GAMES JOHN, alias AP MORGAN, (by 1496-?1561), of Newton and Brecon, Brec.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1496, 1st s. of Morgan ap Ieuan by Gwladys, da. of Morgan Bloet. m. (1) by 1521, Margaret, da. of Thomas Gwalter ap Jenkin Havard, 2s. Edward and Meredydd; (2) Margaret, da. of William Morgan of Arxton, 2da.1

Offices Held

Commr. tenths of spiritualities, diocese of St. David’s 1535, subsidy, Brec. 1543, 1545, relief 1549, 1550, goods of churches and fraternities 1553; j.p. Brec. 1543-d.; sheriff 1560-1.2

Biography

When John Games was returned for Breconshire to the last Henrician Parliament he was given a surname derived from his ancestor Dafydd Gam, the warrior killed at Agincourt, but he himself generally used the patronymic ap Morgan; it was his sons Edward and Meredydd who were to adopt the surname, but Edward Games’s son John was not of an age in 1545 to risk his being confused with his grandfather. As one who had assisted in the division of the shires at the Union, Games was well qualified for election, and he may have represented his own in the previous Parliament, when Edward Games sat for the Boroughs and a damaged indenture leaves his fellow-Member unidentifiable. Both then and three years later Games stood well with the sheriff: in 1542 this was Walter Herbert II, a relative of the future Earl of Pembroke with whose help Games was later to obtain a new charter for Brecon, and at the next election Thomas Havard, a kinsman of Games.3

Little has been discovered about Games’s early life apart from his conveyance of two burgages in 1517 and the marriage which brought him Newton. First named to commissions in 1535, he took his place in the administration of the newly formed shire, being nominated for the shrievalty in 1541, 1542 and 1546 and put on the bench in 1543; for the subsidy of that year, of which he was appointed a commissioner, he was assessed in the Oldport Superior division of Brecon at £50 a year in land. His failure to settle lands on his son Edward and daughter-in-law in accordance with the marriage-agreement made with Sir William Vaughan of Porthaml led to his being sued in Chancery in 1547, but with what result is unknown. Son and father were pricked sheriff in consecutive years by Elizabeth, and Games died not long after completing his term, his name being struck off the liber pacis compiled late in 1561.4

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Jones, Brec. ii. 174-5; iv. 32-33; Dwnn, Vis. Wales, ii. 37.
  • 2. LP Hen. VIII, viii; E179/219/29, 37, 38; CPR, 1553, pp. 364, 419; C193/12/1; SP11/5/6.
  • 3. DWB (Dafydd Gam); Jones, ii. 170-7; G. Owen, Taylor’s Cussion, ii. 34; C219/18B/159.
  • 4. Harl. Ch. 111/B38; Cat. Mss Wales (Cymmrod. rec. ser. iv), iii. 593-4; LP Hen. VIII, xvi, xvii, xx, xxi; E179/219/37; Augmentations (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies Hist. and Law ser. xiii), 219; C1/1185/49; Jones, iv. 171; Lansd. 1218, f. 84v.