As a Preface to the Maddox Family History, which follows, the reader is reminded that the Perry Family History was told with discussion of various people named Perry who were said to have no apparent close family connection. As to the family history, which follows, it will help to be aware that close to the same point in time in early America, three persons named Maddox came to these shores from Wales. Each established lines of descendants who were somewhat outstanding. Agatha Victoria Maddox Perry is a direct descendant of one of those three. Neither her ancestor nor the second of the three are mentioned by the history, which follows, although the third person ties directly into the history. No proof is found that the three people are related indeed, in this country I do not know of facilities in which to make that search. There was not a multitude of people by the family name of Maddox or any of its derivations. The facts known of “our” Maddox Family suggests that they were resolute accomplishers. Best known to us is Agatha Victoria, and she certainly followed her destiny with great determination. It seems likely that some relationship would exist between the three emigrants.
One of these emigrants was a son in a line which contained numerous rulers in Wales, a family from which one English King claimed descent, a family related to one adventurer said to have discovered America long before Columbus was born. He also was related to the national hero of Wales. William Shakespeare mentioned Owen Glendower, that hero, in one of his plays. Some thought him related to (or to hold the powers of) Merlin, the magician, because for several years he revolted against England, gathered an army, and held the might of England at arm’s length while he assumed the title of Prince of Wales. Historians seem to accept one ancestor of this family as a Knight who sat at the Round Table of King Arthur.
For any who may wish to examine records of these things, or to research the possible relationship of the three emigrants, historical reading is provided. Dull, difficult and redundant though it is in places, those interested will likely agree it is too important to be neglected. To those who do not choose to believe, I promptly admit these statements do not prove relationship, but nevertheless they do report history. For the matter, I commenced this study with belief that King Arthur, Merlin and even Robin Hood were characters of fiction, not history. Perhaps their legends have built beyond reality, but they are not fictional, according to the people of England who accept them as history and insist, they are such. It is assumed that skepticism will exist in the reader, and for that reason attempt has been made to include all that has been found. Note that the name we study is referenced as both Madoc and Madog, and eventually became Maddox.
The ascendants of the Maddox Family were the Madogs of Llanfynach, Wales. This family before the fall of Charles the First, held the lordships of Llanfynach, Scethrog, Llangorse and several smaller ones.
The history of Wales in antiquity and in the middle ages was turbulent. When the Romans came in the first century a.d., the Welsh resisted stoutly even after their leader; Prince Caradoc fell into the hands of the enemy and was carried off to Rome in chains. The Romans built roads, worked the copper, lead and gold mines and introduced Christianity, but did not really pacify Wales.
Fiercely independent Princes led equally fierce fighters against invaders. The Norman conquerors, after their coming in the 11th Century, erected great stronghold castles against the Welsh.
Not until 1485, when the Welsh descended Henry Tudor defeated the English King, Richard III at Bosworth Field, to become himself, King Henry VI of England, did the proud Welsh begin to live peacefully alongside the realm of England.
The heir apparent to the British Throne is traditionally given the title of Prince of Wales. The Welsh sent members to represent them in the British House of Commons and the Nobles to the House of Lords.
Part of Britain though it be, Wales is still Wales and the Welsh are still Welsh, different, unique, a race of lithe and handsome men, Celtic, strong featured and fine looking women. The Welsh cling to their own lilthing speech, many of them still using their own ancient language which is older than English in England.
The Welsh are above all a poetic people, with much of the unconquerable spirit of their warrior past. The grandeur of their mountains and the serenity of their lovely valleys find expression in their poetry and song.
Port Madoc and Tremadoc, romantic ports on the northwest coast of Wales were so named for the North Welsh Industrialist and a Member of Parliament, William Alexander Maddock, 1773-1828.
Prince Madoc, son of Owain Gwynedd has been confused with other Madocs throughout early Welsh history, and others have been given credit for his adventures.
Owain ab (means son of) Gwynedd, ruler of Powys and Gwynedd for thirty-two years (1137 to 1169), was a dynamic and mighty warrior. He was wise, firm and restless of spirit. He fought to gain unity for Wales and he was given credit for creating a Welsh culture, which is distinct, even today. He died December 1236 and he is buried at Bangor, Wales.
Angharad, daughter of Owain ab Gwynedd, whose son, Madoc ab Gruffedd ruled over Powys in 1197, was thought to be in sympathy with King John, but rejected the English control at the end of his reign. He died in 1236 and he is buried in the Vale Crucis Abbey.
Another Prince Madoc, son of Llewelyn, left Wales in the year 1269 on an exploring expedition. Historians tell us that he could not have discovered America as he led an insurrection in 1294, over 100 years after the famous Prince was reputed to have done so. [reader note] This reference to leading an insurrection in 1294 implies acceptance of this Llewelyn as Llewelyn the last. Reference to Prince Madoc as son of Owain ab Gwynedd would suggest acceptance of Owen Glendower as part of the Maddox line, as later documented. The dates recited do not agree with other reports, and throughout the various quotations, variances of dates are seen. Even this author continues and dates the discovery in 1170, not 1269. Possibly the insurrection referenced is that of Glendower in 1400, but the reference could refer to an earlier and lesser conflict. The history has grown into legends, and there is considerable difficulty in knowing which Prince Madog did a particular act, and exactly when, for the line was long.
Tudors in the past have attempted to prove that they descended from Prince Madoc, son of Owain ab Gwynedd. A genealogical chart seems to prove that this is not true. These facts have been found in standard encyclopedias and Welsh historical works, and reveal to us the Madocs were prominent historical figures in Early Welsh history.
Prince Madoc it is said sailed to America 300 years before Columbus, in 1170 with one ship. He returned and equipped ten ships and with colonist sailed again for the new world. It is presumed that he landed in the area of Mobile Bay, in what is now Alabama. Early explorers and pioneers have found evidence of the Welsh influence along the Tennessee and Missouri Rivers, among certain tribes of Indians.
There is no record that the Prince ever returned to the land of his birth. Peculiar things have been found in America. It is recorded that there were Welsh speaking Indians up the Missouri River called the White Indians. In addition, they fish with coracles, and pull the little skin-covered boats with one oar, like a spade. These boats are still used in Wales today.
The name seems to have been a favorite one of that period in Welsh history and later became the surname of many Welsh descendants, and has evolved to the present day spelling, Madog, Madoc, Madauc, Madawch, Madawg, Maddock, Mattocks, Mattix, Maddoc, Maddux and Maddox. Within the name, (Mad) meaning good, (oc) and (og) meaning animation or activity, (oc) greatness and (ux) and (ox) quickness and promptitude.
At the Parish Church of Llangeynoyd, Glamorganshire, Wales (an old church dating back to the 13th. Century) are tablets to the memory of members of the Maddock Family. The name at that time was spelled Maddock. They were local landowners and County Gentry.
In the counties of Cheshire and Shropshire, near Wrexham, in the vale of Clwyd, lay the Welsh properties of the Maddock Families for over 600 years.
Though Madoc’s saga lies in the twilight of legend, the Welsh have left their imprint on America. The pioneers who settled Jamestown and Virginia in 1607 included “twenty Welsh gentlemen”, and the Mayflower was commanded by a Welshman named Jones, who brought several Welshmen to Plymouth Rock in 1620.
These facts being true, it is understandable that it is most difficult to trace a family in a straight line back over the past eight hundred years.
No serious student would accept all of that as true, without references to authorities. It appears to skip lightly across a great deal of history, and one would anticipate that interest in the subject would demand more. Error is seen. For instance, it was not Henry VI but Henry VII who reached the throne after Bosworth Field. I believe there were two persons named Llewelyn in the Madoc line. It would require far greater study than I have made, to claim oneself as an authority. Name variations coupled with the Welsh language make any study difficult and likely inadequate. In short, the subject is too exciting you omit, and too foreign to really understand. Let us do our best.
Kipling’s Pocket History of England, by C. R. L. Fletcher and Rudyard Kipling, gives a very concise history of England. Its greatest value appears to be not its excellence as a history, but rather the brevity with which it gives summary to great periods of time. It gives some background to all of this, for that history is also involved with the history of Wales. Few would feel his recording to be free of bias in describing all of the events it mentions. Nevertheless, it goes far to give perspective to facts recited above.
He states that about 1000 years before Christ, a set of tribes began to cross the channel and to land, not as traders but as fighters.
Terrible big fellows they were, with fair hair, and much stronger than Stone Age men. They were armed with bronze, which made short work of poor little bows, and flint tipped arrows. The Celts, for that was the name of the new people, seized all the best lands, the flocks and herds, and began to lead Britain the life they had been leading for several centuries in the country we now call France. From the Celts the Scottish, Irish and Welsh people mainly descended. They were in every way more civilized than the Stone Age men, rode on war-ponies, drove war chariots, knew how to dig the earth for minerals, and had gods much fiercer and stronger. Their priests, called Druids, were powerful.
Meanwhile, in the far away east, great empires had been growing up and decaying for six or seven thousand years. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece, each in turn made a bid to civilize the “known world”, then Rome brought to her task a genius for war and government which none of them had known. Romanized Celts from France laughed at the “savage ways of the British Celts”. The Roman conquest of Britain, which began in the year 43, was almost complete within half a century. The Romans introduced into all their provinces a system of law so fair and so strong that almost all the best laws of modern Europe have been founded upon it. Everywhere the weak were protected against the strong, castles were built on the coast with powerful garrisons in them, fleets patrolled the Channel and North Sea, and peace was imposed all over Southern Britain and the legions came to be stationed only on the frontier and hardly ever moved. It was, however, a misfortune for Britain that Rome never conquered the whole island. The great warrior Agricola did penetrate far into Scotland, but he could leave no traces of civilization behind him, and Ireland he never touched at all. So Ireland never went to school, and has been a child ever since. There was always a Scottish frontier to be guarded and along to be guarded, and along this frontier the Emperor Hardrian early in the second century, began the famous Roman Wall. To the North the wall roamed, almost untouched, and certainly unsubdued, the wilder Celts whom the Romans called “Picts” or painted men, I fear that Roman Britain went to sleep behind her walls. There were pirates aboard, who smelt plunder afar off, land-thieves and sea-thieves.
They began to break through the frontiers. One fine day the terrible news came to York, the capital of Roman Britain, that the Picts were over the wall. Where was the commander-in-chief? Oh! He was at Bath taking the waters to cure his indigestion. Where were the prefect and the highest representative of the Emperor? Oh! He lived at Lyons in Southern France, for he governed France as well as Britain. Long before the last Roman legions were withdrawn in 407, pirates had been breaking down the walls and defenses of Britain. Celtic Picts from the North, Celtic Scots, the worst of them all the Saxons from the shores of North Germany and Denmark arrived. The British made a very desperate defense and they were only slowly beaten westward into Wales, Lancashire, Devon and Cornwall. Something like two centuries passed before the English were thorough masters of the Eastern half of the island, and all that while Roman Temples, Churches, roads and cities were crumbling away and grass was growing on the ruins.
Studying the history of those days is like looking at a battlefield in a fog. As the fog clears, we get some notion of our dear barbarian forefathers. It is difficult to believe they were so stupid as to kill all the Britons instead of enslaving them and marrying their wives. Yet, if they had not done this, surely there would have been some traces left of Latin or Celtic speech, law and religion. However, there were none. The Saxon Englishmen was a savage, with the vices and cruelties of an overgrown boy, a drunkard and a gambler and very stupid. However, he was a truth teller, a brave, patient and cool-headed fellow. A Roman historian describes him as a “free-necked man married to a white-armed woman who can hit as hard as a horses kick”. He honored his woman and he loved his home and the spirit of the land entered into him. Tilling the fields was the Saxon’s real job, he was a ploughboy and a cowboy by nature, and like a true plough-and-cow-boy, he was always grumbling. He hated being governed; he always stood up for his rights and often talked a lot of nonsense about them. There was no king powerful enough to rule the whole island.
The first rudiments of civilization were brought back to this barbarous England by the Christian missionaries whom Pope Gregory sent thither in the year 597. Christian Northumbria, in the seventh century, was the first to exercise a real sort of leadership over the other kingdoms. Mercia had her turn of supremacy in the eight-century, under King Offa, who drove back the Welsh and took a lot of their land near the Severn. Perhaps it was he who built a great rampart there called Offa’s Dyke; beyond it, even to this day, all is Wales. Then his family in turn was beaten by Egbert, King of Wessex (802-839). From Egbert, King George V is directly descended.
Egbert and his son and grandsons had to meet a new and terrible foe. Down the Northeast wind, from Denmark, Norway, and the Baltic, all through the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries a continual stream of fierce and cunning pirates began to pour upon Western Europe. We call them Danes or North Men. From Britain they went on to France and even into the Mediterranean, some of them, indeed, crossed the Northern Ocean to Iceland, to Greenland and North America. Their ships, some 80 feet long and 16 feet broad with a 4-foot draught might carry a crew of fifty men apiece.
Kipling describes the end of the Saxon period of England’s history as coming in 1066, the date of the Norman Conquest. He recognizes that date as the beginning of the history of the English race as one people and of England as a great power in Europe. He doesn’t really make clear that Welsh is a Celtic language, and that the various invaders all failed to truly conquer the Welsh, yet he notes.
Cumberland and Lancashire seem to have remained an independent Celtic country until the end of the eleventh century, just as Wales did till the thirteenth century. He describes the Normans as the cleverest, strongest and most adventurous race alive. As to the conquest, he states, it cost William about six years of utterly ruthless warfare to become master of all England. He could not subdue Scotland, but once he marched to the Tay and brought the Scottish King Malcolm to his knees for some time.
I don’t think you want to know at what time or date William or Henry sent an army against the King of France or the Welsh. I would rather you understand how these kings were pursuing, overall, two main tasks. First, they were trying to make England and Wales one compact kingdom, and secondly, they were obliged, because they were Dukes of Normandy, to quarrel with the Kings of France. The first of these tasks was mainly left to great Norman barons, the Earls of Chester, Shrewsbury and Gloucester, who built castles on the Welsh border and sent continual expeditions far into Wales. Welsh Princes continued to exist till the end of the thirteenth century, but only once troubles England seriously after the time of Henry I.
The MADDOX FAMILY are of Welsh Descent, and the first settled in St. Marys County, Maryland shortly after the fall of King Charles I, who was beheaded in 1649. Any study of earlier history of the family reaches immediately into England and Wales. In the absence of the ordinary genealogical research materials, one must look there to books and articles about those places and their people. Of course, persons who are referenced in books and articles are generally noteworthy people. Collier’s Encyclopedia describes Wales as a country of 8017 square miles, bounded by the Irish Sea, by Bristol Channel and by St. George’s Channel. In 1978, population was 2,767,000. The Brecon River flows into Newport, a city of 133,000. Its three regions are mountains, moorlands and lowlands, with Mt. Snowen being the highest peak at 3,560 feet. The lowlands support vegetation while moorlands are used as pasture to sheep. The Welsh language is Celtic and dates from the 6th Century. Sea routes brought to it the Romans, Anglo-Saxon and Norman invaders, as well as the Christian missionaries in the 5th Century. When the Romans left in the 5th Century, Wales was divided into provinces and these were united between the 9th and 11th centuries by a series of Kings, among them was Howel the Good (died 950), the Lawgiver, who had unified laws drawn up for all of Wales. Two features of society was partible, succession among male heirs, which tended to disrupt unified control and the paramount role of kindred in governing individual relationships. Llewelyn the Last was acknowledged as the first Price of Wales by King Edward I in 1267, but was overwhelmed by him in 1282 and most of Wales became a principality under the control of the English King. Discontent flared, and in 1400, a revolt was led by Owain ab Gruffydd (Owen Glendower). Opposition subsided when Henry Tudor, whose half Welsh ancestry came from descend from the Madogs, came to the throne in 1485 as Henry VII, first King of the House of Tudor. Under the acts of Union, 1536 to 1542, which were passed as part of a policy to establish a strong sovereign state, English law was applied to Wales and parliamentary representation was given, but the Welsh language was not recognized in law court.
According to that encyclopedia, the Welsh language is spoken by some 600,000 people today. It belongs to the Celtic group of languages. Celtic is the name given to a mother tongue spoken by a civilization, which flourished in Europe during the first millennium, before Christ. Those people spread throughout Europe from Asia Minor to the islands of Britain. The Celt language developed into Irish, Scots, Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish and Breton languages. The development of the Welsh language belongs to the stormy period of the fifth and sixth centuries. It had no alphabet and the language had not been written until Roman letters were given to its various sounds. Welsh family names often described occupations and locations, which apparently would cause alteration of the name from parent to child. That does not lessen the confusion, but does help explain some of its cause.
Thus, the English language name of a person may seem completely different from the Welsh name given the same person. Nevertheless, not all English letters appeared in the Welsh alphabet, so that different translations of the same name into English might be spelled differently. For instance, the letter “J” is absent from the Welsh alphabet, so that “John” becomes “Sean”. In welsh, “Llan” means church, “Tre” means village, “ap” means son and “verch” means daughter of.