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Wales (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Wales => Topic started by: Eden66 on Wednesday 02 August 17 17:52 BST (UK)
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Hello ,
I wonder if anyone can help or have any knowledge of the surname BLEWIS aka LEWIS - particularly in the era 1600 - 1750 ?
I'm aware of the book "Welsh Surnames" by TJ & P Morgan which comments -
"...the surname Lewis was in use before the patronymic system was discontinued - it is difficult to understand why "ab-Lewis" did not result in a surname - "Blewis" ."
I find this observation intriguing as i'm researching my LEWIS family back to Lydbury North in Shropshire - where a Richard Lewis md Anne Ambler in 1712 .
I have found 4 children bn to this couple -
Brian 1713
Frances 1715
Littleton 1717
Mary 1719
But the odd thing is that the surname recorded for the 2nd & 3rd baptisms was written as "BLEWIS " and not Lewis.
I had assumed this was perhaps done in error as never hearing of this name before but further research has shown a small cluster of "Blewis's" in this era , mainly in close proximity in New Radnor near the border with Herefordshire where there appears to be a few baptisms of the same Radnor family of a Hugh & Martha BLEWIS in Kington Hereford - likewise this is close to Lydbury in Shropshire .
In the Morgan's book they noted only a very few examples of the name Blewis further to the above quote and it seems to me that there actually were ( though not many ) more instances of this surname in this era and more in later years .
Would anybody have any thoughts on this naming issue - it seems very logical that the name would have evolved from "ab Lewis" but suffice to say i have yet to work out whether my Richard was actually a Lewis or a Blewis .
Although i understand that the name Lewis evolved from Llewelyn & variants.
Incidentally , the name Littleton /Lyttleton is significant and repe ats in the family line , so it seems highly likely there is a connection somewhere to a branch of the family of that name .
Richard 's wife Anne Ambler was the daughter of Rev Brian Ambler the vicar of Lydbury North who has connections to sites in Mongomeryshire , but i've found no Littleton link to the Ambler family .
I wonder if this kind of confusion between BLEWIS & LEWIS has been found by any other researchers at any time ?
Sorry for the length of this post , but if you can help have any thoughts or advice on this i would greatly appreciate it .
Kind regards
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This is interesting. But the prefix would be 'ap' not 'ab'. 'Ab' would be used before a vowel - so 'ab Evan' becomes Bevan and 'ab Owen' becomes Bowen. Before a consonant, one would use 'ap' - so 'ap Richard' becomes Pritchard and 'ap Howell' becomes Powell. But maybe in this one instance....? Do post here if you get to the bottom of this?
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Thank you for your reply and information - i'm still fairly new to welsh research and was wondering why "ab" & "ap" prefix were both being used (instead of just the one ).
Knowing this i can see your point - i'm afraid i can only go on the few records to be found and the segment in the Morgan book .
My theory - for what it's worth is that the early instances that appear , possibly relate to family elements connected to the Lewis' of Harpton & Gladestry , primarily as i have found ref to a Hugh & John Blewis involved in the the Lewis' - Harley feud in the 1690's in Radnor .
If indications are correct and it is a name that evolved from "Lewis" - i cannot conprehend why it should not have been Plewis rather than Blewis?
All very strange but i should like to contact Prys Morgan to see if he has any further thoughts .
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Just a thought, but could the name Ap Lewis, through a combination of mispronunciation and or misspelling, become Plews?.
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Um...that would rather depend on when and where you researched your Plews to....
You have to remember that patronymics were replaced by surnames at different times in different parts of Wales - rule of thumb is, the more isolated the community, the longer they hung onto patronymics - sometimes into the C19. But this isn't always the case eg the population in little, far-flung St Davids in Pembrokeshire generally had moved over to surnames well before 1700.
So where and when have you found your earliest Plews, is the question?