# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Llwyd, Humphrey

1904 Errata appended.
​LLWYD, HUMPHREY (1527–1568), physician and antiquary, born at Denbigh in 1527, was son and heir of Robert Llwyd or Lloyd, by Joan, daughter of Lewis Pigott. His father was descended from an old family called Rosendale, which removed from Lancashire in 1297 to Foxhall, near Denbigh, and acquired the name of Llwyd by an intermarriage with the Llwyds (or Lloyds) of Aston, near Oswestry. Llwyd was educated at Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1547, being then or soon after a member of Brasenose College (Wood, Fasti, i. 125), and he proceeded M.A. in 1551 (ib. p. 132). After studying medicine he was admitted into the family of Lord Arundel (chancellor of the university) as his private physician, and held that office more than fifteen years. In 1563 he returned to Denbigh, and took up his residence within the castle there. Besides practising as a physician, he devoted much time to music and other arts, and became a 'person of great eloquence, an excellent rhetorician, a sound philosopher, and a most noted antiquary' (Wood, Athenæ, i. 353). His fellow-townsman, Richard Clough [q. v.], who was long resident at Antwerp, brought him into communication with Ortelius. In his 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum' Ortelius describes Llwyd as 'nobilis et eruditus vir.' He was returned as M.P. for East Grinstead, probably through the influence of the Earl of Arundel, on 7 Jan. 1558-9, and also sat for the Denbigh boroughs from 1563 to 1567 (List of Members of Parliament). On his way home from London in 1568 he caught a fever, but was able to reach Denbigh, and while there on his deathbed he wrote, under date of 3 Aug. 1568, to Ortelius, dedicating and sending to him maps of England and Wales and the manuscript of his 'Commentarioli' (Hessels). He died, according to a note of Ortelius on his letter, on 31 Aug. 1568. He was buried in a vault adjoining that of Richard Clough's family in the parish church of Denbigh, called Whitchurch, 'with a coarse monument, a dry epitaph, and a psalm tune under it' (Yorke, Royal Tribes, p. 105); he is represented in Spanish dress, kneeling at an altar, beneath a small range of arches.
Llwyd married Barbara, sister (and heiress) of John, last lord Lumley (1534?-1609), and by her he had two sons and two daughters. One of the former, named Henry, settled at Cheam in Surrey, and his great-grandson, the Rev. Robert Lumley Lloyd, rector of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, made an unsuccessful effort to claim the barony of Lumley in right of his descent from Llwyd's wife (Nicolas, Historic Peerage, p. 304; Granger, Biog. Hist. ed. Noble, iii. 125). After Llwyd's death his wife married William Williams of Cochwillan, Carnarvonshire (Dwnn, Visitations, ii. 169). There is an original portrait of Llwyd preserved at Aston, the seat of the elder branch of the Lloyds of Foxhall, and an engraving of it is in Yorke's 'Royal Tribes of Wales.' There is also a mezzotint portrait of him by J. Faber (1717) in the Cardiff Museum, with Llwyd's motto thereon: 'Hwy pery Klod no Glayd' (Fame is more lasting than wealth). His hair is described as red, but his countenance was handsome, and his expression intellectual. He collected many books for Lord Lumley, which were subsequently sold to James I, and now form a valuable part of the British Museum (Granger, i. 270).
Llwyd was the author of: 1. 'An Almanack and Kalender, containing the Day, Hour, and Minute of the Change of the Moon for ever;' in the preface the author refers to this as his first published work, but the date and place of publication are not stated. 2. 'De Monâ Druidum Insulâ, antiquitati suæ restituta … et de Armamentario Romano:' a letter dated 5 April 1568, and addressed to Ortelius; it was printed by Sir John Price at the end of his 'Historiæ Britannicæ Defensio,' London, 1573, 4to, and again at the end of his 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,' Antwerp, 1603, fol. An English translation was published in London, 1606, fol. 3. 'Commentarioli Descriptionis Britannicæ Fragmentum,' Cologne, 1572, 8vo, completed just before Llwyd's death, and dedicated to Ortelius. An English ​translation by Thomas Twyne, under the title 'The Breviary of Britain,' was published in 1573 (London, 8vo), and was reprinted with separate title-page and pagination at the end of John Lewis's 'History of Great Britain,' London, 1729, fol. A handsome edition of Nos. 2 and 3 (limited to six copies), edited by Moses Williams, was also published in 1723 and 1731, London, 4to (Rowlands, Cambrian Bibliography). 4. An English translation by Llwyd of a version of 'Brut y Tywysogion,' ascribed to Caradoc of Llancarvan, to which is prefixed a tract entitled 'The Description of Cambria,' written by Sir John Price of Brecon, and considerably enlarged by Llwyd, is preserved in the British Museum (Cottonian MS. Caligula, A. vi.) A note in Llwyd's autograph fixed the date at which it was completed as 17 July 1559. A copy came into the possession of Sir Henry Sidney, lord president of the marches of Wales, at whose request it was printed, under the title 'The Historie of Cambria, now called Wales … Corrected, augmented, and continued by David Powel,' London, 1584, 4to (cf. Strype, Annals, iii. i. 415). A new edition was brought out in 1697 by William Wynne, London, 8vo, and five subsequent reprints of it have appeared (ib. pp. 260, 618). 5. 'The Ivgemēt of Oryne,' London, 1553, 8vo, being a translation from Vassreus's 'De Judiciis Urinarum Tractatus,' Paris, 1548, 8vo. 6. 'The Treasury of Health,' London, 1585, 8vo, being a translation of 'Thesaurus Pauperum Petri Hispani,' to which Llwyd has added 'The Causes and Signs of every Disease, with Aphorisms of Hippocrates. 7. 'Cambriæ Typus,' which is one of the earliest known maps of Wales. Copies of it are preserved at the British Museum and the Cardiff Museum. Considerable materials for a life of Llwyd, as well as of Edward Llwyd, had been collected by William Huddesford [q. v.], but his premature death prevented their publication (Nichols, Literary Illustrations, i. 586, vi. 474).
A near relative of Llwyd, according to Wood (Athenæ, i. 738-9), was Llwyd or Lloyd, John (1558?-1603), a native of Denbigh, who was educated at Winchester College, and matriculated at Oxford on 20 Dec. 1577, as a scholar of New College, being then nineteen years of age. He was elected fellow in 1579, and proceeded B.A. on 6 April 1581, M.A. on 20 Jan. 1584-5, B.D. on 5 July 1592, D.D. on 10 Nov. 1595. He acted as proctor for 1591, and became vicar of Writtle in Essex in 1598, where he died in 1603. He is described as an 'eminent preacher' and 'an excellent Grecian,' being held 'in high esteem… for his rare learning and excellent way of preaching.' He was the author of an edition of Josephus's 'De Maccabæis … cum Latina interpretatione ac notis,' Oxford, 1590, 12mo, described as 'more corrected and compleat than ever before.' He also published a Greek and Latin edition of Barlaamus's 'De Papæ Principatu,' Oxford, 1592, 8vo (Wood, loc. cit.; Foster, Alumni Oxon.; Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 146).
D. Ll. T.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.185 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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