Adam ap Cynhaethwy

See Peter Bartrum, https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000173393115953 (July 20, 2022; Anne Brannen, curator)

See Darrell Wolcott, "The Herbert Family Pedigree," http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id40.html (Anne Brannen, curator, January 2, 2019)

Please see Darrell Wolcott: The Herbert Family Pedigree; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id40.html. (Steven Ferry, April 21, 2020.)

Please see Darrell Wolcott: Sir Aaron ap Rhys, Knight of the Sepulchre; http://www.ancientwalesstudies.org/id292.html. (Steven Ferry, March 15, 2022.)

Adam discarded the Fitz-Herbert and wrote his name Adam ap Reginald. Adam married Christian, daughter of 'the great Welshman," Gwarin Des of Gwern Ddu. Burke says, "Gwarin Dhu (Black Lord) of Gwarnddu or Gwernddu lived in great magnificence at Abergavenny.

[Genealogies of Virginia Families III:110]

Note: It is unclear as to why he chose to be Adam ap Reginald, Adam ap Cynhaethwy, or Adam ap Reginald Cynhaethwy. Many sourced histories show that his father was named Herbert. He may have adopted the name of his great-grandfather because he was the first fuedal lord of the FitzHerberts to have holdings in Wales. This has caused a great deal of confusion as to his lineage. Burke's Peerage & Bartrum have his ancestry to Godwin and it is interesting to note that Alice ferch Bletin (or Bleddin) Broadspeare, no matter who the souce, always falls in the lineage as paternal grandmother. The supposition has been made that Adam was trying to become "Welsh" and loose his Norman heritage at a time when the Welsh were in a great deal of upheaval. If this were the case, it has caused a great deal of misalignment of the lineage. What does seem to hold true about the lineage of Adam here is that (1) the Herbert's of Wales enjoyed a great deal of power under the English reign as well as (2) the FitzHerbert's who descended out of Herbert of Winchester - suggesting some sort of a tie, (3) the name itself, which in this lineage connection stopped with Adam, yet again appears as the surname of William, Earl of Pembroke, again suggesting a tie, (4) Herbert is not a name that is a name common to the Welsh or Britains - it is more common to the Normans.

Bartrum apparently based his lineage on a letter from Henry Thomas to the Duke of Beaufort in the 17th century (found in Harlein MSS 6823) refuting the Herbert pedigree as presented by Dugdale in 1462 - which originally had the man now identified in the lineage as Herbert the Chamberlain as an illegitimate son of Henry I. The lineage came in question because of the mistaken tie to Henry which had been disproven. Thomas felt that the line had been contrived in order to allow the Herberts to retain their land in the Welsh Marches at a time when the Norman Barons were stripping Britons of all lands and offered a new lineage that he had found written 62 years prior to Dugdale by Iolo Goch bringing the lineage into Wales from a Cornish Prince - Herbert ap Godwin - who was forced into Wales by Richard II. However, the lineage presented by Iolo Goch has massive chronological problems which Bartrum recognized when he followed the Iolo Goch lineage. An arguement could be made for both lineages - the assumption by Thomas that the Herberts forged the lineage in order to retain their holdings - but also that Iolo Goch, a Welshman, could have also fudged the lineage, since chronologically it has obvious error, to make it seem that one of the most important families in Wales was of true British/Welsh descent.

Source information would seem to conclude that the lineage that Dugdale presented was closer to being correct than Iolo Goch and that Bartrum made an error in following the lineage of the Harlein MSS 6823.