party led to his removal from the county bench in
Feb. 1680
; this he avenged the following Jan. by joining
John
Arnold
(q.v.)
in demanding the removal of
Worcester
(whom he accused of garrisoning
Chepstow
with
Papists
) from the
royal court
and council, while
Worcester
(now
duke of Beaufort
) replied by procuring against him, in
Nov. 1683
, a verdict of ‘scandalum magnatum,’ with a crippling fine, which ended his political career. On his death in
1692
, the title (and the representation of
Monmouthshire
from
1698-1708
) passed successively to his two surviving sons by his wife
Elizabeth
, heiress of
Thomas
Morgan
of
Machen
(his fellow-member for the county), but it lapsed on the death of his great-nephew,
Sir
Leonard
Williams
, in
1758
; the estates passed by marriage to the present family of
Addams-Williams
of
Llangibby
.
Bibliography:
-
Bradney
,
A History of Monmouthshire
, iii, 96-104;
-
The National Library of Wales Journal
, i, 47-9, vi, 255, and sources therein cited;
-
The Journals of the House of
Commons
, ii, 162, 489; v, 482, 566; ix, 531-609;
-
Thomas Carlyle
,
Oliver Cromwell's letters and speeches with
elucidations
, New York : John W. Lovell, 1849
(ed.
Lomas
), i, 294, 315-7; ii, 253;
-
Reports of the ‘Historical
Manuscripts Commission
, 7
th R.
, 498; 9
th
R., ii, 85-6, 112, 115-67; 12
th R.
, ix, 68, 74, 99, 104, 114;
-
Calendar of the Committee for Compounding
with Delinquents, etc., 1643–1660
. Record Publication
, i, 533; iii, 2304; iv, 2947;
-
Firth and Rait
,
Acts and Ordinances of the Interregnum,
1642–1660
, 1911
, i, 970, 1087, 1136; ii, 15, 1374, 1437;
-
A Full Relation of the Desperate Design for
the betraying of Monmouth
, 1645
,
1645
;
-
Two Letters from Colonell Morgan. Governor
of Gloucester, … relating the summons, answer and the
manner of taking the Town and Castle of Monmouth … Likewise
two letters [signed, K. R.] from an officer in Monmouth,
concerning the free comming in of the country to block up
Hereford, etc
, London, 1645
,
1645
;
-
Three Victories in Wales … and a coppy of
the articles for the surrender of Rother castle to maior
generall Mitton, etc. Certified by severall letters,
etc
, London, 1646
,
1646
;
-
The Gallant Siege of the Parliament's Forces
before Ragland Castle maintained by Colonel Morgan, etc.
[Two letters, signed M. P.]
, London, 1646
,
1646
;
-
W. R. Williams
,
The History of the Parliamentary
Representation of Wales
, 1895
, 126, 136.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Arthur Herbert Dodd, M.A., (1891-1975), Bangor
