John Hên Puleston of Hafod-y-Wern, Constable of Caernarfon Castle ^{1 2 3 4}

   Other names for John were John Puleston of Bers, and Havod, y Wern, High Sheriff of Carnar, John "Hen" Puleston of Hafod-y-Wern, Constable of Caernarfon Castle and John "the Elder" Puleston of Hafod-y-Wern, Constable of Caernarfon Castle.

  Research Notes:

From The Dictionary of Welsh Biography Online - http://yba.llgc.org.uk/en/s-PULE-EST-1283.html :

Before the middle of the 15th cent. a branch of the family had settled at Berse, near Wrexham, and by the end of that century Hafod-y-wern, in the same area, had come into possession of the Pulestons through the marriage of JOHN PULESTON of Plas-y-mers, a grandson of the Robert and Lowry, previously mentioned, and Alswn, daughter and heiress of Hywel ap Ieuan ap Gruffydd of Hafod-y-wern.

JOHN PULESTON ('HEN'), of Hafod-y-wern, the eldest son of this John Puleston, fought at Bosworth, and for his services on that occasion received a grant for life from Henry VII of an annuity of twenty marks out of the tithes of the lordship of Denbigh (6th Report Royal Commission on Historical MSS., 421), and was appointed a gentleman usher of the king's chamber. In 1502 he was made deputy-lieutenant to the chief steward of Bromfield and Yale (ibid.), and seven years later, in 1509, Henry VIII granted him the receivership of the town of Ruthin and the lordship of Dyffryn Clwyd (Cal. L. & P. Henry VIII, i, 1, 67), and in 1519 that of the lordship of Denbigh and Denbighland (ibid., iii, 1, 146). Like his kinsman, Sir Roger Puleston, he served in the French campaign of 1513, as also did his two sons, both named John, the one by his first, and the other by his second marriage.

JOHN PULESTON, of Hafod-y-wern ('John Puleston of Tir Môn,' as he is sometimes described), son of John Puleston ('Hen') by his second wife, Alice, daughter of Hugh Lewis of Presaddfed, was sheriff of Denbighshire, 1543-4. During the latter years of Elizabeth I, two of these Pulestons were presented for recusancy at the Denbighshire Great Sessions: EDWARD PULESTON, of Hafod-y-wern, in 1585, 1588, and 1592, and Anne, wife of JOHN PULESTON, of Berse, in 1587. The last of the Hafod-y-wern family was Frances, daughter of PHILIP PULESTON (d. 1776); she m., in 1786, Bryan Cooke, of Ouston, Yorks (see Davies-Cooke, Gwysaney ).

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Source: The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, and the Ancient Lords of Arwystli, Cedewen, and Meirionydd by J. Y. W. Lloyd, Vol. II (London, 1882), p. 138, lists as wives of John Puleston "of Havod y Wern and Bers" (from Cae Cyriog M.S.; Lewys Dwnn, vol ii):
1 Elen, d. of Robert Whitney ab Sir Robert Whitney, Knt.
2 Alice, d. of Hugh Lewis of Persaddfed in Tir Mon ab Llywelyn ab Hwlcyn.

Source: The Seize Quartiers of the Family of Bryan Cooke, Esq. of Owston, Hafod-y-Wern, and Gwysaney, and of Frances his Wife, Daughter and Heir of Philip Puleston, Esq. of Hafod-y-Wern, by Mary his Wife, Sister and Coheir of John Davies, Esq. of Gwysaney and Llanerch, London, 1857, has "John Puleston of Hafod-y-Wern, Esq., High-Sheriff of the County of Denbigh, A.D. 1544..." If this is so, he died after 1544.

From the book Reifsnyder-Gillam Ancestry, edited by Thomas Allen Glenn (Philadelphia, 1902), provided by books.google.com, p. 58:

"[Sir William Griffith] married, secondly (marriage settlement 2 August, 1522), Jane, widow of Robert Meredith and daughter of John Puleston, of Bers, and Havod y Wern, Caernarvonshire, constable of Caernarvon Castle, 16 April, 1506, 30 July, 1509, 1 October, 1423 [1523], Chamberlain of North Wales, High Sheriff of Caernarvonshire, 1544; died about this date."

Source: The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine and Celtic Repertory, Vol. II., (London, 1830), p.171, "[Sir Roger Puleston's] descendant, John Puleston Hen, (senior,) chamberlain of North Wales, was more popular, and a great favorite with the bards: one of them must have flattered him by saying, in his complimentary ode: "Di waed sais ydyw Sion," John has not a drop of Saxon blood in him."

Source: The History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher, and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog, and the Ancient Lords of Arwystli, Cedewen, and Meirionydd by J. Y. W. Lloyd, Vol. IV, London, 1884, p. 342.
"Argent, on a band sable, three mullets of the field."

The book Welsh Settlement of Pennsylvania by Charles H. Browning, Philadelphia, 1912, p. 286, calls him "lord of Caernarvan Castle," but that appears to be in error.

Source: History of the Town of Wrexham, Its Houses, Streets, Fields, and Old Families by Alfred Neobard Palmer (Wrexham, 1893), pp. 137-138:
"It is true that in the Puleston pedigree at Gwysaney, compiled in 1665, John Puleston, the grandson of Madoc Puleston, is described as of Hafod y wern, but I have almost invariably found this John Puleston's son (also called John Puleston), described as of Tir Môn, and his grandson, Piers Puleston, as of Burras. There is no doubt, however, that Piers Puleston's son and successor, John Puleston, not merely owned Hafod y wern, but lived there. And as to John Puleston Tir Môn himself, he is described in the marriage settlement, dated October 31st, 1541/2, of his daughter Jane, as 'John Puleston, the elder, esquire, of Wrexham.'..."

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From Welsh Biography Online (
"[The death of William Griffith in 1540] precipitated a long dispute between RHYS GRIFFITH his younger brother, who claimed the estates as heir male, and John Puleston, Edward Griffith's father-in-law, acting for his daughter and her three children (Jane, Catherine, and Ellen). Puleston asked Cromwell for the wardship of the children, and offered him £40 for his good offices; Rhys Griffith complained that during his absence in Ireland 'on the king's service,' his sister-in-law and her father had ransacked Penrhyn, leaving 'nothing but the bare walls.' The lord chancellor and the master of the court of wards made an arbitration in 1542, but the problems involved were still unsettled in 1559. Even after the death of Rhys Griffith in 1580, Sir Edward Bagnall, who had m. one of Edward Griffith's daughters, was still pursuing his wife's claims in the court of wards. (Penrhyn MSS. 50, 2197; N.L.W. Jnl., iii, 40; Lewis , Early Chancery Procs., 21, 22, 288, 290; Lewis and Davies, Augmentation Recs., 51; L. and P. Henry VIII, v, no. 724 (10), xv, 433, 661, xvii, 466, xix 812 (16), Addenda, i, part ii, 1462; Cal. Pat. Rolls, Edward VI, iv, 36; Acts Privy Council, 1580-1, 289; P.R.O., Court of Requests Procs., bundle iv, no. 258; bundle vi, no 210.)"

  Birth Notes:

Sources differ in approximate birthdate. Some have abt 1449, others abt 1462, etc. This source: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=youngwolf&id=I778 has abt 1462. If his father died about 1461, however, a birth date of 1462 seems questionable.

  Death Notes:

Per Reifsnyder-Gillam Ancestry d. abt 1544. Another source says aft. 1519. The earlier year (1519) may have been his father.

John married Eleanor Whitney, daughter of Sir Robert Whitney and Constance Touchet. (Eleanor Whitney was born about 1467 in Whitney, Herefordshire, England.)

John next married Alice Lewis of Persaddfed in Tir Môn, daughter of Hugh Lewis ap Llywelyn ap Hwlcyn of Persaddfed in Tir Môn and Jonet Bulkeley. (Alice Lewis of Persaddfed in Tir Môn was born about 1450 in Presaddfed, Bodedern, Anglesey, Wales and died in 1480.)